Mikvah Mamas - a question

[flminivanmama]

okay this is my second month so I have a question. do you do the check with the cloth the first night before sundown, go out and check it immediatly and if you see no stains do the check with the cloth where you leave it in till 3 stars are out in the same night? or is this over a two day time frame? check with a cloth, look at the cloth the next day in the sunlight, that night leave the cloth in till 3 stars are out....???

also it hurt!! in fact it still hurts! I have not used tampons in a long time, only cloth pads, is that why? I checked last night and left it in for 10 minutes and had to take it out b/c it was seriously burning!!



:

[merpk]

If the mokh is painful or difficult you should definitely ask a rav, or if that's not where you're at, your taharat ha'mishpakhah teacher, or if you don't have one, your local mikvah lady (the last two will probably call a rav for you).

If it's painful, most ravs will say not to do it at all (it is, after all, a megastringency). There is also a particularly extra-soft cloth available for the checking part.

Really, go ask. It's not supposed to hurt.



- Amy

[flminivanmama]

okay I will call her - the only reason she said I should do it is b/c my period lasts for almost 2 weeks and she felt that maybe it was not really my period and that if the color was not red or brown then I could start counting them as clean days instead of waiting so long.

[flminivanmama]

argh my period came back!

[crazy_eights]

Andrea - are you sure you don't have some sort of cervical erosion or something? It sounds like that might be your problem.

[flminivanmama]

what is that?

it went away again but yesterday I saw some more blood in some cervical mucous (ie ovulation!!) ugh... but then there is NOTHING on the white cloths! too bizarre... the mikvah lady said it is fine for me to go since the cloths were clean and she wants me to talk to a rabbi since I might be ovulating before I even go to the mikvah.... the problem is my period starts but it's only a spot of blood here and there for 2-3 days and then it REALLY starts and that lasts for at least 7 days and then I get the on and off spotting... so I had 3 clean days, spotting, three more clean days and then yesterday a streak of blood in with EWCM... but I went last night anyway.

anyway now I'm off to look up cervical erosion...

[flminivanmama]

hmmm I looked it up - certainly could be but I never had an abnormal PAP. my periods have always been very long and irregular. I have polycystic ovaries (PCOS)

[crazy_eights]

Oh! PCOS has midcycle bleeding? Don't remember.... you've heard that brain cells deliver with the placenta? THAT'S where they all go!

[flminivanmama]

no not generally but it can give one very long periods. I remember when dh and I were first TTC I almost always still had AF when we would start (day 9)

and some months I never got AF at all ... my cycles were so long sometimes 45 days and more... things have seemed more normal since Ben and Max were born and then again after Jake was born - my cycles are about 33-36 days long and pretty regular but my periods still last forever... at least 10 days plus it takes a few days to start and a few days to end (spotting on either end)