Feeling Better

My joints are still achy, but for the most part I am feeling better and less sore...I'm only taking 2 Advil a day now, but at the same time, I wonder if my hips/pelvis/lower back will be ready for the high impact of Irish dance in 2 weeks. Two weeks from today is my doctor's appointment, and hopefully by then I can be cleared to return to my normal activities. Unfortunately, that is 1 day too late to dance at the ceili/St.Patrick's Day party that my dance class is having, but I hope to go watch anyways, along with my little one, since friends and family are invited :)

I've lost a little more than 25 pounds already, which is about the halfway point. 24 lbs to go, but then again, I have only been allowed to walk so far, and between crummy weather and not wanting to take the little one into public places during cold and flu season, I haven't gotten a whole lot of activity. I used to look forward to Thursdays because it was dance night; now I look forward to Thursdays because I go to a couple of support groups (new parents and breastfeeding mommies) on Thursdays.

Though most of my meals have been quick or takeout, we did manage to find time to make a couscous-stuffed peppers recipe out of an old Self magazine (though I couldn't find a copy of the recipe online). It was pretty quick...the part that took the longest was the 20 minutes that it was in the oven, followed by the time it took to chop a medium onion. The rest was pretty quick on the stove top.

I was already pretty bummed that I was missing out on seeing the Lord of the Dance show with some of my classmates, but then I found out that some of them got to meet Michael Flatley. Plus I am missing more fun activities, but I know being a mom is about trade-offs. It's just hard to be trying to make friends in a new location and learning to be a mom at the same time.

I did get to attend a local feis as a spectator. It was great to see my adult Irish dance friends, but when they offered "day of" entries for the treble reel, it was so tempting to break doctor's orders for just one dance. But I knew I would really be hurting the next day, and I don't want to delay my return to dance because of being too stubborn to sit out for 6 weeks. Looks like my return to feising might not be until June, though. My husband's work schedule means missing out on a couple of feisanna I originally hoped to attend. At least I will hopefully be really ready and fully healed by then. I am just ready to get back in the shape I was before, and hopefully prove that I am good enough and dedicated enough to drop down someday!

A Non-Update

Well, I probably only have a few minutes before little one awakes, but since it was Thursday (formerly known as dance night), I thought I'd do a brief update, or sort of a non-update in this case. I survived my first day by myself, as my husband went back to work today (though he gets a 4-day weekend now, and my parents will be visiting during part of next week). Today I drove for the first time since earlier in the evening the night my water broke. I was in my husband's car though, which sits a bit higher. Little baby is too small by 5 oz. for the convertible car seat in my car, and I'm not looking forward to climbing in and out of the Celica just yet. I am still super-sore, and the way some of the joints in my pelvis/lower back keep popping when I roll over in bed, I fear I may have to wait a bit longer than the standard 6 weeks before I am cleared to exercise. But then again, I am only about 2 weeks into my recovery, so we will see what happens. I am hoping to go watch the adult competition of a local feis next Friday, so it will be nice to see my dance classmates again, along with feis friends from other schools. I am just hoping the little one cooperates and it works out for him to stay home with my husband and parents for a few hours for me to go watch the feis.

An Update and Big News

I am now the proud parent of a beautiful week-old baby boy :) He's sleeping on Daddy's lap right now (thank goodness for 10 days paternity leave plus the Presidents' Day holiday), so let me give a brief update. Let's go back to last week...

Pretty typical week...no real news at Monday's doctor appointment, so we went to see a show with one of my husband's friends. Afterwards, my husband and I went out to eat and went to the mall. Even though all we bought were some jeans for him, it was good to get some exercise walking around. Tuesday and Wednesday were ordinary days as well. Wednesday I made a fiesta of vegetarian Mexican foods...bean burritos, tofu and black bean enchiladas, and tofu breakfast burritos. I was on my feet for a while, chopping vegetables, but I didn't know when I would be up to doing that again, and wanted to have a lot of leftovers. My husband laughed when he came home and found me wearing an apron, chopping veggies in the kitchen. It was a big change from when we first got married and he did most of the cooking.

Thursday started out pretty ordinary. I went grocery shopping Thursday afternoon, and returned from the store right after my husband got home from work, so he could help me bring in the groceries. We had leftover Mexican food from Wednesday, and I went to dance class. I knew I didn't have a whole lot of energy anymore, and by this time, I was past the due date determined by a first trimester ultrasound (I was convinced I wasn't really due until the weekend), so I just wore a t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. There was an uneven number for the ceili dance, so I joined in, but oh my, it was the worst I'd ever danced. No pep in my step- I was not so much hopping as walking through, and I even got on the wrong foot because I wasn't moving my feet fast enough. Oh well, no one really minded except for me. The rest of the class I just watched and talked to people (good thing about our class is no one really cares if you are off to the side chatting), and "learned" a new reel step just by watching and writing it down. I already have 2 reel steps, but I think this one will be more suited to my style than the one reel step I'd previously learned. I went home about 9:15 pm and stopped for gas on the way home. Back at my apartment, I sat in the car for a bit to chat with a friend on the phone who had called me during dance (cell reception is terrible in the apartment, but the call doesn't drop if you sit in the car). Shortly after 10 pm, I headed inside my apartment, and the typical evening continued. When my husband went to bed, I laid down next to him and was surfing Facebook on my phone, debating on whether to eat a snack and order some shoes that were on the Toms surprise sale until midnight. I never got the snack or shoes, though. Suddenly, between 11:40 and 11:45 pm, my water broke! I woke up my husband, we grabbed the bags we'd packed and a few last-minute items (phone, wallet, hairbrush, towel for the seat, etc.) and made our way to the hospital. Things progressed very quickly over the next few hours and my little boy was born, 8 lbs, 1.6 oz, at 10:15 Friday morning.

So now the craziness begins. Between the sleep deprivation, trying to figure out eating/sleep schedules, and the soreness of trying to heal from the 2 hours of pushing that brought my little one into the world, there's probably not going to be many new recipes tried in the near future. As much as I love running and dance, I don't even want to think about running, hopping, skipping, or jumping anytime soon. For now, I take it easy and try to heal and enjoy the time with my little one :)