Well it looks like the dreaded period day has finally arrived though it may be something else. I got to school at 2.30 for a meeting and was told that Beth had pulled her pants down a couple of times in the schoolyard much to the horror of the boys playing nearby. She had said something about needing to change her knickers and had been complaining of a stomach ache during the day. I went in to see her but she told me that she had had a runny bum and that she didn’t need to change her knickers after all. Tonight Paul gave her a shower and called me down to look at her knickers and they had blood in them.
After Beth’s shower I had her knickers with pad ready and she started to freak out. With a battle she kept them on and put her pyjamas on over the top. I then showed her the powerpuff girls period story which she alternatively read with me and had a little cry. I think it calmed her down a bit though. She was shaking and hot too which I at first put down to being scared and just having a shower.
We went and lay on the bed after this. I tried to talk with her and to tell her what a brave girl she was being but she has shut down anything that she thinks is to do with her period. She kept sticking her fingers in her ears. After she was lying down for a while though Beth vomited in our bed. This seemed to make her feel better and she came out to play a game on the computer. She has left the pad alone which is a win for me as the last false alarm she kept ripping it out.
I’m not sure if she is actually sick and the bleed is a consequence of whatever she’s got, or whether she’s getting her period and she was so freaked out that she made herself sick. She’s watching the new Simpsons now and seems in quite good spirits. I guess time will tell, I’ll know over the next few hours.
We’ve got Sensational Kids tomorrow, if Beth’s well enough. I thought I’d take her shopping in the morning and buy her a treat and let her pick a purse for her pads. I’ll make sure that we use a toilet with a bin in it too. I wont say too much more to her tonight about it as she keeps telling me to stop talking about it. And when Paul was looking at her before she told him to not talk to her or ask any questions. It’s going to be a pretty hard few days I think but so far so good. I sort of hope it’s not a false alarm as she’s coping better than I thought. Mind you, I’ll have to watch her most of the time to stop her pulling the pad out. Hopefully that will stop soon too.
I’ve worded up the teachers at school too, they’ll be great as they wondered if it might be this. I’ve sent them a copy of the social story and I’ll do the list with step by step instructions for her purse and for school. I feel a bit more in control than the last false alarm at least.
Getting your period for the first time is pretty awful at the best of times. Love the idea of the Powderpuff Girls. I did chuckle when I read that Beth told Paul not to talk to her or ask any questions. I can remember feelings like that! I know who to ask for advise on raising a daughter if I ever have one. Sarah, you’d be number one one the list.
thanks Nic, so far so good, though haven’t lived through this day yet!
I still remember when I got mine, even though my mum had talked to me about it I still wasn’t prepared for the brown stain on my reg grundies. I don’t care who you are, the first few are just very weird, so any wonder Beth is feeling so strange about it all. Just tell her nobody likes it, but we all must go through it, and maybe help her feel she is part of the “Womanhood’, if you will.
yes I have said to her that I don’t like it either. She doesn’t want to feel that she’s growing older so have to be careful about the ‘womanhood’ thing which I found out the hard way! She’s doing pretty well, not wanting to talk about it at all. On the way back from Sensational Kids I did bring it up, just to tell her that when she goes to the toilet at school, unless she’s changing her pad she’s not to take the old one off. She seemed ok about me saying that. I think it’ll just take time. As you say, it’s horrible for all of us. Unfortunately it’s just one of those ‘shit happens’ things that happen to us chicks!