OH shoot I erased my entire post on accident
That is the third time that has happened to me today, what is up? Ok, going to try again.
safewomb, would defrosting a placenta and then trying to dry it out still work?
I had mild PPD and paralizing anxiety with my first baby and horrible PPD and the same anxiety with my second baby. With my first I didn't know what was "wrong" with me, even though I consulted my Dr at the time about it, who just said I wasn't feeling myself due to leftover fluctuating preggo hormones and that may last up to a year, would I like a script? I declined the meds, saying I would wait and see, and basically clueless, rode the waves alone until my ds was a year old. I didn't really figure out what was wrong with me the first time until I was at rock bottom with my second who was a few months old at the time.
But how I handled it the second time around...
I learned to recognize when a bout of anxiety was about ti get out of hand and I was unable to "think" my way out of it, I would take several drops of Bachs rescue Remedy and drop them into a cupful of water and then drink the whole thing really fast. (You can drop it straight from the dropper into your mouth but I thought it tasted blech) I would wait a few minutes and do it again if I felt the need, and usually after that would feel more in control of how I was feeling.
I declined the option of meds. I don't discourage meds, but I feel they are not for me. I didn't seek out therapy of any kind really. I had lost all faith in Dr's at that point in time and I also blamed much of my PPD on my two traumatic hosptial births and felt that anyone with any kind of initials after their name would not understand that at all, even find the idea laughable. I'm sure with my clearer head now that there are many proffesionals who would agree with me, but at the time, every Dr I had dealt with up until my son was 4 months old sure would not have agreed with me (they would have shrugged me off with oh at least you have a healthy baby or some other end justifies the means excuse) so I sure didnt' feel like seeking out more ridicule of how I felt/what I thought. I also have a few family members who are on MAOI (is that the correct initials? lol) s and it seems every time they try to go downa bit they go nuts and need to go back to the original dosage level, if not a higher level. Who wants to take a pill their whole life I thought? I'm sure the drug companies want you to though!
I am forever grateful to a beautiful friend of mine. She recognized my PPD right away as she had been through it herself the year before I had gone through it. She would call me often even though it was long distance for her, just to brighten up my day with some adult chit chatter (I had no other adults I could really relate tom abd talked to babies all day otherwise) She emailed me every day almost and we met a few nights a week in IM's. She would listen to any/all of my crying and ranting and was a true beacon of support.
Sleep when the baby sleeps was a nugget of advice that I got alot durng my first pregnancy but unlike a lot of common unsoliscited advice that stood out as a trueism. Sleep was invalueable, although yes it is hard to get much with a new baby in the house I did it. Nothig makes my mood more afoul like being tired, and when I am tired it gets worse and worse. I hated my kid seeing me like that, espeicially my oldest. It is also harder with an older child to care for....when my toddler wouldn't take a nap when the baby would I popped in a favorite movie and snoozed on the couch with him next to me. I thin I started c-sleeping not out of wonderful tales about the love and joy for the family bed (a concept I didnt' really "know" about when I started wth my first) but because I needed to sleep and it was rediculous to et out of bed and stumble over to a crib and pick up a hungry and wet infant when you could just roll over at the first sign of movement, let them eat and be asleep within minutes. So what if the dishes need to be done...throw them in the sink in hot water and let them soak while you take a nap. The caked on food will be easier to wash later on that way anyways.
Breastfeeding was invalueable. In what seemed to be a mess of failures, ( my births, et all)
breastfeeding was my victory. I felt no matter what I had forged through so much and I could claim breastfeeding as my little proud moments throughout the day. It took the edge off to say the least. I now know that breastfeeding releases oxytocin and prolactin into your bloodstream and these are hormoes we can use lots of!! I can only think that detatchment parenting bottlefeeding moms must be miserable with out those little boosts throughout the day.
It sounds cheesy to say because so many people suggest it but getting dressed and gettin gout of the house, even it was to go to the PO and pick up junk mail or to the store and get milk, amde me feel better. I'm not exactly a trip to the park person, but I tried little walks around the block, with or with out kids, and I would feel more normal. My mom was always wanting to go on marathon walks around town so I'd let her talk me into going with her for some motivation to just get moving. Sometimes just getting dressed and getting the kids cleaned up and dressed was enough to make me feel ok about the day.
One thng I feared during my last pregnancy was having to deal with PPD again. I began to feel that if I feared it, it would come, (Think Field of Dreams, "If you build it they will come") so I started saying belief suggestions, things similar to "I will have a beautiful birth and the time afterward will be happy" or "I will be happy with my new baby and my life" or "I am stong and can weather any storm that may come though" because lets face it happy or not life throws curveballs and in the past life's ups and downs would throw me for loops during PPD, whereas I am normally very good and taking things in stride and accepting how things are. I knew one important thing I had to do was have the birth that I wanted. Unlike my first two pregnancies, my third was stress free, and the birth was so simple and beautiful, with no one arround to annoy me or do things I didn't want done or even hurt us (as done in the past), it was just me and baby and that is what I needed.
I still have my bad days where I am feeling overwhelmed, and the holdidays were difficult...lots of family kept staying over at our place, Dh became a virtual stranger working 80 hr weeks (I amnot kidding) it felt rough for me for a while adjusting to life with three and no outside help, again I am alone in a town where I dont' know anyone and have no adult to relate to, (and dh has the car all day for work),I dealt with CPS, my gawd the last six weeks have been nuts! But I have been ok and I am hanging in there.
Well I am going to close, I hope my suggestions are of help to someone (let's see if I can post this before I accidnetly hit a bad key or something and erase everything
)
Jesse
Mommy to Kieran (3), Donovan (21 mos) and Liam (6 weeks)
I was simply doing what Foo said, stating that there are differing degrees of severity of depression and what works for one may not work for all. I was sick basically from May of last year until I was diagnosed in mid September. I could tell you the whole story, but it would take a LONG time. In a nutshell, I had been having heart symptoms, had multiple heart tests run only to be told I was fine. The anxiety just continued to grow. I constantly lived in fear that I was going to have a heart attack and my kids were going to grow up without a mother. I spent the summer having what I thought were heart episodes, but now know were panic attacks. They happened several times a week and scared me to death. By mid August I was feeling constantly nauseaus. I couldn't sleep but all I could do was lay in bed with my eyes closed. I couldn't move, I couldn't take care of myself or my kids. My mil came for a week to help but then had to go home.
