The mystery of my fatigue, that is.
I’ve been extremely tired since Aidan was born and getting progressively moreso. Which is odd because he sleeps amazingly well for a 4-month-old, especially since we started combo feeding. We currently nurse 4-5 times per day and do 3-4 bottles in addition.
But I never feel rested when I wake up and I could nap most days if given the chance (and I don’t nap usually). My milk supply has been up and down for the past couple of months. I’ve been bruising easily and cuts/bruises have taken forever to heal. The brain fog has been real. And don’t even talk to me about postpartum hair loss… I’m surprised I’m not bald yet.
So I finally made an appointment with my OB for some blood tests: thyroid stuff (runs in my family), vitamin B12, a CBC and ferritin levels.
And what do you know, I’m severely iron deficient. Apparently normal ferritin levels for women are 20-150 (not sure on the units) and mine is 9! Big yikes.
After my L&D with Ethan when I lost a lot of blood, I took high dose iron supplements and covitamins to fix my anemia. But I haven’t taken anything with iron since then–my prenatals don’t have iron–so this has probably been building up for a while.
(Whilst I eat plenty of pastured beef, leafy greens, legumes and dark chocolate, apparently my absorption issues from IBS have prevented me from getting enough iron into my blood.)
I just started taking iron supplements over the weekend and I’ve been instructed to start doubling up once I’m used to the one pill. Thankfully I have an iron stomach (ha, pun not intended) so I haven’t felt much nausea from them.
Anyways… if you’ve talked with me recently and I’ve seemed scattered… that’s definitely why. Two pregnancies less than a year apart takes it out of ya! I’ve only been NOT pregnant or nursing for 4 months since October 2018.
And I’m excited to be on the mend now!
xx