Recovery

I NEVER, not in a million years, exepected postpartum recovery to be this difficult. It's really hard for me to decide if this is "normal" or if I am just especially broken and beat up. It's been 6 days since Emmett was born and I still feel trashed.

Yesterday, Eric and I took Emmett is his BOB stroller and walked a very slow mile to our friends' house. We hung out there for a while and then, eventually, shuffled our way back home.

Today, I forced myself out of the house for 2 big laps around the block (they were very short blocks but just seemed big to me). It's very depressing to me to feel overwhelmed by the distance of a block. I literally shuffled my way around today (with Charley). I would say I'm moving at 1/2 speed of my usual walking pace. Yes, it's that slow. And, yes, it hurts. Did I mention it hurts? I feel like I will never get back to my normal self.

So far I have yet to feel like all the running/walking I did while I was pregnant has paid off on my road to recovery.

My hips feel really wierd and even my legs don't seem to be moving in their usual way. I really have to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other.

When I got home today, I did a series of post partum exercises from a book I have. I definitely have a bit of abdominal separation...but I don't think it's too bad. So, I did some stretches and ab exercises. It's funny, the ab exercises feel fine. It's really just the walking around that's killing me at the moment.

On the baby news front, I'm thankful to report that Emmett is doing really well. As beat up as I am, he is just the opposite. He is eating really well (taken to breast feeding like he's been doing it for years) and he is sleeping really well. Knock on wood, but he has been a supremely easy baby. He almost never fusses and he's already going 4 hour stretches at night. (Even though he's sleeping 4 hours, I'm not...I get too nervous and check on him all the time!)