Hrmmmm... this may not be the best time for you to switch pills. In fact, IMNSHO it's a BAD time to be changing ANYTHING unless the situation is truly dire. If I were you, I'd call the doctor back, explain your family circumstances, ask for three or six months' script for your previous pill, and then when life settles down some you can switch over. FWIW, vasectomies are not 100% either - I know two "vasectomy babies". Yoicks. If you're relying entirely on your DH's vasectomy for birth control, he should have a sperm check done every year. We're a weird family, DH has had a vasectomy as well as me having a tubal, but he's always had that shuddery feeling not being certain he's shooting blanks, so I humored him. Then the urologist bollixed it! He clipped the same vas deferens twice - it IS a bit crowded with the tiny incisions they're using and the bits are slippery in there, I guess those tiny tubes kept escaping *chuckle* - instead of getting them both so DH had to go back and have it done again. A lot of urologists are using titanium clips now rather than the old cut-and-burn method. I've read since that about 1% of vasectomies have to be redone. Poor DH was miserable for about 3 days both times (they were done on Friday mornings so he would have the weekend to recover) and was tender for several more. I spent a lot of time running back and forth to the freezer for ice packs. Had to get permission from his boss to wear sweatpants to work for about a week and it was about 3 weeks before he could wear jeans without discomfort (and he doesn't wear boxers so "the boys" don't dangle). He still gets twinges/pulling sensations sometimes, especially when he's running. It's been something like 5 years. Still considers it worth it though. I had a tubal because I damn well wanted one, and the laparoscopy served double duty to check for endometriosis (yes, mild, and guess what the first line treatment is? birth control pills! LOL). DLM - *chuckle* not many people know the term - it's German. Means "middle pain" I think. I had it SO often it just about drove me out of my mind, doc said "oh yeah, that's probably mittelschmertz" like it was the common cold. Middle-WHAT? Most women will get a little twinge when they ovulate, barely enough to notice (or write it off as gas), but for some of us it's whoooo-doggie, shoot me now please. I do think the gall bladder was worse though. I had frequent attacks for YEARS before anyone thought of the GB. ER and regular doctors would say muscle spasms, constipation (!), even rib problems, but never gallstones. Always got the attacks at night, remember the hours of pacing - couldn't sit down, couldn't lie down, - and could never correlate it to anything. I'd get it if I had junk food for supper, or a super-healthy supper, if I'd exercised that day or not. Someone finally did an ultrasound after several years of me repeatedly ending up in the ER screaming my head off and found that my gallbladder was the size of a baseball (it's normally the size of a walnut) and cram-full of nasty stuff, thisclose to peritonitis. I had the BEST surgeon though. Normally it's a quickie surgery, in and out in an hour and a half, but he took FOUR hours to make sure he could stick with the lap' instead of just filleting me like the assisting surgeon wanted to do. (He knew it would take me a year to come back from that - as it was it took three months for me to completely recover from from the lap'.)

That sounds awful, that sounds like a good idea to at least look into taking it. The Mirena IUD is something else you could consider too. I've been having heavier and increasingly awful cramps and finally went to the doctor about it. She just told me to take more ibuprofin before my period started and to consider getting the Mirena IUD. I felt a bit brushed off, she gave me a pelvic exam but didn't test my hormone level or anything else. I hadn't heard about your periods getting worse when you get older-I'm forty one. Jen

Nil13: Thank you for the good input. Much appreciated. Yes, I’ve been trying to prevent the weeds from seeding; but, admittedly, we have been only about 70 percent successful. Too many weeds in too many places. And it doesn’t help that the neighboring property is wilderness with seeds abundantly blowing onto ours. I think your advice regarding the weed cloths under paths and sprayable areas only is a good one. I’ll save myself the work and expense of laying a mile of weed cloth in the future. On the topic of mulching: is there a particularly good kind of mulch I should use? My experiences with mulching have been dismal. The 5 trucks I’ve brought in were wildly contaminated and brought in all sorts of non native weeds.

I used weed cloth only a little bit several years ago. I thought it had no trouble with letting air through. Water could have trouble going through unless it had time to soak in. Anyway, I agree. People that used it seem to generally avoid it. No one wants to put it down, cover it, and dig it all up again a few years later. Cornelia, AFAIK, you can't stop them from pupping. If I were you I'd consider replacing the pupping Agaves with a different kind that pups less. I have an Agave in a 1 gallon pot. The pot is full of pups. The amount of room doesn't matter. A barrier that goes below and above the soil surface would contain them but they'd be very crowded.