Stressin over Stress.....

I got my last blood test results and my levels were back up to 141.  WHAT THE?!?  I thought they would decrease for sure after weaning my baby!!!  So, I decided to evaluate and do some more studying....In the course of the last couple of weeks I have learned that stress can play a major role in heightening prolactin levels!  I think I knew this, but hadn't really thought much about it due to all the craziness in my life lately!  In fact, in one of my earlier posts I even admitted that I think stress had a major role in triggering my prolactinoma in the first place!  (See The Beginning????)

In the last few months my prolactin levels has gone from 108 to 130 to 110 to 141.  In fact, April 13th is when it was 108 and April 17th is the day we moved into our new home, and started remodeling.  It's been bouncing around ever since then.  My husband has a job where he works 4 days on and 4 days off.  We remodel for 4 days, then clean as good as we can.  Our house is semi-clean for 4 days then we start all over again.  Needless to say, I do not do well in chaos and our house has definitely been chaotic.  It's especially hard when my baby is just becoming super mobile and I am spending most of my day trying to keep him from playing w/ tools, the holes in the floor, dangerous wires, screws, and everything else you can imagine may be in a construction zone!

 I also have 3 jobs that I do from home.  2 are pretty low stress, because I do them on my own time when I have time and I do it on my own so they are perfect.  The 3rd job involves working with other people and I'm on a strict timeline and it have been extremely stressful for the last few months!  Also, since the beginning of July I have been in a continuous cycle of pack, play, unpack, laundry, major catch up (and never quite getting there), pack, play, unpack, laundry, major catch up (and never quite getting there), etc, etc.  I've been through this cycle approximately 4 times as of yesterday!  Hopefully i won't have to pack again until Sept. 1st.  (Not nearly long enough).  Between all three of them and my full-time job as a mommy, I feel like I am barely keeping my head above water!  We got back from our last vacation on Tuesday and every mile closer to home I could feel my tummy tightening up a little more.

I stress over my desire to have more children.  My cycle still have not returned and I want it to so we can start trying for more babies!!!

Through all this, I have decided that this prolactin thing is a lot like weight loss.  In weight loss, you can't just exercise, or eat well...you have to do both to achieve the desired result.  Likewise, I can't just concentrate on one aspect of lowering my levels.  Frankincense works well, but I also need to lower my stress!  I need to cut some things out of my life!  There are additional things I can do to lower my stress.  I need to exercise daily and I am going to be doing yoga with a friend twice a week.  I am going to drop my photography stuff until I'm done writing the life history (main stresser) is done.  I am going to change my eo regime to include oils that help with stress.  I am going to prioritize each and everyday and try not to stress over my stress :)  Last but not least....BELLY BREATHS, BELLY BREATHES, BELLY BREATHES!

Any other suggestions?????