Low on Iron

Everyone keeps asking me how I am doing postpartum and how I am managing with FIVE. The answer? FANTASTIC! I haven't felt this great in MONTHS!

And I'm totally serious.

At my dr. appointment last week, he told me that next year at my annual appointment he wants me to get a CBC to check my iron levels. He wants to make sure that there isn't something else happening so that my iron levels are low, because even for pregnancy, they were REALLY low. (Quick reference, normal is above 12. Normal for pregnancy is above 9. Mine were 7.2. They usually give you infusions or blood transfusions at 8.)

To start the story, my iron levels were low at my check up before I left for Utah (just before 12 weeks) and he prescribed iron. But...I've been prescribed iron my entire life and I seem to just always sit a little low (like at 11, just low enough that I'm fine but I can't donate blood). So while I did take it now and again when I remembered, I was definitely not a stellar patient. When I got back from Utah two months later, the front desk lady called after an appointment and said my iron levels were REALLY low and I needed to take two iron pills, preferably with orange juice so they would work better. Again, I was kind of like "It's really no big deal guys, but okay.". I know, I'm a terrible person. But I DID actually start taking my iron and occasionally even with juice when I had it around. THEN they took my blood for my last trimester and said YOU HAVE TO HAVE IRON INFUSIONS OR YOU WILL HAVE A BLOOD TRANSFUSION AT DELIVERY! I got it. I truly did. My doctor said he was impressed I was standing and doing everything and not just fainting all the time. (Sterling said that was an exaggeration.)

That was a looooong introduction to the actual meat of the story that I wanted to get to.

I didn't feel any different after the first iron infusion. They said it can take 3-6 weeks to feel any effects. I had three infusions in three weeks. All on Fridays. On the day of the third infusion I went into labor and then they stopped my labor, and then I had her on Monday. So there really wasn't any time for that iron to 'feel' like it kicked in. I was supposed to feel less exhausted and have more energy.

This is the tricky part. I'm not sure it is just the iron that is making me feel so great right now. I mean, this was probably not the worst pregnancy anyone has every experienced, but it was definitely not the best. I was sick and nauseous and throwing up like always, but LUCKILY the anti nausea I was put on this time WORKED! (It didn't work with Russ and I just threw up five to eight times a day for six months. Yay.) So I felt pretty great on that front. At 12 weeks (right around the time I ran the half marathon) my varicose veins, which I also had with Russ, started popping out right and left and ACHING. They had never ached that bad with a previous pregnancy and it was so rough. Every morning I stood up and then instantly sat back down because the rush of blood ached SOOOO bad through my legs. The worst thing ever. I was wearing compression tights round the clock which helped some, but not a ton. Plus it was summer so they were itchy and it was the worst.  I also get a varicose vein right below one breast. I've had it for my last three pregnancies, with Russ they even did an ultrasound on it to make sure it wasn't cancer, haha. Nope, just a nasty varicose vein. But for whatever reason, if I laid wrong while sleeping it would just SHOOT pain and I would want to scream and cry and grab Sterling. He would fuzzily rub/swipe at my shoulder to make me feel better, and I would try to rub the pain away. The worst thing ever. I remember it being awful and horrible with my last pregnancy, but man. It was every night 2-3 times a night. Talk about not sleeping at all! Also...heartburn. I always get heartburn while pregnant. Popping tums over here like they were my best friend. Oh, and I remember another weird pregnancy symptom. I got a geographic tongue. I looked it up. It can just happen during pregnancy. So weird. Basically it just looks different and is more sensitive to sour/sweet/minty toothpaste. It's normal now--looks perfectly fine. I just noticed this morning while brushing my teeth haha.

I thought all my pregnancy exhaustion was due to having 4 kids to chase after--namely, Russ. And that me not being able to walk my kids to school and back was due to the waddling and the varicose veins aching.

And maybe it was.

But looking back I think a lot of it had to do with being SO LOW on iron. Because now I feel like I basically dance all the way to their school and back, TWICE, every day, and I LOVE it. It feels like a glorious little walk. But during my pregnancy? If I walked them to school, I was DOWN for the rest of the day. Literally. I mean, I took a nap every single day of this pregnancy (and I am not a nap person. This was desperation. I have never been so grateful to lay Russ down and then immediately sleep myself. Molly learned on the days she didn't have school to occupy herself while Russ slept because mama took a nap as well.) but if I put in as much effort as to walk that half a mile? I would be on the couch parenting from there until the kids were in bed.

But I didn't think too much of it. I was still functioning. I drove the kids most of the way to school and walked them down the last street. I still made dinner. Still grocery shopped (although my legs ached and I felt exhausted afterwards...but that is normal pregnancy, right?) and went to kids activities, took them to swimming lessons, did dishes, cleaned the house, did laundry (sitting down, hello varicose veins) and all the normal things. I wasn't falling behind on anything. I was surviving, and even enjoying life, even though it seemed SO DANG TIRING.

But now?!?!? I told Sterling I felt like I was dancing through life suddenly. I can pick up Russ (woah! and not die of exertion!) and swing him around, and tickle him and dance with him and chase after him...not just once, but multiple times in a row. I can PLAY with my kids! I walk to and from school twice a day and still have energy for grocery shopping and more! Instead of kissing my kids at the bottom of the stairs and sending them up to bed, I walk up with them and tuck them in and it doesn't even feel like a chore and like every step of the stairs is silently trying to kill me. I don't even think about it and I have enough energy to go back up and sing another song if needed. It's amazing!

What is so amazing is the comparison. I thought I was doing just fine. Exhausted, pregnant, but totally fine. I wasn't depressed or anything, just needed a regular nap and to really plan my life so too much wasn't on one day. BUT now that I am not pregnant and I have a full tank of energy, I feel like I am on a post-workout high all of the time and I'm thinking, how wonderful is this?

I think it was the iron. And I'm kind of annoyed I didn't work that out earlier.

Looking back I can even pinpoint when I started feeling so, so tired. The reunion. I ran the half marathon a couple weeks before. Felt fabulous. The reunion was hot and tiring. My feet were swollen and lugging Russ around felt like this ginormous chore. The next week I spent babysitting for my sister Kami in Wyoming. I took two naps a day, no joke. I felt SO TIRED. I thought that maybe the reunion took much more out of this pregnant girl than I realized and I needed to reboot. And just for the record Kam, I still feel SOOOO bad about that week. Your poor kids probably think I'm the worst person in the world. I fed them, I dressed them, I cleaned up, I was around. But I did not play or do ANYTHING exciting the entire four days I was there. I have memories of one of my cousins babysitting me when my parents were in Taiwan for one week. I must have really not wanted her to be there, because I was really mad about the entire situation. I hid under my bed so she couldn't find me. It wasn't until I got MUCH older that I realized she probably was a nice person, it was just unfortunate that she was not my mother during that week, haha. I hope none of Kami's kids have those kind of memories of me! At least no one hid from me! Her kids were actually stellar and played really well the entire time. The older kids were a bit bored, but they had books they were working on to earn money so I just redirected to that? But poor Elena *did* help out with a very sad, very whiney Efraim a whole bunch because I already had Russ, and Efraim didn't like me anyway. Sorry Elena, I hope you still love me.

The rest of the summer I had my mom to help with all my kids and when I got back I was basically third trimester so I blamed everything purely on pregnancy.

All of this to record my memory of this pregnancy and to explain why I feel so fabulous. I am tired, yes. Normal, just had a newborn who doesn't sleep through the night kind of tired. But my energy throughout the day? It's normal. But normal is such a far cry from where I was at, it feels astronomical.

Thank you, modern medicine, for the iron infusions that are now, 7 weeks later, very much in effect. And thank you, varicose veins for not aching anymore (well, except one). I feel so happy every single morning walking my kids to school, the sun is shining, the weather is a perfect 60 degrees (75 in the afternoon when we are walking) and I am so amazed at how *good* our bodies can feel!

Now when I start working out in a week, and I realize how pathetic and out of shape I've become in the 6 months since my half marathon, I'll write another blog post singing an entirely different tune. Ha.