Michelle answers:

I’m so sorry to hear about that.
As much as I wish I could say it, most antidepressants (including natural ones) aren’t safe during pregnancy or haven’t been tested for safety during pregnancy enough. What I can recommend is to make sure you are either having sufficient amounts of Vitamin D and/or adequate direct sunlight exposure (depending on how cold it is where you are and the availability of natural sunlight). Sunlight exposure and the Vitamin D content that the body gets from that has been shown to help the mood in addition to helping with the absorption of Calcium.
If that’s not enough, I would definitely consult with a natural doctor if you’re able to… They may have more options if they can look at your specific condition and find out what’s causing the depression.
Good luck with everything and congratulations on the baby!

Michelle answers:

Throught my pregnancy i’ve only used natural remedies, i’ve always been into the homeopathic stuff though so it was pretty easy for me. At your local bookstore they should have a book on herbs and what they are used for and such. Http://www.greatestherbsonearth.com/nsp_homeopathic_remedies.htm is a good place to buy them at, i wouldn’t reccomend making your own with no experience. Congratulations and good luck!

Michelle answers:

Cranberry juice. Drink loads of it!! Forgot to mention it, get checked out by the doctor. I had 3 overnight stays in hospitals when I was expecting my first child. In fact it got so bad with the pain and that, at 32 weeks I thought I had another infection and decided I did not want to go to hospital agian so took some painkillers and tried to get to sleep. A couple oof hours later I could not put up with the pain anymore so went to the hospital only to be told I was in labour and if I had come in earlier they could have tried to stop it!!
IApparently the UTIs had done something to make me go into an early labour. 1hr 33mins later I had my little boy 4lb11oz, he was healthy but had to stay in hospital for 8 days

Michelle answers:

I have terrible dental hygiene and get AWFUL toothaches occasionally. Whenever I do, I immediately brush my teeth. I also keep minty mouthwash which I use to rinse out my mouth. Then I take Tylenol. I also use the liquid Orajel (there’s another brand, Anbesol, that works well)… I DOUSE a Q-tip in the Orajel and then I rub it over my tooth & gums. Then I put it over the area that hurts on the gum and I LEAVE IT THERE for like 10 minutes. After that, I lay down on the side that DOESN’T hurt.

My biggest advice, though, is not to mess with your tooth when it hurts. Unless you know that there’s something stuck in there, you don’t want to be messing with it. You will only make it worse. And then the pain will continue for an extended time. Keep from running your tongue over it, sucking on the tooth, and keep your fingers out of your mouth.

Sometimes, icy water or hot tea works to soothe the tooth, too. I would stay away from those, though, until you’ve tried brushing, mouthwash, Tylenol and Orajel and waiting at least 30 minutes after, because you could make the pain worse.

If you can, though, try to manage dental insurance, because these things can indicate infection which is bad for the baby. Believe me, I totally understand that dental work is expensive and often seems like a luxury, but if you can work it out, it’s definitely worth it!

Michelle answers:

Possible? Yes. Think of all the generations of people having them before creative marketing of modern medicine began portraying pregnancy as a dangerous medical condition. You can decide to have minimal amounts of tests or not at all. It’s up to you.

Also think of what makes you think you should have a baby despite your strong aversion? Society? Because everyone else does? Because someone would be greatly disappointed if you don’t? With overpopulation that we are facing now it’s smarted to adopt.

Michelle answers:

If your first was a c-section you can’t have natural birth.You’ll continue with c-sections.

Michelle answers:

After 6 months the effectiveness of lactational amenhorrhea drops — but it isn’t an abrupt drop. (It isn’t like you have a 1% chance of pregnancy during the first 6 months, and then a 90% at 7 months. It’s more like a 3-5% chance during that 6-9 month time frame. (Assuming you haven’t had a period. Once you do, all bets are off.)

There is certainly a chance of pregnancy, but it’s still pretty small if you haven’t had a period. So I’d try not to fret about it. If you get pregnancy symptoms, test. If a pregnancy would be a disaster, consider PlanB. (Safe nursing moms.)

EDIT: The pharmacy may be being overcautious. (or uneducated about lactation — going by the package insert, which is ALWAYS over cautious). PlanB is just a high dose of progestins, and progestins ARE safe to use while breastfeeding. Kellymom lists it is catagory L2 — about as safe as it gets.

Http://www.kellymom.com/health/meds/birthcontrol.html#morningafter

Michelle answers:

Natural contraception? You mean the pull out method? Well the reliability of that is very, very, very, slim. I am glad to hear that you are prepared to take care of a child if you do become pregnant because at the counseling center where I work, we call people who practice this method one thing…..Parents!
Good luck!
🙂

Michelle answers:

Hi there, the size they need to be for pick up is 17mm. I have been looking into it as im about to start ivf in a few weeks. Good luck, not that you need it. You will be fine.

Michelle answers:

I dont know much about mini/natural IVF, cause I will be starting IVF soon with meds. I know here in the US, IVF is very expensive. My RE charges $9000 for the IVF, which includes the surgery center, the anesthiologist fees and the egg retrieval and the embryo transfer. And it will cost another $3000 to $4000 for the medications. So even if your not going to need the injections, you will still need the anesthiologist, they still have to do a egg retrieval and the embryo transferring which will be around $9000.00. Most insurances in the US do not cover fertiltiy treatment, so you will either have to finance it or pay cash.

Michelle answers:

There are natural and safer alternatives to IVF. The website I’m linking you to has testimonials from women who went with the holistic treatments and mind-body healing to get pregnant.

Http://timelessfertilitysecrets.com/fertilityarticles/ivf-alternative

Michelle answers:

My mom was 50 when she had my sister and had no complications at all. Anything is possible.

Michelle answers:

You could try toothpaste or tea tree oil. Or an egg white mask. All you do is put egg white on your face and let it dry. To speed up the drying process use a hair dryer. If you use those biore pore strips that like rip out the gunk, instead you could use glue. Like white kid glue, put it on your nose, let it dry and then peel it off. Literally it’s like the same exact effect.

Michelle answers:

Restless Leg – Recommended Protocol

Supplements:
Calcium 1500-2000 mg daily in divided doses- between meals and at bedtime.
Magnesium 1000 mg daily
Melatonin 1.5 mg daily, gradually increasing dosage until effective level is reached. (up to 5 mg daily)
B Complex
Inositol 100 mg at bedtime

Herbs:
Hops, Passionflower, Skullcap, Valerian, Catnip or Chamomile.

General recommendations:
In addition to caffeine and alcohol, avoid nicotine, pork products, cheese, and chocolate.
Take a hot bath one hour before bedtime.

Michelle answers:

Chase’s mom: Do you think women go through natural child birth solely for the bragging rights? Just so they can tell everyone that they had a “natural” birth? Come one….

You can’t have a natural birth that is pain free. I would recommend taking natural birthing classes to prepare yourself and boost your confidence that you can do it. The more you know the better you will feel about it. Think of it as pain with a purpose. You just need to learn how to deal with the pain and work through it. Lamaze, Bradley method, and Hypnobirthing are all good methods to try. Do some research on them and pick one then find a class in your area.

Michelle answers:

If u want to get pregent, have a doctor artificly get you pergent by takeing ur husband ceman and youre egg cell and ejecting the cell into youre egg. Do this to 2 to8 eggs for a better chance of getting pregent

Michelle answers:

Green tea is nice for morning sickness.
Healthy too.
Sometimes milk helps but it might not do so well.
Crackers help alot too.
Maybe some plain toast? Alot like a cracker.
Eating a shaving of fresh ginger whenever a wave of nausea hits works really well. You can buy it in a little plastic container wherever sushi is sold.
Potato chips go down well and feel good while they are there! Do not eat the fat-free potato chips with
that newly approved fat substitute in them, olestra, this substance has been proven to carry important nutrients out of your body, before they can be digested. The salt and
vinegar chips can ease nausea especially well and here is why. Many women experience a lot of queasiness and morning sickness during pregnancy because their saliva glands excrete more saliva than usual. All the excess saliva in the mouth makes you feel sick. The salt and vinegar on the potato chips dries up the excess saliva. Thus, it reduces or totally eliminates the queasiness and morning sickness.

Michelle answers:

Have her eat small meals throughout the day- even snacks, but at least every two hours. If her stomach is really full or empty, it’ll make it worse.

If you can, take some food to her. With mine, I couldn’t stand the thought of making food, but if someone brought it to me, I was able to eat it- I guess because I didn’t have to think about it.

Try to get her to eat protein, also, not just carbohydrates. While carbohydrates may be more appetizing, the protein stays in her system longer (for me, cheese or peanut butter crackers helped).

Have her take smalls sips of water throughout the day. Buy some Popsicles- they’ll keep her hydrated, and they honestly help my stomach.

People recommend ginger, but honestly, it didn’t help me much. You can try Sea Bands- from the pharmacy, they’re designed for motion-sickness, but they help a lot of women.

Michelle answers:

The best thing to do is keep saltines or cheerios and a can of room temp ginger ale on your night stand. Before you even sit up, try to lay on your side and eat just a little bit and sip on the ginger ale. It will make you feel much better before getting out of bed. I would replace the can of ginger ale every night before I went to bed. I had horrible morning sickness until a bunch of my mom’s friends told me about this. Good luck!!

Michelle answers:

Every pregnancy and woman is different, I had horrible morning sickness with my daughter up to week 20 I was still sometimes praying to the porcelain god. But another pregnancy (which I lost around 19 weeks – a boy) I was mostly symptom free (The loss was due to a car accident, nothing wrong with me or the baby). So you symptoms on BC are very predictive of PG symptoms since those seem to vary with each pregnancy, weird huh?

I wouldn’t be too concerned with it, if you really want that baby you’ll find ways to cope! (I liked icicle pops all day, lots of water, etc)

Michelle answers:

Congratulations!

There are pregnancy lotions for stretch marks and stuff. You can use that for regular lotions. You can use Usana Shampoos, you can order online. It is suppost to be natural or something like that… I used it throughout my whole pregnancy. I don’t know about deodrant, but most natural deodrants aren’t that great… I aways was worried about putting deodrant on right after I shaved because of tiny cuts you can’t see.

Two weeks before I had my baby I got lice!!! I was so mad and worried about the shampoo. My baby is fine and the doctor told me what kind to use (so the baby was pretty much developed but I think we all want to do what is best for baby

Michelle answers:

Use a neti pot. It washes out sinuses and nasal passages using a warm saline solution. No drugs. And it does work.

Michelle answers:

You can buy latex free ones, lol em you make me crack up!

Michelle answers:

There are no pills that will shrink any part of the body. Only exercise and eating right can shrink you all over.

Now, how recent was your last pregnancy? I know that they don’t hand these pills out anymore, but you may be able to request them. When my mother was pregnant with me she got pills that dried up the milk, thus shrinking her breasts to their normal size. You may want to speak with your doctor about these pills.

Michelle answers:

There are herbs that are very effective, but you need to speak to an herbalist or a naturopath. The problem would need to be more fully diagnosed.

Michelle answers:

Sperm. 😀

I would suggest making sure you are having sex on the best possible days. Hold off on sex until you are within 48 hours of possible ovulation, mark the calender for your periods and positive Lh tests. Then have sex every 48 – 72 hours. Stay laying in bed after sex or elevate your legs.

The important thing is to get the timing right.

Michelle answers:

Massage increases natural body “flow.” Rub your feet, get lots of full body massages. Wake up your ovaries by massaging the lower abdomen. It works! Good luck and baby dust to you!

Michelle answers:

Will your insurance company not cover medication? Are you sure Clomid isn’t covered? There’s also a generic which is much cheaper. Maybe call the insurance company to see if Clomid is covered?

You can try soy isoflavones, which has been said to be nature’s Clomid. You could also try Vitex, which sometimes helps women to get their cycles and ovulation back. I would always discuss these things with your dr before starting any herb or vitamin. I would also recommend seeing your dr anyways, to check out any advice she can give ya 🙂

Lots of luck and baby dust.