Master Z has outgrown his first shoes and is into his second pair. I was worried that the transition would be hard – he *loves* his first shoes, but there was nothing to worry about. He adores his new shoes just as much!
New Shoooz!
This transition happened early September (6th Sep, to be exact) but I just found the photos now!)
I am going through all my old LJ entries and categorising them according to the categories that I am using on my blog. Apparently this is popping them up on the friends’ page as new entries, even though they are ancient history. Sorry for the possible confusion or annoyance.
It’s so rare that I can capture a new word right when he has started to say it. This is the fourth food word that he has learnt which in part shows how much he loves apples. Obviously it also in part shows that it is an easy word to learn, he loves zucchinni also but shows no sign of being able to say the word!
I had stopped giving him apples after a couple of mums mentioned their doctors lamenting the number of children under three who choke on apples. I have a fifth cousin who I never met because he choked when he was 18 months old. The thought of going through that just makes my stomach fall away and my heart stop, so when hearing about a couple of different doctors warning of the choking hazards of apples, I listened.
Fast forward to last night when Master Z refuses to eat any dinner until we give him some of the apple he can see, ditto this morning and I feel mean denying him something yummy and healthy and exactly the sort of thing I want him to want. I won’t give him whole apples yet but I think that thinly sliced apple eaten under supervision should be okay. And he loves it so much!
Having an unmotivated week. Feeling flat, battling a headache with lots of coffee and codeine which results in less pain but a certain degree of cotton wool-ness in my head. A dear friend mentioned that it took her about 6 months after sleep returned to actually “get over it”, it being the sleep deprivation and all that it entailed. That after the initial euphoria of “Sleep! Hooray!”, there was a slump and that this is apparently common. Well, I think I’m there.
The same friend suggested that I take some time each day to meditate, draw, light incense, read runes, do the various spiritual things which I used to do but haven’t in a long time. This is exactly how I’ve been feeling. I’ve been missing my puja, wanting to get back into meditation and this has been the second external reinforcement this week of how important meditation can be. The first being a buddhist monk talk that R and I watched on the weekend.
I think this comes under the heading “Taking care of myself”. This past week, I’ve been working on the physical side. The wake-up call for me was last weekend when I was tired and R told me to sit down and ice my knee while he cleaned the kitchen. My immediate response was “No, there’s too much to do”. He sat me down, handed me the ice pack and told me again to ice my knee. I have a list of rehab things that I need to do for my knee, and rehab things for my wrist. These things take time and focus and are too easily brushed aside for more immediate concerns. Until they start hurting too much and I am reminded once more that I still need to heal from this journey and introduction to motherhood. I never in a million years imagined that I would reach 17 months post-partum and still not be strong enough physically to resume running three to four times a week. I imagined doing fun runs with bub in a pram. It was going to be great. I was going to be super-fit mum. Clearly my body missed that memo and got drunk on every hormone on offer. This is the hangover and it is a doozy.
My knee is inflamed and the pelvic instability issues that I experienced during and post pregnancy have thrown out my muscles, resulting in the patella constantly being pulled to one side, which causes pain with movement and weight-bearing. The aim of rehab is to reduce the inflammation, release the muscles on one side of my leg and strengthen the muscles on the other side so that the patella can go back to its rightful place. Didn’t I do all this back in my early twenties? And again in my early thirties? A definite sense of de ja vu going on here. This week I decided to tackle the rehab plan one step at a time. I make sure that I sit down and ice and massage my knee every time that Master Z goes down for a nap. No matter what. Next week I’ll introduce the squat exercises and the week after I’ll start on the weekly massages that I’m meant to be having. I’ll get there. I just have to break it up into manageable chunks.
The wrist is doing pretty well. I’ve been brace-less since late May and haven’t caused any major aggravation to it. I still have to be careful how I pick up Master Z and I can feel that it isn’t as strong as my other wrist. There is still some pain so I suspect another one or two appointments may be necessary for additional rehab. Next time, I will be on the look-out for De Quervain’s Tenosynovitis and will go straight to the hand specialist at the slightest hint of pain in my wrist.
So many unexpected ways in which pregnancy and early motherhood affected me physically.
