Reality star and real estate agent Heather El Moussa is opening up about her latest health diagnosis.
According to the new mom, it all started just four months after giving birth to her son Tristan, who is now 9 months old. El Moussa explained that she began experiencing intense fatigue around four months postpartum.
“I remember saying to my assistant, ‘I feel like I’m dead,” she shared with Today. “My brain was so tired. My body was so tired. I was exhausted all the time and no amount of sleep could make it better.”
It got to the point where her work suffered and she could barely get out of bed. At first, she attributed her symptoms to being postpartum, thinking, “I’m probably just foggy because of mom brain.”
But then her milk supply started to change and that’s when she visited a lactation specialist and had blood work done. That was when she learned her pregnancy triggered Hashimoto’s disease.
Hashimoto’s is an autoimmune disorder that affects the thyroid gland. El Moussa admits the diagnosis “shocked” her.
Now, the new mom is on medication and is “feeling much better.”
This isn’t the first time Heather dealt with health issues related to her pregnancy. As Mamas Uncut previously reported, Tarek and Heather welcomed Tristan into the world on January 31.
In a post alongside the first public photos of their baby boy, Heather and Tarek revealed the scary way in which he made his entrance into the world.
She revealed that they “were at my final doctor appointment and our Dr. rushed us to the hospital to get monitored because Tristan‘s movements had slowed down. I was 4 days past his due date,” Heather explained.
Thankfully, while the labor was touch and go, Heather and Tarek safely welcomed their baby boy into the world a few hours later. “I pushed so hard all the blood vessels broke in my face and chest.”
Heather Rae also revealed that Tristan has been dealing with a few health issues now that he’s earthside. While talking with her Instagram followers, Heather revealed that Tristan is “jaundice,” as well as “tongue, cheek, and lip tied” making it difficult for him to breastfeed.
“As promised, I want to talk to you guys about my breastfeeding journey because it’s definitely been a journey !! I thought…. I’ll just pop him on my boob and feed him anytime. Ya no!!! Tristan had tongue tie, cheek tie, lip tie and jaundice which were all caught very early on thanks to my incredible lactation specialist and @tonguetietribe, they’re literally baby fairies.”
As Heather continued, she wrote that she is so lucky to have found them for the knowledge & support but it made it very hard for him to latch & suck and it made it so that he was burning a lot of calories because it was so hard for him to eat so his weight was dropping.”
Thankfully, after undergoing surgery, Tristan is latching much easier now. “We’re now 2 weeks past getting his tongue tie fixed and he’s latching so well on the left side and we’re still working on the right side using non-traditional positions which were shown to me by the baby fairies.”
“Even with all this going on, I genuinely love breastfeeding. I love the skin to skin connection and think it’s such a beautiful bonding experience. It might be hard and challenging at the moment but it is such a special experience that I get to share with our baby boy,” she concluded.
We are so glad to see things coming together for Heather and Tarek and their new baby boy Tristan.
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