This week I realized that in this new adventure of caring
for my daughter, I have been searching for a panacea (a cure for everything). I
thought that diagnosing the milk allergy (and subsequently avoiding dairy) would
be the cure for Elle’s bouts of
pain/fussiness or having the ring sling would be cure my stir-craziness and
inability to get through my to do list.
But neither have been the complete cures that I pined for and as a result I am slowly realizing that every day will probably be different and there is no panacea for being a parent – it’s a
learning process that is slow and hard like anything in life worth doing. Yes, Elle is still fussing (and sometimes
seems to be in pain) but she is now more full of smiles (and even a few
laughs).
Ring Sling
As I blogged about previously, I wanted a ring sling baby carrier to use in the hot weather, use to go in the water with Elle, and be able to nurse Elle while simultaneously doing other stuff (such as write this blog). I thought that the ring sling would be easy to use but sometimes it seems like an
instrument of torture for both of us. But I think that I had unrealistic expectations about the sling. As the Baby Wearing International of Middle
Tennessee website says, baby wearing is a skill not just a product to
wear. And I am learning this skill… and I think that I am starting to get the hang of the skill. For instance, Wilson, Elle and I had a happy ring sling walk on the beach on Sunday evening. FYI, if
you are interested in also learning to successfully wear a ring sling, this is
the most helpful tutorial that I have found so far.
Career
In addition to ring sling “woes” and a lot of playtime on the changing
table, we have been conducting nanny “try-outs” as well as doing some work stuff for
me. At my organization, the Center For
International Environmental Law, I work on climate change issues.
For this aspect of my work, I spent part of this past week getting
a new project up as well as getting publicity for a report I authored, “(Mis)Calculated
Risk and Climate Change – Are Rating Agencies Repeating Credit Crisis Mistakes?” I largely finished my role in the report the day before Elle was born. The report was just released and luckily
my boss looked out for me to make sure to ask me for a statement to put in our
press release concerning the report. This statement
was then quoted in an MSN video news report and in the world’s third most read newspaper, the Guardian.
On the health aspect of B.A.B.E.dom and running again...
Although I have got some runs in, I am not getting into the swing of exercise
as quickly as I thought. In fact, my runs are often run/walks with the stroller in the morning. The primary reason that I am not simply running and instead run/walking
with the stroller (besides being out of shape) is that I have been scared of
jarring Elle. In the stroller, Elle is
secured into a car seat but no websites explicitly say that it is ok to run
with your infant in a car seat. Thus, I
take it pretty easy except for when I am on the smooth track path that is
luckily very close to our place and along the beach.
I feel fine running with her on that smooth track because her head moves
much less then on the walk there along sidewalk cracks…
Despite my slow entry back into running, I have some ideas
of how else to add to my fitness. I am adding in high quality exercises that don't need a gym or a weight set. One of these high quality exerices is the squat. According to the Freakonomics podcast, squats are the best exercise of
all because strong leg muscles not only protect your joints, they also promote
life quality and longevity. Squats do
this by allowing you to continue to walk up stairs and get up from chairs as
you age. Very important for quality of life. And even though trouble walking up stairs is
still hopefully decades away from me, squats are super important for activating
gluteus muscles so that you have good running form that keeps your legs in alignment. This is crucial for me because I was diagnosed
with bone spurs and arthritis in my right knee a couple of years ago. Since I have been doing squats (even on
irregular basis), I have had much less trouble with inflammation from the bone
spurs grinding against each other. I
hope to keep these knees for another 50 years and so squats will be in the
routine. The other exercises that will
be in the routine will be push-ups, planks, and pull-up hangs. I used to be able to do pull-ups but now I
just need to content myself with pull-up hangs because I can’t even do one
anymore… Not yet, but soon.
Daily Exercise Routine
So here’s the plan – one day, I will try to get 100 squats
in (hopefully while holding Elle) and also 3 minutes of planking (right now I
can only plank for about 30 seconds at a stretch but do that 6 times in a day and
then I have my 3 mins). The other day, I
will get in 30 pushups and 15 pull-up hangs.
I will report back next week about whether I can stick to this plan.
 |
| Elle holding and shaking one of her toys... |
Elle has really found her hands this week. She likes to drop her pacifier out of her
mouth in favor of finding and sucking on her hands. She is also getting much better at both
reaching for things and batting her toys.
As I mentioned earlier, she is now giggling (very occasionally but super
exciting when she does). And also in some
really great news is that she has been sleeping 6 hours per night on a regular basis. She even slept for 8 hours one night. It was fantastic.
I think the increased sleeping time is due to a new night
time system that W and I developed. Throughout the evening, I nurse Elle until
I am empty. And then around 10 pm,
Wilson puts Elle in the baby bjorn and feeds Elle a bottle of expressed breast
milk that I have pumped earlier that day or the day before. He then sits up with her for approximately
an hour to give her body time to digest the milk. I
think that our new system has increased her quality sleep time because it leaves
Elle very full and with a lot of good digestion. ... we are hoping that this trend continues.
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