2004-05-16 - 10:51 p.m. - Cycle day:

Maybe I'm just a big pansy, but one of the most surprising things about having a baby has been the constant toll it takes on my body. Once I started feeling like I was finally recovered from the birth - which took months, not six piddly weeks - the real physical demands began. My hips and back haven't been the same since delivery, and now that I'm crawling all over the house and picking an ever-heavier M. up hundreds of times a day, I feel like I'm wearing through some already weak material. I'm bruised from head to toe, partly because of all the chasing but mostly because I'm anemic from not being able to keep up with both of our dietary needs. I've now lost twice the amount of weight I gained during pregnancy, which sounds cool but in reality makes me look like some sort of bakery experiment gone wrong (all doughy in the middle but sharp around the edges). And to add to the fun, I think I'm getting carpal tunnel syndrome in my left wrist, which is the arm I use to support M.'s weight when I'm carrying her. When I try to pick up anything even slightly heavy with that hand, it feels like something in my arm is coming apart. And that's probably not good, especially since I'm left-handed.

On the plus side, she quietly slipped into a more mature sleeping pattern. I didn't really notice it at first - I just couldn't remember what time she was waking up at night. Then I realized that she wasn't actually waking up. Not all nights are perfect, and her morning wake-ups are still wildly inconsistent, but getting those big long hunks of sleep, at least on occasion, makes the crazy, bumpy days easier to handle.

On a totally and completely unrelated note, I bought three new pairs of shoes today - Nike, Adidas and Timberland - for less than ninety US dollars. Total. I'm such a bargain geek that stuff like that makes me insanely happy. As do comfy shoes, and now I have lots more of them. Whee!

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