My oldest was having recurrent "yucky tummy" and her allergy test came back positive for a wheat allergy. She's felt a lot better since then--actually, within about 24 hours of eliminating wheat, she felt better.

Nordstrom. BreakoutBras.com has really good fit advice, and they will do a telephone or email consult with you to help you get the right size. Each bra and bra manufacturer will vary a bit in fit, too, so good advice (or trying on everything) is critical.

I was very, very uncomfortable with my twin pregnancy. It was full-term for a singleton--39w 2d. There was a lot of crying in week 38 and 39. Loss of muscle strength will cause a lot more back pain, for sure. The problem is that once you're fairly deep into pregnancy, it's hard to really get stronger without hurting yourself more.

We have one of the Mydal bunk beds from Ikea. We've had it for a year and a half, I guess? It's held up just fine. DH has gotten on the top bunk and he is not particularly small. :) I have gotten up there, too, and didn't feel like I was taking my life in my hands. Our kids are still little, but I think it will last quite a few years.

I have a few female friends my age or slightly older (so late 30s, early 40s) who are single and have no children. One of them is definitely very unhappy about being single and without children, and expresses it frequently and publicly. Others seem happy with their careers, homes, hobbies, travel, extended family, other relationships, etc. and I have no reason to think they are dissatisfied. Sometimes I wish I could trade places with them, just for a couple of days. :)

I don't think that's laughable at all. Strong glutes are critical to pelvic floor health.

Another vote for Nose Frida. I've been using ours a lot the last couple of days, and I'm grateful for it!

Another vote for Katy Bowman and whole body alignment. Interestingly, your knees and your leakage could be connected. Your glutes are critical for both.

Enell. Yes, it is quite ugly, but it works. They last a long time, too. I have had some in regular rotation for 5+ years. I was a 00 before I had any kids, so they're not all very very large.

FYI: H.G. Wells' The Time Machine is a free Kindle book right now, and if you "buy" the free book, you can also get the audio book free with Whispersync.

Death Comes for the Archbishop is easily my favorite Cather novel. Even if you *don't* like My Antonia, you should try that one. :)

Jill Miller has some great stuff involving self-massage with pliable rubber balls in her new book The Roll Model. Here's a link to one of the exercises for piriformis. There are more in her book, but here is one: You can use "Pinky" balls or tennis balls.

Hey, I want to jump in again! I took a hiatus in 2014 (I had twins) but I am back in the game! I'm reading Move Your DNA by Katy Bowman, which is excellent, but I have been stalled on it for a few months while I lost my reading mojo. My current audio book is My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead, which I'm really enjoying. I haven't read Middlemarch for probably 15 years, but I want to re-read it.

That is a really hard decision. I don't know what I would do in your position! I had an Implanon between my middle boy and my twins, and when I night weaned the boy-o, I started having a lot of spotting that my doctor and I could not get under control. It was just annoying--no threat to my health or anything--but I ultimately decided to have it removed. We were planning on trying for another baby shortly after anyway, so that was another reason to have it removed.

Frequent spotting and even period-like bleeding is not unusual the first 3 to 6 months. I think that's in the literature. My doctor mentioned it. My spotting settled down by 5 or 6 months for sure. Ok, I didn't imagine it. :) It's here on Mirena's website:

I got one shortly after my twins were born. I had some occasional spotting at first and now it's very rare (9.5 months-ish after insertion). I'm pretty happy with it. No hair issues, no weight gain, nothing bad at all.

I am not sure it can always be avoided. My second birth (a water birth at home) was what my midwife said was a perfect example of the uterine ejection reflex. Kaboom, he was born. I didn't feel out of control or panicky; it was simply what my body did. I tore a little bit and had a few stitches, but if I hadn't been holding a baby afterward, I wouldn't have known I'd given birth because I felt so great. I've heard it compared to resisting a very strong urge to vomit. Are you going to hold that vomit in? :laugh: During my first birth, I had an early urge to push, and my doula was really helpful in helping me resist that urge by breathing with me and demonstrating what to do, but that was very different from the actual arrival of my second baby.

I love the sky scarf idea! Welcome to the club. :)

I have a stone pig, which is a Scottish porcelain hot water bottle and stays warm all night if it's insulated under blankets with you. I got mine on eBay about 10 years ago. I just keep mine at my feet. I wear socks because it starts out so hot that it is uncomfortably warm for bare feet.

I found that strengthening my lateral hips and glutes helped me a lot with pregnancy hip pain. These three videos demonstrate some of what helped. Pelvic List: Monster Walk: Hip Exercise for sore hips in pregnancy:

A couple of weeks ago I backed my van into a pole at the post office. I was really mad at myself. The next week, a friend texted me a picture of her bumper--she had backed into a mailbox. I felt better, knowing that I was not the only one. Should we all add pictures of our minor car accidents here? :) It really does happen to just about everyone at some point. :grouphug:

Oh, I will be right over! :drool5: Just one more reason to love you, hornblower!

I also have had an outer ear infection (swimmer's ear) that really muffled my hearing on one side because the bacterial goo got in the way of the proper workings of my eardrum. In that case, antibiotic drops cleared it up very quickly.

In groups, I know you can see who has seen your posts. Outside of groups, I don't think it's possible.

I had an ear infection last year around this time. I woke up in the middle night in pretty serious ear pain, and my doctor said my eardrum was very close to rupturing because it was bulging outward from the pressure. I had classic adult ear infection symptoms (very sudden onset) and a good amount of pain the first day. The hearing loss from the fluid lasted at least a couple of weeks. I found it really annoying! From what I have read, the fluid can persist for weeks while the body is dealing with it, and that was my experience. I was about 27 weeks pregnant with my twins, so there wasn't a lot I could take, but I did take the antibiotics and when it was rechecked (my PA is my friend) a couple of days after the pain had hit and I started the antibiotics, the eardrum was no longer visibly bulging. But I still had hearing loss in that ear for quite a long time.