Major Ewww

Ok, this is going to be a pretty gross post, so feel free to skip over it. If you continue to read, I am sorry for the nasty TMI that this includes.
The herbs have finally kicked in. Earlier in the week, I started spotting nasty brown. That is exactly what they said SHOULD happen, but seeing as I'm on my last 2 weeks of the 3rd round, I figured I wasn't responding and it wasn't working properly. Obviously I was wrong. They said it would take 3-6 months to kick in so at least it hit me before too much longer. So yeah, earlier in the week (Monday I believe) spotting had started. It was brown, and enough that it was more than just on tp when I used the bathroom. Break out the panty liners. Tuesday it was more regular, still that nasty brown. Wednesday more of the same, but not regular enough to call this anything more than spotting. Very early Thursday AM, I woke up and had what appeared to be real flow. Brown. Very dark and very gross. Liners were no longer cutting it, so break out the pads. Yesterday I declared it as day one, and the brown had turned to a very deep dark red mix and was consistent enough to think things were here. Fast forward to today. Its back to mostly spotting. And now no more red to it at all. Back to brown nasty. I have no clue what is going on, and the herbal place says this is totally normal for when things first kick in. After this round of the T&C Formula, I'm going to discontinue it and stick with just the HB for the hormone balancing. The T&C was just to get things shedding and a "fresh start" and 3-6 months is plenty. She recommends since I have this going on now, this should be my last round with it. Works very well because the T&C is the worse tasting of the 2.
So what I've noticed with this going on is, the herbs have helped to eliminate the cramping. With what was going on Wed-Thurs, I should have had some serious cramping. I did have some mild cramping earlier in the week, but I honestly didn't realize it was this gearing up. I typically have 2-3 days of horrific cramping that limits my daily activities. It has helped majorly with that. Another notice is if this truly is a period, it's not crazy heavy to start. It's like what I deal with after the first 2 days.
So I'm guessing I should classify today as day 2, even though it has never turned bright red, and it's basically down to spotting now. It confuses me. Sorry again for the grossness.