These are some pictures from one of our play dates at Sadie Dey's earlier this year with Sarah. Holly was just getting into the dress up phase and found a lovely hat in the dress up bin to wear, it matched her outfit perfectly. We even had Tanta Kat with us on this outing.
But you guys have seen cute Holly pictures from Sadie Dey's before, so instead of talking about her eating mac and cheese, playing in the ball pit or going down the slide (check out her arms stretched above her head) I am going to give everyone an update from my most awful week, last week.
So I decided to start the new week off right and treated myself to a dip in the hot tub and an hour massage early this morning. Yes, I only had 4 hours of sleep the night before, and had to be there at the "ungodly" hour of 9:30, but I actually felt pretty rested when I got up, and the juxtaposition of the cold rain drizzling on my while relaxing in the warm outdoor hot tube was really nice.
The last time I had a massage was when I was in Florida over Christmas, so it was long over due, and I figured after the week I had, I deserved it. Plus, in two weeks Joel is going on a Programming retreat, and I will have Holly mostly by myself for the whole weekend (the retreat is in his office - But we are not to disturb him during the48 hour Game Programming Contest)
While in the hot tube (I got to soak for 30 minutes before the massage started) I got to practice some of the breathing and meditation exercises from the CD I got at Cardiac Rehab, it is a Jon Kabat-Zinn and Andrew Weil CD, something about Meditation for Health I think was the title.
Years ago when I was still in College I read one of the Tom Robbin's Books, I think this is from Still Life with Wood Pecker, or perhaps it was from Skinny Legs and all, at the time I had read them all, it was a phase I was going through, anyway one of the characters had "long life" and he achieved this by lowering his body temperature, and he could do that by going from a very hot, Hot tube, into a cold shower, and back again.
The fictitious theory was that this stark and fast temperature changes were good for your system, and brought your body temperature down, and the lower your body temperature the longer you would live. So of * course * I didn't * actually * believe it, but the idea always stuck with me, and I got into the habit of always doing something like this whenever I had the opportunity to be in a hot tub.
It was actually very refreshing, and my normal body temperature is usually around 96.2 rather then the normal 98.6, but who knows... the point of this, is today I decided to slip out of the hot tub and allow my body to cool in the brisk morning rain and meditate.
I only did it for maybe 4 minutes, but because it was drizzling it was pretty easy to do, well at least the idea of focusing on your body and not letting your mind race over the woes of the day. I paid attention to each rain drop as it hit and cooled my warm skin, and noticed the slight breeze, and then I began to notice that I wasn't really cold so much as had an occasional chill as there was a slight breeze int he air, and the space between the breezes was warm on my skin, then the breeze would pick up and I would feel a chill, or a rain drop would fall and cool my check.
After a few minutes the rain picked up a little bit, so I dipped back into the hot tub and mediated in the warm water. This time I focused on the currents from the aerated jets how it would move my floating body to the left and the water would whoosh around. I found it harder to focus in the warm water, but regardless it was nice.
The massage therapist I was seeing has known me for maybe three years or so, so she knew me when I was working and could afford to go twice monthly and knew the kind of stress I carried then, and knew me when my body was getting used to the constant weight of carrying a 10-20 lb baby on my hip, and how my center of gravity had shifted from this "mommy tilt" and how my back or shoulders would hurt. Surprisingly, today she noted that I was rather loose and did not seem to be holding as much tension in all of my muscles as I was before Christmas.
I had been reflecting on this very think while soaking int he hot tube, and wondered if my pondering was indeed correct and she confirmed it. I am attributing this to Cardiac Rehab and the fact that I have been doing some fairly rigorous (for me at least) work outs, three times a week for the last month.
I really haven't lost any weight, though that is less of the goal then conditioning my heart and lowering my pulse is, yet I hoped it would be a nice side effect. I think perhaps in a month I may have lost 4 pounds depending on what scale you use, and what you consider my starting weight to be.
When I saw the nutritionist two weeks ago, she attributed the lack of weight loss to the fact that I barely eat more the one time a day. She said I need a much bigger breakfast, and I need to eat every three hours, a snack or small meal. Apparently, skipping breakfast and lunch puts my metabolism on hold until much later in the day, and then I eat a large dinner. When I do eat breakfast I end up being hungry all day, and the nutritionist says that is because my metabolism is turned on, and working and burning calories, where as when I don't, I don't even remember to think about eating until maybe 4:00 PM.
Thinking back to my pregnancy when I was diabetic I remembered that I had to eat every 2 hours, which also kept the nausea away, and I ended up not gaining any weight until I was 7 months along, and then only gained 17 lbs. It was a much healthier diet, but at the time I was able to get Joel to help pack me snacks and lunch for the day and since I was carrying the little baby inside me, it was easy to make myself do it. Now that I have Holly and we both have less time then we ever did before, I have completely let the habit slip, so I am trying to get back into the swing of things, slowly.
But I digress from my point, which was to say, I think another side benefit of the exercise was the fact that my muscles were not so tight and not holding in so much tension as they had been before, so the workouts have actually loosened me up. For the most part I haven't been sore, except twice.
Once when the third machine I needed was occupied and I did the stepper for twenty minutes instead of 10, I did 1900 steps that day, and boy did my legs hurt that night, and another time when the day before I went to the Zoo, and did a lot of walking, particularly on a very steep hill, and had exercised the day before and the day after, by the 4th day, I was pretty sore and needed a break.
So in related news, I got a call from the nurse on Friday late afternoon saying that my new doctor signed off on the authorization and the insurance had approved for me to return, so on Monday I will be back in the gym. I think it might be helpful to take my nebulizer before I go, so I don't cough when I start the workout,
but it is really hard to take when I am home along with Holly as she tries to climb up on my and grab it from me and is so curious as to what it is, and it takes about 10 minutes to do the treatment, and she is trying to talk with me and play and I really can't do any of that. And by the time my sister arrives to babysit, I need to talk with her to give and get updates and then I have to put Holly down for her nap and run out the door.
Who knows if it will even make a difference, but I think I will try and squeeze it in, I probably should say this, But I could even take it while I am driving over there, or bring it with me and take it during the 5 minutes I am resting for my blood pressure. Though the medication makes your heart race, so its better I think to take an hour before, Perhaps I will bring it Monday and ask the nurses what they think.
In other happy news, I was able to get my replacement Tivo set up this weekend. it took many hours on the phone and several customer support people to help me, But I was able to get the broken Tivo to connect to my desk top computer so i could transfer off all of the Little Bear, Yo Gabba Gabba, and Ni Hao, Ki-Lan episodes for Holly, plus a few unwatched Glee, Lost and Project Runways I had sitting there. The transfers themselves actually took maybe 10-12 hours, its a lot of Data and I only had 20 gigs of space on the main drive, so as things transferred I had to move it to the back up drive to make more space.
Eventually though, everything I wanted to save to stored on the PC, and I was able to plug in the shiny new working Tivo, and go through the set up process, which included calling the Cable company. An hour latter, I started the 10-12 hour process of transferring everything back.. In fact, this afternoon, I am transferring the last 20 or so Gabba's to the new Tivo, and have cleaned up all the space on the PC so it is available to Joel when he does his game contest.
Not only does this make me happy, I feel pretty productive. And tonight when I record Amazing Race and Celebrity Apprentice, I don't have to worry about it rebooting int he middle of the episode and me missing the best part. Joel jokes that he wonder's what would happen if I had to choose between him and my Tivo, and I joke back that we won't ever have to find out!
But seriously, in the fast paced, limited time, life of a mom, Tivo is the only way I ever get to watch any TV. which provides me the little bit of escape at the end of the day when the house is quiet and Joel and Holly are asleep. Its not like I don't usually check email and blog while watching my shows, and the ability to skip commercials, and watch something at midnight is wonderful. If it wasn't for Tivo, I wouldn't ever watch TV, as Its not like Holly will let us watch Lost when it is actually on at 9:00 PM.
In even better news, Holly is feeling much much better. She has been without fever since Thursday Night, and is finishing of the last of her antibiotics today, her appetite is back, today she had Strawberries, yogurt, Peanut Butter toast, eggs, and Tofu Bacon all within about 3 hours time. (Oh yeah and two yogurt juices) I think she may have lost a little weight from not eating all week, but she is good for it, its not like she is under weight, and I am sure she will put it back on.
We head back to the doctor on Wednesday afternoon at which time I hope she will tell me her infection is gone and her ears are clear. From talking to several parent's out there, it seems like some antibiotic resistant ear infections have been going around, and a few kids I know have had to have a "Shot?" So that is what we will ask for next if its not completely cleared up, but in the very least she is acting happy again. If she is well, she will get her two year visit shots, and then we will discuss tubes.
Also talking with my network, I have spoken with a few of you about your kids and them having tubes and I am much reassured about the process and almost convinced it would be the best thing for Holly, so we will discuss it more with the doctor on Wednesday.
We are looking forward to seeing Sarah and Chloe tomorrow, we missed them both dearly while we were sick, though Sarah didn't notice because she was out of town. So I am sure Holly will be thrilled to see them both on Monday. We have several fun playdates scheduled next week, including a trip to the play area at the Bayfair mall, and a "Tea with jam and Bread" playdate at Eliana's house, who returned a few weeks ago from a month trip out of town, so we have also been missing her and her Mommy Melanie, and then we have Music Class, and the Library and Swim and Gym, it will have been three weeks since Holly has been in the pool, so my figures are crossed that she will be excited.
Also on Tuesday we go and visit the Small Voices program, that is the parent participation "pre-school like" program that is three days a week, and we are thinking about enrolling into. We are excited to check it out and meet the therapists there and see the facility, I am trying to get Joel to come with me, an although he says he trusts my judgment, I like having someone to converse with when debating a decision, and having an informed person is even better, as I tend to weight the pros and cons to the point of annoyance. But it helps me feel confident int he choice I made. Regardless, it will be a fun activity for her to do that day.
Well, Things are looking up and I started the week out right, and I have a positive outlook, so even though I still need to call the plumber, and take Holly for another speech eval, and deal with all of the little irritations in life, I feel like they are all much more manageable now.
These are some pictures from one of our play dates at Sadie Dey's earlier this year with Sarah. Holly was just getting into the dress up phase and found a lovely hat in the dress up bin to wear, it matched her outfit perfectly. We even had Tanta Kat with us on this outing.
But you guys have seen cute Holly pictures from Sadie Dey's before, so instead of talking about her eating mac and cheese, playing in the ball pit or going down the slide (check out her arms stretched above her head) I am going to give everyone an update from my most awful week, last week.
So I decided to start the new week off right and treated myself to a dip in the hot tub and an hour massage early this morning. Yes, I only had 4 hours of sleep the night before, and had to be there at the "ungodly" hour of 9:30, but I actually felt pretty rested when I got up, and the juxtaposition of the cold rain drizzling on my while relaxing in the warm outdoor hot tube was really nice.
The last time I had a massage was when I was in Florida over Christmas, so it was long over due, and I figured after the week I had, I deserved it. Plus, in two weeks Joel is going on a Programming retreat, and I will have Holly mostly by myself for the whole weekend (the retreat is in his office - But we are not to disturb him during the48 hour Game Programming Contest)
While in the hot tube (I got to soak for 30 minutes before the massage started) I got to practice some of the breathing and meditation exercises from the CD I got at Cardiac Rehab, it is a Jon Kabat-Zinn and Andrew Weil CD, something about Meditation for Health I think was the title.
Years ago when I was still in College I read one of the Tom Robbin's Books, I think this is from Still Life with Wood Pecker, or perhaps it was from Skinny Legs and all, at the time I had read them all, it was a phase I was going through, anyway one of the characters had "long life" and he achieved this by lowering his body temperature, and he could do that by going from a very hot, Hot tube, into a cold shower, and back again.
The fictitious theory was that this stark and fast temperature changes were good for your system, and brought your body temperature down, and the lower your body temperature the longer you would live. So of * course * I didn't * actually * believe it, but the idea always stuck with me, and I got into the habit of always doing something like this whenever I had the opportunity to be in a hot tub.
It was actually very refreshing, and my normal body temperature is usually around 96.2 rather then the normal 98.6, but who knows... the point of this, is today I decided to slip out of the hot tub and allow my body to cool in the brisk morning rain and meditate.
I only did it for maybe 4 minutes, but because it was drizzling it was pretty easy to do, well at least the idea of focusing on your body and not letting your mind race over the woes of the day. I paid attention to each rain drop as it hit and cooled my warm skin, and noticed the slight breeze, and then I began to notice that I wasn't really cold so much as had an occasional chill as there was a slight breeze int he air, and the space between the breezes was warm on my skin, then the breeze would pick up and I would feel a chill, or a rain drop would fall and cool my check.
After a few minutes the rain picked up a little bit, so I dipped back into the hot tub and mediated in the warm water. This time I focused on the currents from the aerated jets how it would move my floating body to the left and the water would whoosh around. I found it harder to focus in the warm water, but regardless it was nice.
The massage therapist I was seeing has known me for maybe three years or so, so she knew me when I was working and could afford to go twice monthly and knew the kind of stress I carried then, and knew me when my body was getting used to the constant weight of carrying a 10-20 lb baby on my hip, and how my center of gravity had shifted from this "mommy tilt" and how my back or shoulders would hurt. Surprisingly, today she noted that I was rather loose and did not seem to be holding as much tension in all of my muscles as I was before Christmas.
I had been reflecting on this very think while soaking int he hot tube, and wondered if my pondering was indeed correct and she confirmed it. I am attributing this to Cardiac Rehab and the fact that I have been doing some fairly rigorous (for me at least) work outs, three times a week for the last month.
I really haven't lost any weight, though that is less of the goal then conditioning my heart and lowering my pulse is, yet I hoped it would be a nice side effect. I think perhaps in a month I may have lost 4 pounds depending on what scale you use, and what you consider my starting weight to be.
When I saw the nutritionist two weeks ago, she attributed the lack of weight loss to the fact that I barely eat more the one time a day. She said I need a much bigger breakfast, and I need to eat every three hours, a snack or small meal. Apparently, skipping breakfast and lunch puts my metabolism on hold until much later in the day, and then I eat a large dinner. When I do eat breakfast I end up being hungry all day, and the nutritionist says that is because my metabolism is turned on, and working and burning calories, where as when I don't, I don't even remember to think about eating until maybe 4:00 PM.
Thinking back to my pregnancy when I was diabetic I remembered that I had to eat every 2 hours, which also kept the nausea away, and I ended up not gaining any weight until I was 7 months along, and then only gained 17 lbs. It was a much healthier diet, but at the time I was able to get Joel to help pack me snacks and lunch for the day and since I was carrying the little baby inside me, it was easy to make myself do it. Now that I have Holly and we both have less time then we ever did before, I have completely let the habit slip, so I am trying to get back into the swing of things, slowly.
But I digress from my point, which was to say, I think another side benefit of the exercise was the fact that my muscles were not so tight and not holding in so much tension as they had been before, so the workouts have actually loosened me up. For the most part I haven't been sore, except twice.
Once when the third machine I needed was occupied and I did the stepper for twenty minutes instead of 10, I did 1900 steps that day, and boy did my legs hurt that night, and another time when the day before I went to the Zoo, and did a lot of walking, particularly on a very steep hill, and had exercised the day before and the day after, by the 4th day, I was pretty sore and needed a break.
So in related news, I got a call from the nurse on Friday late afternoon saying that my new doctor signed off on the authorization and the insurance had approved for me to return, so on Monday I will be back in the gym. I think it might be helpful to take my nebulizer before I go, so I don't cough when I start the workout,
but it is really hard to take when I am home along with Holly as she tries to climb up on my and grab it from me and is so curious as to what it is, and it takes about 10 minutes to do the treatment, and she is trying to talk with me and play and I really can't do any of that. And by the time my sister arrives to babysit, I need to talk with her to give and get updates and then I have to put Holly down for her nap and run out the door.
Who knows if it will even make a difference, but I think I will try and squeeze it in, I probably should say this, But I could even take it while I am driving over there, or bring it with me and take it during the 5 minutes I am resting for my blood pressure. Though the medication makes your heart race, so its better I think to take an hour before, Perhaps I will bring it Monday and ask the nurses what they think.
In other happy news, I was able to get my replacement Tivo set up this weekend. it took many hours on the phone and several customer support people to help me, But I was able to get the broken Tivo to connect to my desk top computer so i could transfer off all of the Little Bear, Yo Gabba Gabba, and Ni Hao, Ki-Lan episodes for Holly, plus a few unwatched Glee, Lost and Project Runways I had sitting there. The transfers themselves actually took maybe 10-12 hours, its a lot of Data and I only had 20 gigs of space on the main drive, so as things transferred I had to move it to the back up drive to make more space.
Eventually though, everything I wanted to save to stored on the PC, and I was able to plug in the shiny new working Tivo, and go through the set up process, which included calling the Cable company. An hour latter, I started the 10-12 hour process of transferring everything back.. In fact, this afternoon, I am transferring the last 20 or so Gabba's to the new Tivo, and have cleaned up all the space on the PC so it is available to Joel when he does his game contest.
Not only does this make me happy, I feel pretty productive. And tonight when I record Amazing Race and Celebrity Apprentice, I don't have to worry about it rebooting int he middle of the episode and me missing the best part. Joel jokes that he wonder's what would happen if I had to choose between him and my Tivo, and I joke back that we won't ever have to find out!
But seriously, in the fast paced, limited time, life of a mom, Tivo is the only way I ever get to watch any TV. which provides me the little bit of escape at the end of the day when the house is quiet and Joel and Holly are asleep. Its not like I don't usually check email and blog while watching my shows, and the ability to skip commercials, and watch something at midnight is wonderful. If it wasn't for Tivo, I wouldn't ever watch TV, as Its not like Holly will let us watch Lost when it is actually on at 9:00 PM.
In even better news, Holly is feeling much much better. She has been without fever since Thursday Night, and is finishing of the last of her antibiotics today, her appetite is back, today she had Strawberries, yogurt, Peanut Butter toast, eggs, and Tofu Bacon all within about 3 hours time. (Oh yeah and two yogurt juices) I think she may have lost a little weight from not eating all week, but she is good for it, its not like she is under weight, and I am sure she will put it back on.
We head back to the doctor on Wednesday afternoon at which time I hope she will tell me her infection is gone and her ears are clear. From talking to several parent's out there, it seems like some antibiotic resistant ear infections have been going around, and a few kids I know have had to have a "Shot?" So that is what we will ask for next if its not completely cleared up, but in the very least she is acting happy again. If she is well, she will get her two year visit shots, and then we will discuss tubes.
Also talking with my network, I have spoken with a few of you about your kids and them having tubes and I am much reassured about the process and almost convinced it would be the best thing for Holly, so we will discuss it more with the doctor on Wednesday.
We are looking forward to seeing Sarah and Chloe tomorrow, we missed them both dearly while we were sick, though Sarah didn't notice because she was out of town. So I am sure Holly will be thrilled to see them both on Monday. We have several fun playdates scheduled next week, including a trip to the play area at the Bayfair mall, and a "Tea with jam and Bread" playdate at Eliana's house, who returned a few weeks ago from a month trip out of town, so we have also been missing her and her Mommy Melanie, and then we have Music Class, and the Library and Swim and Gym, it will have been three weeks since Holly has been in the pool, so my figures are crossed that she will be excited.
Also on Tuesday we go and visit the Small Voices program, that is the parent participation "pre-school like" program that is three days a week, and we are thinking about enrolling into. We are excited to check it out and meet the therapists there and see the facility, I am trying to get Joel to come with me, an although he says he trusts my judgment, I like having someone to converse with when debating a decision, and having an informed person is even better, as I tend to weight the pros and cons to the point of annoyance. But it helps me feel confident int he choice I made. Regardless, it will be a fun activity for her to do that day.
Well, Things are looking up and I started the week out right, and I have a positive outlook, so even though I still need to call the plumber, and take Holly for another speech eval, and deal with all of the little irritations in life, I feel like they are all much more manageable now.
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1 comment:
WOW! Sounds like you should have a hot tub, meditation and massage EVERY week!
You could put a hot tub in your back yard...you'd love it!
I'm so glad that you and Holly are feeling better, and things are going well, and so glad you're continuing with the gym despite annoyances!
You are SUCH a great mom, and being a great mom to yourself is important too!
Love, Granny
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