Hi charlotte_vale, I'm not sure if phantom periods are real or not, but I'll tell you that this is interesting to me. I'm 42 and was told I'm in perimenopause. My cycles were like yours for the last year until this past April. April was my last cycle. I had, as you said, an intimate encounter the first part of May and we used protection, so when my cycle hadn't shown up by the end of May, I just blew it off as being irregular. Then June comes, mid June and my mind went back to that "encounter" so I took a hpt which was neg. Since then, I've experienced sore nipples, weight gain, which are both symptoms of menopause BUT, I feel flutters in my stomach. Now listen, I'll be the first to admit what actually makes sense, but I keep getting weird feelings that something is not right. While the docs keep saying, you're not preg b/c your hormone levels don't add up, they're too low, and my age of being menopausal range, yet I haven't had a physical. So, I've done hills, and hills of research which shows that women have shown being pregnant even after tons and tons of negative tests from hpt to blood tests at the docs office. So, it is always possible. They say that it comes back neg. b/c of low or undetectable hcg which shows up in the blood made by the placenta. But some women show this sometimes late in pregnancy. While with my 2 sons (teenagers) I tested positive almost immediately, it would indeed surprise me if I am pregnant, but anything is possible and the way I feel, psychologically and physically, I'd feel more at peace after I've had my physical on the 6th.

A search of this forum turned up this thread -- and I am soooo thankful! At 50 with periods still going strong but very peri, I was about ready to take the butcher knife and hack off my nipples. Oh my GOSH! They hurt so bad that sometimes just my clothing hurts against them. Since it's both of them and no unusual "pain" other than this nipple tenderness, I felt sure it was hormones but I'm grateful to hear others say the same thing. Glad I found the GW menopause forum. The thought of what might turn up if I Googled "tender nipples" was scary. :-)

I have told people that my son didn't latch on in the first weeks, he attacked! My twins were premies who spent 20 and 31 days in the hospital, so I wasn't able to bf them at first. Then they had the usual premie latch-on problems, mostly due to having their tongues against the top of the mouth, and probably some nipple confusion from their hospital time. They weren't succeeding, and would get frantic, which made them even less successful. Meanwhile, I would get engorged and my breasts would get so hard the babies *couldn't* latch on. But I was determined I was going to bf them, so I kept trying and my nipples got sore and then really sore and then downright painful. I pumped for them while they were in the hospital, and then pumped when they got home just for relief. That said, premie twins are an extreme case. We had obvious latch-on problems, *and* my breasts were (are) getting twice the attention that yours are getting. My two suddenly got the hang of it at about 2 months past due date (which made it more than 3 months of age, but really only 2 months of trying). My friends who are nurses say it often takes 2 months to get bfing to really feel successful, although we weren't exactly talking about nipple pain in that conversation. I actually still have some pain on the right side because of a small cyst in the nipple--but the cure would entail excising the cyst and no nursing while the incision heals, so that isn't going to happen. To complicate matters, the right side is my "generous" side that sometimes shoots a stream of milk, and both babies bite down when that happens, trying to stem the flow. I yelp and pull back, and then the poor baby gets shot in the face and we go through what I refer to as the "duck and run" manover. Then I do some mopping up and try to get the frantic and angry baby calm enough to latch on (attack) again. This is even more complicated (and hilarious) when I am tandum nursing--both babies at the same time. Anyway, think of this as training. When you first start training your body to do something new you get sore muscles and joints, maybe a few blisters. It takes a while to work out the kinks, but if it is important you keep going until suddenly you realize your muscles aren't sore anymore and your blisters have healed. You're almost to that point. After that, you'll just have the joy of watching your baby's face while he nurses, of him watching you, and soon he'll be grinning up at you around your nipple. Trust me, you'll fall in love all over again! Catherine, mom to Richard and Patricia (b 9/20/01)

The reason I didn't send Vernon out to someone else is because he is doing so well. I had someone bring me a little squirrel just a little older than Vernon last summer, and the lady who found him had done a great job with him but she worked and it was a struggle to take him with her to the office every day. She was exhausted from lack of sleep. But she loved him very much and had even kept a little diary on his progress. She gave him to a rehabber I know, who was also very busy, so I offered to take him. He didn't like me. He didn't like the change, he didn't like the nipple, and he didn't want to nurse and was doing poorly. I sent him to a woman who does nothing but rehab squirrels, and he died. Since Vernon is so used to me, and the formula I am feeding him and his nipple, I didn't want anything to change that might upset him. Even tiny little creatures can be affected by small little differences. They have their own attachments, so I didn't want to even chance sending him out, altho I knew that if he died, I would feel very badly, thinking I should have sent him, but I have talked with yet anther squirrel rehabber and she tells me that raising pinkies are never a sure thing, and he could die no matter who is raising him.