1 month postpartum

A reminder of what I looked like 1 month ago...

I feel sane. I honestly feel like I am going to be able to handle this. Yes, there are times my kids drive me crazy. Yes, the "terrible 2's" are sometimes an issue with Walt. But I have felt so blessed.  So, so, so blessed.


After I had Walter I felt very, very lonely. I felt very isolated from my family and didn't feel like I had many friends to call on for support. My c-section recovery didn't help any at all, especially since I had an under 2 year old that I couldn't pick up.

1 month postpartum (Wearing the splint I talk about below)

This time, however, I have felt an amazing outpouring of love from the people in my church ward, friends, neighbors, FB friends, and the ICAN support group. I had someone volunteer to bring us dinner every night the first week my parents were gone. I also had 3 different people ask to take my 2 older kids for a couple of hours that first week as well so I could get some rest.  I have felt mostly happy and in control with very little crazy.  After Walter I honestly felt like crazy Celia was in the driver's seat the first 6 months!!!

Edward has been just about as fantastic as a baby can be. He by far has been my best sleeper up to this point. He has his night and days right, and he goes for 3-5 hour stretches at night without feeding.  It took me months and lots of tears (mine and baby's) and sleep training to get my other boys to that point (though all three had their nights and days right. They just woke up more frequently to nurse. Or maybe I was just too jumpy to pick them up. Or a little of both.) His biggest problem comes while nursing when he's extra hungry. No matter what position I have him in, he sucks in lots of air when he's really hungry. He doesn't do it toward the end of a feeding, mainly because he slows down I think.  The air gets trapped way down and makes him painfully gassy at times.

I started running again 2 weeks after I had Edward.  I have to admit it was a little harder than I expected. I thought it would be super easy to get under 9 min. miles, but I've been sitting right there at 9 working my hardest. I have to keep reminding myself that that was the pace I was running at my best before I had him. I have set a goal to get to 7.5 min. repeatable miles, but that is going to be a few months down the road. I have had one short 2 mi. run at 8.5 min. miles.  My goal is to get some sort of run in 3-4 times a week. That's a hard feat since I can't take Edward in the jogger yet and I have 3 kids instead of 2. I have gone in the morning before Matt goes to work and once at night.

I have also decided to really take my tummy seriously this time around. It honestly was my favorite physical feature before I had babies, and I have never gotten it back to flat. Through friends I found out about something called diastasis recti, which is totally my problem since I have consistently weighed less after each pregnancy but never can get a flat stomach. What that means is my abs have separated and have never come back together, so my internal organs press out on my belly resulting in a poochy stomach. At the largest separation, my muscles are 6 finger widths separated! Anything over 2 is considered diastasis recti. So, I am trying a system called the Tupler Technique to try and "recti"fy my problem. =) Today is my first real day of the program, though I've worn the splint 2 days and honestly think I've already seen some improvement with that and the exercises. I took pictures so I can see what sort of progress I will make over the next weeks and months. I am determined.  Unfortunately I will have the stretched out skin since my belly gets so huge, but if I can get that gap closed and my stomach flat, I will be happy.

These are more or less 1 month postpartum.  Sorry if these pictures offend anyone, but I really wanted to have an "uncensored" before and after just to see if my money was well spent! I got a bit of a farmer's burn today at the park, so that's kind of funny.

I had to concentrate really hard to not suck in at all for this picture. In my defense, though, I never appear quite this big because I'm used to "holding it in". Even at my skinniest pre-baby days I could relax my stomach to a poochy look.

Sucking in the very most that I can. Definitely room for improvement.

Front view. Again, concentrating on not sucking in!

Sucking in.

Wearing the Tupler splint. This is supposed to be worn night and day until the gap closes.

It gets a little bunched up throughout the day from bending and moving around, and I have to periodically redo it