Cycles and Babies and Pills, Oh My!

Okay guys, I would almost rather stay in the dark on this one, because I'm far too lazy and a tiny bit afraid to hear the truth, but I know all you Constances are a wealth of information on this subject, and I want to hear what you think!

For a little background, my daughter is almost 5, our son is almost 1, and my husband has not actually said WE'RE DONE AND SHUT UP! but I think he might like to. I want more kids real bad, but I don't want to totally nag him about it. So if I make the wrong decision on this pill thing, I don't want him to blame me and think I sabotaged the birth control on purpose.

So here's the dilemma.... I quit nursing last week. I have been on the mini pill since the baby was born. I have not gotten my cycle back yet. This perplexes me some, as I got it back with Lauren when she was only 5 months old, and I nursed exclusively for a year. But anyway. I know the mini pill has only progestin and not estrogen in it, and therefore does not regulate your cycle the way the normal pill does. At least that's what I have been told. That's what makes it safe to take while you're nursing. Am I correct so far?

With Lauren, I'm pretty sure my doctor said I should not stay on it after I weaned, because it was less effective than the regular one. I've also heard that it has a higher rate of birth defect if you do get pregnant while you're taking it.

So anyway, I called the nurse at my ob/gyn's office (different doctor than last time) this week to talk about switching pills, and she said I don't have to, that it's just as effective for contraception, and that the only reason most people want to switch is that you're more likely to have breakthrough bleeding or spotting. Since I haven't gotten my cycle back, I'm not having bleeding of any kind, and I'd rather not go to the trouble of switching if I don't have to, since this kind doesn't seem to make me gain weight or go crazy insane.

Points to ponder:

• Is it in fact less effective? Will I get pregnant because I'm taking it and not nursing? (I'm inclined to close my ears and believe the nurse on this one, because she is the professional and the man can't be upset if I did what they told me. Nothing is foolproof.)
• If I do get pregnant while I'm on it, what are the chances that the baby will have a third eyeball in the center of its forehead, or something equally frightening?
• What are the chances that I will get pregnant without having had a cycle anyway? How worried do I need to be about that?
  

In random associated topics, I have been rather freakish lately with lunch habits. For three days in a row I have fried an entire sliced onion in butter and eaten it with Lawry's season salt and some ketchup. Yesterday I sliced an entire orange bell pepper and ate it with dill dip. I thought I hated peppers. But I couldn't stop eating it. Freaking fabulous.

I think anything weird and/or hormonal going on could be attributed to the probability that my cycle could show up any moment. But I am tired of taking pregnancy tests every other week.

What do you say? Mini pill, yes or no? And does it have anything to do with my cycle?

Our Crappy Money

We have a lot of debt. Every time I say something about trying to get out of it, family and friends say yes, they know, they have so much too and isn't it terrible. And I get really pissed off in my head, because I know they're complaining about something like $10K. Which is debt, yes, but we're so far beyond that and I want to sneer at them. I really don't understand how we got ourselves into this position. We make good money, and if we had no debt and got to keep it all, I would feel really rich. We could take vacations and get that damn big screen tv the man wants. We don't do those things now.

We have $68,000 in credit card debt and another $7ooo on the car. AAAHHH, feels so good to let out the number. I'm surprised I can afford the rent on the pink apartment...

How the hell did we do that? We don't live in a fancy house and while I do spend more money than I should on my kids' clothes, we don't have a lot of stuff. We nickel and dimed stuff until we were here? Seriously, what the hell. I'm spending something like $2300 every month in minimum payments. I wouldn't have to work if we weren't so damn stupid before we had kids. I have no idea what we bought, but I know it wasn't worth it. If there was one thing I could go back and change, it would be NOT getting those cards on campus because they were offering a free t-shirt and some shaving cream.

We're working on getting out but it's drops in the bucket every time, and then the car needs fixing or the ac goes out or we have to go to eight more birthday parties.... it's never ending. I see no end to it.

rice and beans, beans and rice.....

Frigging Cats

Every time we go to visit my husband's stepmother we have cat issues. Now, I love cats. I really do. And so does my daughter. And if it was just the two of us visiting we might be okay. But my husband hates them and is also allergic. My sister in law hates them. My two nephews love them with a violent and close-hugging love that borders on hysteria. The cats therefore hate my nephews. And they hide. And there is yelling and tail-pulling.

And when we are all there, like for way too many days over New Year's, she puts the cats in front of the grandchildren. They are her babies, her only daily company, whereas we are just her husband's children who visit once in awhile. She gets mad when we close the bedroom doors to keep the fucking cats from jumping into our suitcases and covering our panties with their longass fur. "But they're used to being in there! This is their house too! You need to co-exist with them!" And then she wants the bathroom doors open too so they can jump on the counter and get a drink. Never mind that my baby will pull up and splash in the damn toilet.

She talks to the kids in a really mean voice when they mess with the cats. "Well, you just HAD to chase him out of there, did you? It's not like you left them many places to hide!" And then she can't understand why that pisses my poor sister in law off SO MUCH. She hasn't had kids, and you can tell, and we are all ready to quit visiting until the cats die.

Or maybe my husband will kill them.

I Love Constance

Constance the First started this idea- she is not really Constance either. And now I'm #11, with more to follow I'm sure. I can talk about sex on this blog! I can swear up a shitstorm! I can say evil and catty things about my in-laws! Won't you all come and listen? Pretty please?