Happy 5 days till Santa!
The plus sides of this week:
- Both of Jack's parents came out of quarantine which means Noah has met 4 of her 5 grandparents! Sadly her step-grandfather couldn't make it out from the US so she'll have to wait to meet him at some point in hopefully the not too distant future.
- I took Noah to go see Ines De Beer at The Round Clinic on Friday. Ines is going to help Noah with her reflux. I'll write more on that later.
- On Thursday evening I realised that for the past 2 weeks I've been unnecessarily continuing to wear my super attractive high waisted post-natal underwear...I quickly changed that by packing them away so I'm back in my normal underwear. Usually I don't really care but it's a step towards pre-pregnancy normalcy!
The downside of the week....Noah had her 2 month vaccinations on Thursday so the tail end of the week was a bit tumultuous. She was vaccinated against 9 viruses so had 3 injections and one oral dose. We were told she would be sleepy for the rest of the day, she was the exact opposite. She did need a lot of cuddles but she was SO AWAKE. Luckily for us, that meant she slept in one 6 hour stretch, a 3 hour stretch, then a 2 hour stretch overnight. She was pretty tired most of Friday and wasn't at all interested in food. She luckily never spiked a fever but she was certainly extra vomit-y which was super pleasant.
Noah
So we think she discovered her feet late in the afternoon on Sunday last week. She was staring very intently at them and was wriggling her toes around. She continued to do this on Monday and Tuesday.
After weeks of perfecting the old man scowl, she's starting to smile a lot more. She still mostly looks unimpressed with whoever is holding her but if she recognises you she'll give you the biggest of smiles! I'd say she looks like an angry Danny Devito 65% of the time and like a happy baby 35% of the time. We'll work on those ratios. Whenever she's happily beaming away she's also increasingly babbly, occasionally it genuinely feels like she thinks she's having a conversation with you.
She's starting to take to her morning probiotic bottle a lot better! It's still requires a bit of convincing but she'll take it more often than not. The next step is getting her to take a full bottle for a feeding.
The final milestone of the week, she'll be happily left alone (reclined) for periods of 10-15min. By "alone" I mean no one has to hold her. This may not seem like a long period of time for most people but for us, it's ages.
Training
I'll start off by publicly addressing the most common question I was asked this week: "did you miss training?" Honestly? Not at all. It was literally the last thing on my mind. After a full week in hospital it then took another week or so to start to feel human again. Then I was thrust into new-motherhood. It's a chaotic time because you're busy doing everything but at the end of the day can say very confidently that you've actually done nothing. The 6 weeks flew by and by the time I was cleared to start training my honest first reaction was "ok, how am I supposed to do this?"
It did feel amazing to start moving again but it's also a bit demoralising to see how much strength I've lost. I don't mean this to sound like I'm bragging and I'm not proud of this fact but I'm actually 2kg lighter now than I was before I became pregnant. My boobs are also WAY bigger than they were pre-pregnancy (obviously) which means I've lost more than 2kg of muscle mass. It was a bit disheartening to wake up on Monday sore from a bodyweight session last Sunday but then I reminded myself that I only birthed her less than 2 months ago! Also, it's not like I'm a rush to hit any fitness goal. My aim is still to return to training as safely as possible. I don't want to rush my return, I don't want to push my body to the extreme. I just want to start moving and see how I get on.
Monday
Not going to lie, my legs were absolutely FRIED after the session on Sunday. Even though I didn't do much and didn't really add any weight (Noah hardly counts) - it was more than I had done in the last 7 weeks. The plan was to do a bit more floor stuff and mobility and film it for a potential calibrateBUMPS online series.
Noah was awake and a bit fussy when we got out of the car but as soon as we walked into the studio she passed out. The number one rule I follow: never wake a sleeping baby. The problem now was she was in the carrier and asleep which meant I couldn't do any prone or supine exercises. Which meant....legs. In hindsight, I could have done an upperbody session but mum brain hit me and the only thing I could think of was legs. I decided to film my session anyways, I'll have to film lower body bodyweight strength stuff at some point! So, with Noah strapped to my chest I did:
2 sets:
A1. 15 Squats
A2. 20 Standing Fire Hydrants
B1. 15 Lunges
B2. 20 Standing Kick Backs
C1. 15 Kneeling Hip Thrusts
C2. 20 Lateral Walks
Upper body mobility
15 min lower body stretch
After this, it was time to run a few errands and then do absolutely nothing for the rest of the day.
Tuesday
My body was well and truly tired today. We started the morning with a 60min boardwalk stroll and then spend the late morning/early afternoon gathering ideas for stocking stuffers with my mum and sister. By about 1pm Noah was done with being out of the house and in noisy places so we went home to chill out for the rest of the day.
I did manage to do a bit of rehab work but my core was a bit strained from yesterday so I just did some belly breathing instead of actual core work:
3 sets:
10 pelvic floor contractions
10 pelvic floor isometric holds (6s)
2 min belly breathing
Wednesday
We went into the studio on Wednesday morning to attempt to train but we kind of ran out of time. Training was interrupted by a feed and we were on somewhat of a tight schedule so I only managed to do 2 sets of the following:
A1. 10 Overhead Miniband Pulses
A2. 12 Babyweight Shoulder Presses
B1. 10 Bent over miniband rows to Y raises
B2. 15 Banded No Moneys
C1. 10 Push Ups
C2. 10 Table Top Heel Taps
I did then go on an 80min walk in the afternoon just to feel slightly more accomplished.
Thursday
Started off the day with a long walk in the morning. I then took her in for her vaccinations in the late morning which she was not impressed with. Luckily Jack was able to skip out of work to assist. By assist I mean I made him hold Noah while she was being jabbed because I didn't think I'd be able to handle the scream. To my surprise she didn't actually kick up as much of a fuss as I was expecting. I think it was too much of a shock for her system so after all the injections had been administered I took her and she immediately fell asleep. Her nap was a whopping 20 minutes and she then spent the rest of the day VERY awake! She was pretty fussy and uncomfortable (I would be if I had 9 viruses injected!) but she was anything but tired....She eventually went to sleep at 9pm and didn't wake up for a feed until 3am!
Friday
The after effects of the vaccines were definitely still being felt today. It was also significantly cooler outside so we just spent the day chilling out at home.
At 11am she had her appointment with her osteopath: Ines de Beer. Ines is going to help Noah with her reflux. She explained that there's almost a direct correlation between babies born with pneumonia/bronchitis and reflux. The pneumonia will have tensed her upper chest and neck muscles and the screaming in the first hour of life only made that worse. Plus, the vacuum extraction means the back of her head is still a bit cone-like which means when she does lie down her head always falls to one side - thus closing and tightening her neck muscles even more. The tight neck and chest put a lot of pressure on the nerve that runs from the head into the stomach, thus triggering reflux.
We're going to see Ines 2-3 more times and although it won't cure the reflux it should make it much more manageable.
Saturday
After 2 days of not really moving, today I needed to move. We went to the studio with the aim of doing some filming but Noah wasn't really having any of it so instead I ditched the filming, strapped her to my chest and did the best I could:
3 sets:
A1. 20 Standing Kickbacks
A2. 12 Lateral Raises
B1. 15 Sumo squats with isometric hold
B2. 15 Standing Banded Rows
B3. 12 Bicep Curls to Shoulder Press
C1. 12 Split Squats
C2. 10 Tricep Extensions
C3. 30s Poloff Isometric Holds
In the afternoon we went for our usual 90min beachside stroll.
Sunday
Went for a quick 1 hour stroll in the morning and that was it. Today is the 3rd annual Christmas Brunch, an annual tradition a few rugby friends and I have. The brunch is always a girls only affair and this year we have the 2 new additions: Noah and Sawyer. Last year Sawyer was present but only in womb and Noah was only an idea.
Life in General
I can only speak for myself but I think this week was a major shift in my mentality. Life has become a lot easier, I think I'm much more settled into the new normal, and in a very positive head space! Not that I was ever in a very negative headspace but this week I definitely felt a lot lighter and a lot more relaxed.
Now that Noah is 8 weeks old I can say that this truly is the most wonderful time. Yes, it's stressful at times, it's DEFINITELY chaotic, it's messy, it's exhausting, it's frustrating, it's challenging, but it's also an incredible adventure and that's the best part. Every morning I wake up not knowing what kind of day the day will be. We have to adapt to new moods and new situations every minute. Life's an adventure and I've got an amazing adventure partner in Jack.
Most importantly, Santa is coming soon and Christmases with tiny kids are the best kinds of Christmases :D
Have a fabulous week everyone!
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