Blogging my period: Day 7

CONTENT WARNING: PERIODS. Obv. There Will Be Blood. And possibly other things that you might not particularly want to read about. In which case, my advice is: don't read it. And if you do read it, and come across something you don't like, don't come crying to me about how you read something you didn't want to read even though I very clearly warned you you would read about if you continued reading.

Day 3 of my period is here. This used to be a source of woe, but for reasons unknown, it's no longer a horrible heavy day. So just a relatively normal day, except I have to change my Mooncup every now and then.

I love my Mooncup. I first heard about them during my addicted-to-Babycentre days. You can discuss anything and everything on a parenting forum and nobody bats an eyelid, including your method for collecting your menses, should you wish. And they wished. Freed from the shackles of normal conversational propriety, people sang the praises of the Mooncup until I was more than a little intrigued. I was already involved in a hate-hate affair with tampons, due to the fact that I needed three different types to get through the week, and even then they weren't really up to the job on some days. I was also getting queasy about the amount of stuff I was sending to landfill, given that I had two children in disposable nappies, in addition to the tampon-mountain I was getting through each month. Plus, I'm a cheapskate and someone told me it would save me money.

So, I bought one, trying not to feel irrationally insulted about the fact that, as someone who has both over thirty and had given birth vaginally (twice), I in no way qualified for the smaller size. And I was instantly (or almost instantly, once I'd cut the stupid stalk off and got used to the weird suction sound) a convert. Yes, it's a bit of a faff sometimes, especially if you need to empty it and you're not in easy reach of a toilet with a sink next to it (you can take a bottle of water into the toilet with you, but to be honest I find it easier to just go and find somewhere that has a sink). Yes, it gets messy if you're bleeding quite heavily. Yes, sometimes it won't open up properly and you end up taking it out and putting it back in about twenty times while wanting to cry. And yes, it's annoying and awkward when your children burst in on you when you're trying to change it and cry "MAMMY! What are you doing to your BUM!?!". But despite all of that, I would still never go back. Mooncups don't smell as awful as tampons and towels can. They don't feel as awful as tampons and towels can when they're totally full. You don't have to try and shoehorn them into a bin that's so full that the little flap thing doesn't work anymore. You don't have to worry about all that crap sitting in a pile somewhere until the end of time. It's brilliant at the end of your period, when you're hardly bleeding at all, but don't want to wear a towel or pantyliner, or a tampon that will be an absolute bitch when it comes out because it's too dry. And if you're weird like me, it's actually kind of interesting seeing the exact volume of blood you're losing. They even have little markers on to tell you (which is how I definitely knew that my periods were officially heavier than normal, rather than thinking they were but also worrying that perhaps I was just overreacting).

So, if you've been thinking about trying a Mooncup, but feeling unsure, DO IT! They're ace, and then you can feel all smug about you're saving the planet and your pennies. And here's a tip - Zizzi's have toilets with sinks. And really good calamari :)