P.U.R.P.L.E.

P--Peak of crying. The worst crying tends of occur around 2 months of age and decline from 3-5 months

U--Unexpected. The crying often come on and stops for no apparent reason.

R--Resists soothing. The baby is often difficult to soothe.

P--Pain-like face. The baby may appear to be in pain even if they are not.

L--Long-lasting. The crying may go on for several hours a day.

E--Evening. The baby often cries more in the late afternoon or evening.

November is national Period of Purple Crying awareness month. Purple is not refering to the color but it is an acronym for the above. Check out all the info at purplecrying.info there's tons of fantastic info on there. What's normal, what's not. Suggestions for soothing your fussy baby. My favorite part of the website is the link that says, "How to save your babies life." I was intrigued, I clicked and I found a plethera of coping stratagies. One of the questions that we ask our patients before they go home is, "will you have the help you need when you go home?" Everyone needs someone. Sometimes the daddy's aren't as helpful as they think they are. If that happens, find someone else, hire someone. I don't know, just get help.

I was lucky in that my husband was extremely helpful. His mother came to help and she really was helpful. My mother came a couple of weeks after my baby was born and she was really helpful. Thank goodness cause I had one of those totally refluxy, fussy, spit up tons, cry more than any one kid should, not sleep at night babies. The kind that make you feel like a total failure as a mother. The baby that you JUST. WANT. TO. QUIT. CRYING. Ugh, thank goodness for the helpful arms and patience of my inlaws and my mother. Thank goodness they had the good sense to send me out, away, and down for a nap. I had no idea what the Period of Purple Crying was back then but I'm positive now that we were in it. It was purple all around. I was purple, she was purple we were just one big egg plant. Don't be an egg plant. It's not a pretty color. Not on me or on my baby girl anyhow.

The good news is, I'm not a failure as a mother. Not because of that anyhow. I love my daughter more than life itself. The Purple time of our life was short and painful and it's over. It's another one of those times that I told myself "this too shall pass" and it did. You are a woman. You are a mother. You are strong and capable and you can do anything. Take it one day at a time. One hour or one minute. Remind yourself of your worth and the worth of your child. Hold onto the love you have for that baby.

Wanna come to dinner? Placenta stew.

Placenta. It’s what’s for dinner.

Placenta Pizza.

Do you think I’m crazy? I’m not but someone might be! Warning, this post is kinda gross and probably offensive. I don’t care if you read on but read on at your own risk. If you choose to participate in the discussion please keep offensive language out or your comment will be deleted. With that said, sit back, relax and enjoy the afterbirth. Lol.

·         I received the following on the Time 4 Me facebook page several days back, "Did you see the article about women eating their own placenta because it's supposed to help prevent postpartum depression? I think it was on Good Things Utah...not sure. I'll try to find the link. I'd love to hear a discussion on it!"

OMG! I searched and read and googled and read and then contemplated it until my head hurt. I just can’t wrap my head around ingesting one’s own placenta. Ya’all may be offended at my lack of open-mindedness  on this subject and I guess that’s ok. We can agree to disagree but please don’t invite me to dinner when you have placenta stew. 

There was an article on msnbc.com that I loved. I’m pretty sure the writer and I think alike, a little. The article is discussing the fact that there isn’t much if any research to support the effects that these women are claiming to receive from ingesting their placenta. They are quoting Diana Dell who at the time of the article was the assistant professor of ob-gyn at  Duke University. Drum roll please……favorite quote, “There’s certainly no data,” Dell says. “And, truthfully, the only place there may be data is in veterinary journals.” Excuse me? Veterinary journals? I have experienced the miracle of birth. I have experienced it 17 times. I have 2 children and I have watched 2 litters of puppies be born. You didn’t think I had that many kids did you? Bwahaha. So here’s what I know, my dog did ingest some of her placenta, but not if I could help it! My dog also licks her own butt, that of her puppies and for the first several weeks licks up their poop and pee! Are you trying to tell me that one of the arguments in favor of eating our placenta is because of the facts that we are mammals and other mammals do it? If that’s your argument I want you to think about one thing…..butt licking! I’d like to think that I am a slightly more advanced species of mammal.

I try to avoid being completely one sided on topics. So while I obviously don’t think this is much of a yummy topic I wanted to give you the reasons that people DO do this. One problem, there isn’t any actual factual research to support the benefits of placenta eating. Now I can’t say that if I had cancer and traditional treatments weren’t working that I wouldn’t try it, in capsule form, if someone, many someone’s told me that it worked to cure or slow the progression of the cancer. When it comes to post partum depression and milk production I can think of many artificial means to cure those ailments that I would try many times over before resorting to consuming my own placenta. But….if you are interested in it read the NY Magazine articles. If you already do this I would love, love, love to hear your side. What it does for you, how you felt before and after, where you found your research, anything that you have to say that could help me to understand. I feel like I am a pretty open minded person but like I said, I just can’t wrap my head around this one.

Oh the sadness

This is one of the happiest times of your life right? So why so grumpy and where are the tears coming from? Your poor body has been through the ringer. Preganacy and child birth are no walk in the park. Unfortunately for some of us it's not our favorite color but more the way we feel. Blue. The baby blues are a common during the week or two after you deliver the baby. Your mood changes are caused by the sudden shift of hormones. Things like stress, lack of sleep and the new lifestyle you have with the baby at home can add to or make the baby blues worse. Generally the baby blues will go away on it's one without any treatment. Just take time for yourself each day, get some extra help and rotate with your partner or another helper during the night for babies feeding. You need to get some sleep.
If the baby blues don't go away, you may have postpartum depression. After a month or so if you are still or begin to experience anxiety, a disinterest in your baby, you want to sleep often and are generally lacking motivation, or even if you are having trouble sleeping it may be postpartum depression and not just a case of the baby blues. My advice, see your doctor. Talk openly with the Dr. about what you are feeling. We can't control certain aspects of our bodies and this is one of them. Give yourself a break. It's ok to admit what you are experiencing.
I couldn't figure it out after my second baby. I had no problem with connecting with him and never had any thoughts of self harm or harming him or my daughter, but man did I cry at the drop of a hat. I'm pretty sure I nearly bit my husbands head off more that a dozen times a day and I SO didn't want to clean or cook. Well, I still don't want to do that. Lol. I don't even remember now what I went to the Dr. for origionally. All he had to say was, "how are you today?" and I burst into tears. How embarassing! NO! I am so lucky that it happened at the right time and to the right person. For whatever reason I guess I didn't really think about depression. My baby was 6 months old! The good Dr. gave me and antidepressant and within a week I felt like a new woman! With in 2 weeks my house was clean again, by week 3 I could sleep at night between the babies feeding. IT WAS WONDERFUL!
My advice to you is to not ignore the little signs. If you feel "not quite yourself" then you probably aren't. It's ok to seek out advice especially from a Dr. Medication doesn't always have to be a permanent thing. Just use it to get you over the hump. However, DON'T stop taking it without your Dr.'s instructions to do so.
Be happy or get happy. It's so much more fun to enjoy the baby and your new life when you can really ENJOY it.