Not as planned

I'm totally aware of the fact that my life can't really be "planned" right now. I can't even plan to do anything before 1pm and guarantee that I can be showered by that point in the day. So don't take the title to mean that I had unrealistic expectations. (I just saw a funny episode of Bringing Home Baby where Dad had expectations that he could go play hockey the night that baby came home from the hospital because she would be sleeping during the game according to her "schedule" - LOL!)

The only reason that I had any expectations for the weekend was because my parents were here for a visit. So I assumed that I'd be able to get a little extra sleep and a few small projects (and some knitting) accomplished while other people were holding Heather. The kink in the plan was my back. It kicked into severe pain on Thursday night, a few hours after my parents arrival. Thanks to the bottle of EBM in the fridge I was able to stay prone until Heather's 4:30am feeding and I felt better in the morning. Unfortunately, some of the pain returned on Friday night, so I took it easy on Saturday and barely left the couch all day Sunday. By Monday afternoon my back felt normal again. So none of the little projects I had hoped to work on got done. Oh well. Not the end of the world, it just wasn't as fun of a weekend as I had anticipated. Being in pain is not fun.

I was able to get in to see the doctor yesterday, and the diagnosis is that carrying Heather messed up my back. My lower spine is arched out and my posture has changed. There is no easy fix, just preventative measures to keep my back muscles loose and happy. Stretches, massage, lifting with my legs and core strengthening exercises once I'm up for exercise (birth ball becomes exercise ball). The doctor also described what R can do to mitigate the pain if it returns.

I did manage to get myself almost caught up on thank you notes, three to go until more presents arrive. Also, the pain was minimal on Saturday, so I got to use my tickets to see "Doubt" while Heather hung out with her grandparents.

And I should mention two other recent visits. Annie and Marcus came last week to see us. It's hard to believe that Marcus is almost a year old. (Heather has been invited to her first birthday party!) Today's visit was from Cara and Max. I can't believe how much Max has changed since I saw him less than 2 months ago! He is much more like a little boy than a baby and he's sitting up on his own like a pro. Considering how much he wants to be standing, I'm sure he will be as soon as his legs will cooperate.

The only milestone I can think of at the moment is that we'll probably be transitioning to bigger diapers soon. We haven't had any major problems yet, but the waistband looks stretched out when I go to change her, so I think we're getting there.