Tuesday, November 29, 2011

8 Weeks and an IUD

Happy 8 week birthday, sweet baby Clark!!!

In honor of my two amazingly perfect children and the idea that I should quit while I'm ahead, today I made sure that no more babies tumble out of my baby tunnel. IUD!!!!

I got a Paragard IUD, which is the non-hormonal copper IUD that lasts for 10 years. 10 years! I'll be in my 40s by the time I have to think about birth control again. Booyah!

Let me be honest for a second, though. A small, weird, highly emotional and totally illogical part of me felt sad about getting the IUD. Here's what happened in the "crazy" compartment of my brain. I thought about how I wanted to get an IUD after I had Elise, but we didn't because it was so expensive. We decided to use the mini pill instead. But I suck at taking pills and blah blah blah and then when Elise was 10 months old I found out that I was pregnant again. Which was a shock. But now I'm so happy for it-- I love Clark to pieces. If I'd have gotten the IUD, though, we'd have never had him. So getting an IUD this time for some reason makes me feel a little bit sad, as if I might be stopping more amazing babies from being born.

BUT

#1. That's the whole point, right? I don't want to have any more babies in my belly. So I'm sad that I'm keeping myself from getting pregnant when I know that I don't want to get pregnant? What? How does that make sense?

#2. You can take the IUD out whenever you want and potentially get pregnant again right away. So if Husband and I ever decided to have another biological child, we can. It's not like I got my tubes tied. It's totally reversible.

#3. There is still a teensy weensy chance that I could get pregnant, even with the device in. So if it is really really meant to be, then I'll get pregnant again. If I believed in fate. Which I don't. But I do believe in science. And science says that with the IUD in I have slightly less than a 1% chance of growing another baby in my belly before I go through menopause.

So whatever. I was sad for a second and now I'm like "Yay! No more babies for me!"

The procedure itself was pretty quick. And I didn't feel any pain, but I guess some people do. I've had some cramping this evening, but nothing crazy. And certainly nothing like labor pains (ha!), so the mild discomfort is worth it.

YAY! No more pills, condoms, counting days on the calendar, checking my cervical mucous, or worrying about getting pregnant again for 10 YEARS!!!

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