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Anne, Andrew and Nathanael
 
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in annekrogers' LiveJournal:

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    Monday, November 17th, 2008
    2:41 pm
    New blog
    It's an awful long time since I posted....

    ....for a while I wasn't blogging at all, but I have now started a new blog, it's at http://mumprime.blogspot.com - if you pay a visit, you'll find out some exciting news.

    (Corrected an error in the web address)
    Thursday, June 7th, 2007
    7:48 pm
    the hip!
    I left my doctors appointment confused and emotional, he said several things that contradicted my prior research, now, I realise that the internet is not goepel and one statement of something can be taken as fact and propagate through to other sites, but specifically he said the acetabular labrum is not related to hip stability, but I'm finding statements such as "fundamentally linked to stability" in the abstracts or research papers, though as yet, I haven't actually found any research related to testing that, though I'm not sure how you would as you couldn't go around removing peoples labrums right left and centre!

    The other main thing was he brushed away my concerns about slow recovery and post operative discomfort, this isn't really an evidence thing, he said he'd never admitted someone following hip arthroscopy, I'd actually have been happier if he said he admitted less than 1%, admitting none to me either means he's done very few cases, which isn't true, or he's turning a blind eye to comfort and healing. After my laparoscopy (which commonly is done as an outpatient procedure), I was still on oxygen at the time they might have sent me home if it had been intended as a day case and 12hrs after, I'd not have made it to the toilet had I been at home. I've also found something in my book about hypermobility that says "will recover more quickly after a major operation if they remain in hospital a little longer than usual", I don't think this counts as major, but the logic likely still applies, though the author of this is a "mere" physiotherapist.

    Then there is the fact he wants to remove not repair, he says repairs don't work and blamed it on the blood supply and the different types of tissue, but I can find no reference this in any medical research, with many papers giving good results for repairs, without any differentiation of location (within the labrum). The other thing is once it's gone, it's gone, if he removes it and my hip becomes unstable, it's too late, if a repair fails, you can always remove it!

    I feel stuck now, I accept his recommendation for surgery, but several things don't tie together, the reasoning behind leaving it untreated likely to cause arthritis sooner rather than later, would also seem to mean the converse about what he said about other things, but I'm really not happy about him doing the surgery, the problem is, he is the local expert, some would say national, I have tracked down another person locally, but he's clearly less experienced and though he does hip arthroscopy it's possibly he may not do labral tear stuff, it only accounts for 10% of hip arthroscopies apparently.

    Current Mood: confused
    Wednesday, June 6th, 2007
    8:37 pm
    laptop kaput
    I should have heeded the warnings, for several months the power supply on my laptop had been causing issues, getting to the point where I couldn't use it and be plugged in at the same time and plugging it in was a matter of fine balancing everything into a position that it actually charged. I didn't want to open it up myself, nor did I want to hand it over to Andrew, fearful that he might break it, working badly is better than not working at all.

    This evening it broke completely, I pushed the plug in and the socket vanished, so it was go in, or nothing, it's one of those tasks that requires complete deconstruction taking up to an hour and hence despite a probable simple fix at the end likely to be quite costly and verging on not worth it.

    Laptops are complex to deconstruct, finding a manual definitely helps, but we couldn't find one, so I started unscrewing screws, when I got stuck, I started to look for similar Toshiba laptops, not knowing the numbers of these it was potentially a needle in haystack situation, but the first set of pictures I found proved sufficient and the total time was less than an hour with two brains and one set of hands! It looks like it will repair, but it needs fine work with a soldering iron and the tip of ours may not be fine enough, so Andrew has gone to Radio Shack to see if he can get another.

    The sleep test today was not fun, but not unpleasant either, though by the end, I was headachy. According to the machines I fell asleep more than once, but I didn't think I had, which is both bizarre and a little worrying, I've only ever been aware of that happening shortly before actually falling asleep for the night. So maybe it will turn up some helpful information.

    We're seeing the hip surgeon tomorrow which is a bit nerve wracking, it's entirely possible he won't recommend surgery, but given we've tried everything with physio, it's unlikely he'll have great alternatives either, so though I'm anxious about surgery, I'd rather he recommend it than not, as not means put up with it, which isn't great either and rather depressing in the long run.
    Tuesday, June 5th, 2007
    6:07 pm
    MSLT tomorrow
    = Multiple Sleep Latency Test, the idea is to test how much daytime sleepiness is a problem, versus daytime fatigue, I pretty much know the answer, even when desparately tired and wanting a nap, I don't fall asleep in the afternoon (I used to, but not these days). It's frustrating as this test takes all day, and I don't feel like it's going to be all that helpful, even if it does tell the doctor something, I'm not sure he'll be able to do anything, we've already identified some issues with the overnight sleep study I did, it's possible they are caused by medication, but not taking that medication is not really an option and I don't react very well to the group of medicines that can treat the problem. The long and short of it is tomorrow will be a boring day attached to lots of wires!

    It's dancing tonight and it will be our first session on the tango, which could be interesting, fortuately they always walk through all the steps, so I will just have to concentrate very hard! My hip is feeling pretty sore right now, but I think it will be ok, the tango has less rotation than the vienesse waltz and there won't be as much actual dancing in the first class compared to later in the month.
    12:12 am
    the house
    I had a bit of a blitz, cleaning the house today, downstairs looks an awful lot better, but doing it make me realise, just how much more organising there is to be done. In our old house, I felt that mostly things were in the right place, even if that place was messy, the furniture was laid out in a reasonable way and things were stored where they were used etc. Here, I realise we are a long way from that, part of that is the fact, we now have a house with an awful lot more storage space than previously, so there is much more decision making about where things go. Then, you slip into doing certain activities where the stuff is, even if that doesn't make much sense and it takes concious effort to think through how things are best arranged. I can't even decide where to start, our bedroom is big, so has absorbed a lot of stuff that wouldn't typically be in the bedroom, so having that organised would be a big step in the right direction, on the other hand, the kitchen/dining room/living area, is where we spend most time, so it makes sense to start there too! Just right now I don't even see how I can make a plan to work on, it seems overwhelming!
    Sunday, May 20th, 2007
    10:33 pm
    busy weekend!
    On Thursday I decided I needed to see my primary care doctor, I'd been holding off for a while, but the sleepless night finally decided me, even if we don't know what my sleep problems are, when they are that bad, I need help! She didn't have any appointments free for 2 weeks, so I said I'd see a different doctor and they gave me an appointment on Friday, I got there to find they'd made it with the nurse! I had said on the phone that the reason was a repeat prescription, which was true, but it just wasn't straightforward and even if it was, this wouldn't have been something that the nurse could have prescribed anyway. I even asked on the phone who the appointment was with and was told Karen, which I thought was a bit bizarre not to say Dr... but I figured they were being informal, I think the receptionist handled it very badly, maybe some cases of needing another prescription can be handled by the nurse, but usually the doctors put the medicines on refills for as long as they are happy to go without seeing you and if you wanted a nurse appointment, you'd ask for it! They should have made it clear on the phone it was a nurse, not just someone who happened to be called Karen as if every patient knows the name of everyone there! Fortunately it worked out well as when I went in and realised the error had been made, an appointment had come up for Saturday morning with my own doctor.

    That meant Saturday was a very full day, as always the doctors took a while, they whipped me in and away from Andrew and the kids, only for me to sit in a room for about 20 minutes waiting alone! This seems to be the universal system, I'm sure it's more efficient in terms of the doctors time, the next patient is ready and waiting with vital measurements taken, but I'm not sure if it makes patients into good patients, I suspect it increases anxiety and doesn't help communication, the doctor might see more patients in a day, but maybe they go back for more repeat visits, or end up on the wrong medication, or all sorts of other possible outcomes. I also very much dislike how you have to tell every single person what you are there for, 90% of the time the receptionist doesn't need to know to make the appointment, it's just a scheduled block of time with the doctor, and if it isn't it always seemed to work back in the UK for the patient to say the appointment was for x. So I knew to say this is for 6 week check/8month check/smear test etc and the receptionist would book the appropriate thing, I never had to say, oh, I'm feeling very depressed, I need to see the doctor. The problem is, once you summarise why you need to see the doctor, it's then easy to fit the mould you created for yourself, so your mind is on that reason, the nurses mind is on that reason and so is the doctors. I don't think it's unreasonable to have to go over things with the nurse, but when things are complex, they don't know about the meds you are taking or the condition you suffer from and I've had people make judgements about painkillers I'm taking, so when someone has said aren't they a bit strong about the milder painkiller I take regularly, it then makes me inclined not to write down the strong one I have available for occasional use, because I don't want to go through that whole thing. Who is the nurse to make a judgement about your medication? if she sees a strong painkiller, perhaps sympathy would be more appropriate?

    Well after all that I headed over to church for quilting day, I fairly quickly cut and pressed all the finishing bits for Mrs Fox's gift and attached them and put it aside to hand sew later, then I brought out the Thomas quilt and set about finishing it, which I did!!!!! I gave it to Nathanael today and he is thrilled and has it in bed with him now. Then I moved on to working on the disaster (= the first quilt I started) it seemed to be going ok, but I realised I had missed a step, tried to do it differently so it didn't matter, but used the wrong measurement, so I gave up and sat down to hand sew, so I got the gift finished yesterday. We now need to print out a picture and get some dowel for the hanging sleeve and either a ribbon or some string.

    After that I met with the coordinator for children's church to go through some stuff as there have been changes since I last helped, then met up with the family to eat burgers for dinner, when Jon was here he found it rather wierd that it was totally normal to arrive at church earlier food in hand and sit down at a table and eat!

    Andrew was helping in Ada's class in nursery and they ended up with a mere 3 children and initially 4 adult helpers! Another room was down, so 2 of them moved, but they had 3 children who were completely used to nursery and the people looking after them, so it made for an easy session!

    I on the other hand had Nathanael to content with, children always seem to play up the day you are helping, to be fair, he was an angel through the teaching time, other than putting his hand up to ask a question totally unrelated to the story, but at least he put his hand up and waited to be asked! In small group time he was a little more troublesome, but we survived and rejoined the main group, at which point he decided he just had to stand next to Ryan, unfortunately Nathanael's idea of standing next to someone is glueing himself to their sides and Ryan did not approve. Then I spotted another child raise his arm, obviously about to wack his neighbour pretty hard, but there was no way I could get there in time and once it happened that's a pretty big discipline issue to deal with, Nathanael's actions may have been frustrating, but they were much more his wants not matching with other peoples, rather than clear wrongs, thankfully the lead teacher stepped in to deal with it :-).

    Then today we walked to Highland Covenant Church, which is where N goes to preschool for a service that included saying good bye to Mrs Fox, the children sang some songs and then the head teacher asked them about a picture that they were giving to Mrs Fox, Nathanael was the nearest child and the microphone was thrust at him and he answered all the questions perfectly!

    There was a reception afterwards, but when we went outside, it was raining and it looked like it was going to get heavier and only Andrew had a waterproof coat, he ended up going home to get the car! After all that we were all tired and unsurprisingly had a quiet afternoon!

    Next week doesn't look too busy, originally I had a daytime sleep study scheduled for Tuesday, but it got cancelled, which does make life a bit easier! I'm booked in for an evening crop on Friday, so I want to be organised during the week, so I can be productive there, which means getting quite a few pictures printed. I'm also moving all my scrapbooking stuff to a cupboard downstairs as working on the dining room table makes much more sense than anywhere else and I can't do that easily if everything is upstairs! This also means rearranging that cupboard a bit and shifting some things to the laundry cupboard, but we'll get there in the end!
    Friday, May 18th, 2007
    8:50 am
    a first
    I don't think this in an achievement, but on Wednesday night for the first time ever, I did not sleep the entire night, despite trying, needless to say I felt awful on Thursday. In an attempt to avoid a repeat, I went to bed around 8pm on Thursday, after almost an hour of not falling asleep, I took a sleeping tablet, which I rarely do, the ones I have don't seem to work very well anyway, so I got about 6hrs of sleep and do not feel drowsy this morning, however, I do seem to have either picked up a cold, or got an attack of allergies, everything is streaming!
    Tuesday, May 15th, 2007
    11:31 am
    well that didn't happen!
    My to do list for Monday never even got started, I slept very badly Sunday night, so I wasn't exactly full of energy, Ada had gymnastics at 11, so I was busy making lunch and doing other things in the house, then during preschool, I wanted to keep Ada awake, so we were very productive doing some shopping that needed to be done, then after we had got N from preschool it was down time for all, then we had a leisurely dinner with a bottle of wine outside, then Cathy came over to sort out documentation for the car and for us to give her a cheque. Then Nathanael took great pride in showing her and 2 of her children around the grounds, so by the time the kids were in bed, the day was over!

    Unfortunately I slept badly last night too :-(. I also want to work on scrapbooking for book club tomorrow night, so quilting will have to be on hold for a couple of days.
    Sunday, May 13th, 2007
    11:37 pm
    progress
    I didn't say I absolutely would finish the circling geese and I didn't, but I have made progess, so that is pleasing. I've also done my block for block of the month club, which is rather pleasing, there is a picture of the block on the right hand side of this page http://www.pacificfabrics.com/, the block of the month club is a new thing for me, I've paid 25 dollars for the year, at each meeting, you get a kit for a block, provided you show them your completed block, if you don't, you can buy the block kit for 6 dollars, so if you do your work, 25 dollars is a pretty good price for 12 blocks, you also get a free gift each month and they are not tacky, this month was an expanding organiser, it is intended for quilting, but I can't quite see what one would use it for! My dilema is do I turn each block into a mini quilt of it's own, it's 15 inches square, so diagonally set with borders would make a nice wall hanging or baby comforter, or wait for the end of the year and set all the blocks together, instructions will be provided for this, but it's a bit of a mystery, so we don't know what they will be, I can see some of the other blocks and I'm not sure how well they will go together, if I get to the end of the year and don't like them all together, that's a lot to go back and make into mini quilts!

    Tommorow my plan is
    *cut binding and attach machine part
    *cut hanging sleeve (the machine part of attaching this is combined with the binding)
    *cut and make label (again gets attached along with the binding
    *finish a quarter circle of geese

    This will leave the hand stitching of the binding, sleeve edge and label edge.

    I also need to spend some time working on my motif on the cross stitch round robin and do some scrapbooking, it's bookclub on Wednesday and I've not prepared anything.
    Saturday, May 12th, 2007
    12:31 am
    on a roll
    so I tidied up a bit and got on with the photo frame part of the gift, well a couple of hours later I had a the whole thing together minus finishing bits, the hand and frame were joined together, a border added, then the whole thing basted, then I did the quilting, I did more than I planned as after the simple in the ditch stuff it didn't look quite right so I had to free motion over the background, I wonder what Nathanael will think of it when he sees it tomorrow.
    Friday, May 11th, 2007
    3:03 pm
    quilting UFOs
    I don't want to scare myself, but it's got to be done!

    Fleece backed Thomas Quilt - this is silly, it's about an hour of simple quilting, I've just got to focus and do it! It does mean changing the foot on the sewing machine, well that's my excuse!

    Train quilt - more complicated, the quilting is a mixture of things and it's moderately big, plus I'm not entirely sure I like what I've done in some areas, so I might have to unpick, this is probably a good thing to work on during a quilting day.

    Bean soup, it's just sat there, waiting for me to lay out more rows and stitch them.

    Mrs Fox's gift, I've done the hard part, appliqueing an outline of Nathanael's hand, now I just need to make the photo frame section and put it all together! I need to do this soon!

    Ada's 4-patch, the fabric was icky, and I got fed up of all the stretching, so I shoved it under something, I need to refind it and finish it off, it's small, so when it's pieced, it won't be a big issue to quilt.

    Quilt on the go churndash, this was a project started before I had lessons that went a bit wrong, I've started rewinding and making progress, but I haven't looked at it for a while, part of the problem is that there is the odd little bit that requires a regular foot, but most requires the walking foot, so it either needs a lot of planning to do all the regular stuff first, or a lot of switching.

    Green Mariners Compass, I'm plodding along on this, I love it, so it won't be a stress to keep working!

    Christmas circles, I started this to try a circle piecing method, it worked, so I planned the whole project, then got distracted, I must get it back out, so we have something for Christmas time!

    Jessamy's mystery, I got a good chunk done over the weekend that the mystery was made public, but then stopped.

    Superman wallhanging, given I've cut out the squares, it now becomes a work in progress not just an idea!

    Yikes, that's 10 work in progress, I suppose the good thing is they are not all stuck at the same stage, I think I should make a plan to get some work underway!

    Realistically I'm not going to get anything done today, I have the first Block of the Month meeting tonight, however, I could spend sometime organising the bits, so I will do that. I might manage half an hour at the machine, so the first job will be to make the photo frame block, which will require cutting and ironing.

    Tomorrow the most important thing will be to put the entire top of this gift together and hopefully baste the to the back and batting (in English, tack to the back and wadding!). Any extra time and finishing the flying geese circle for the mariners compass will be my target.

    Sunday, I will put the walking foot on my machine and do the quilting on Mrs Fox's gift, that shouldn't take long, so hopefully that will give me the opportunity to work on a couple of other things.

    That will leave the binding, hanging and label on the gift quilt, I'll make a plan for that when I get to that point! As they also need the walking foot, I guess I should do them straight away, possibly whilst N is at preschool on Monday.

    Current Mood: contemplative
    Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
    8:11 pm
    the hip
    it turned out to be possibility one, which was both best and worst in someways, it's good because it's a diagnosis I already know stuff about, so I knew what questions to ask etc, it's bad, because it pretty much does mean surgery. There is the option of cortisone shots, but the results are very variable, the doctor said he'd seen results range from pain relief for 1 day, upto a year. Fearful though I am of surgery, I'm almost as fearful for cortisone shots, having had a needle in there 9 days ago and still suffering some discomfort, I'm not keen on a couple of weeks discomfort for an average of 3mths relief, if I'm one of the lucky ones. Cortisone being what it is, there does tend to be greater discomfort on administration, having had steriod injections in pregnancy, the injection site is jolly uncomfortable for several days. Plus, being honest, I only got through last weeks needle experience because I had no time to worry about it, but even in the few minutes warning, despite trying my hardest to relax, I still got worked up and during it, it was a great struggle to stay still and not scream the place down, I sweated buckets during it - I honestly don't thing I can do something like that again, without something to help me relax - and that kind of thing is difficult to arrange here, it's quite common place in the UK, they often do such procedures in theatre and put a line in as a matter of course, in case you need help in staying calm.

    Which leaves surgery, it's quite an uncommon procedure apparently, luckily there is someone who does it locally, but as a newish procedure, there is great need for it, compared to the number of surgeons that can do it, so I may have to wait a while to get an appointment to even see the guy, then who knows how long before the surgery. The longer you wait for something, the more hyped up it can get, the more hope you put into it working out.

    The worst thing is, that if this is sucessful, it only sorts out my hip, I have a lot less symphysis pubis pain these days, but it's still significant, I might remove the limitation of the hip pain, which is the biggest issue these days, but it won't be a magical cure.

    My other gripe is that I don't know when this happened, it could have been giving birth, or it could have been dislocating it in May last year, either way, medical help was sort and this was not diagnosed, particularly when I dislocated it, the GP I saw (not my regular one) sent me to the hosptial in good faith, I don't know what she thought it was, but I got the impress she thought it was more than the hospital investigated, but we had no come back on that, in fact we faught hard for further investigation or more specialised evaluation that day and were told to wait 8 weeks, which we did, but my GP tried to refer me and the referals were refused, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome was diagnosed, but the hip was never even given a thorough examination, EDS was considered the complete diagnosis.

    So my emotions are all over the show, I'm anxious about the future, but angry about the past.
    7:26 pm
    I think we are going to love the summer!
    For various reasons the kids end up having late naps, so when Andrew got home and they woke up, we dashed out to the pool, strange thing is, it isn't really that warm, it's probably 16ish, but the pool is heated and the sky was clear and initially we were in direct sun - but it's still warm enough to have a quick dip and run back to the house, we wouldn't want to sunbathe by the pool just yet! But if it's like this in May, it should get better. I need to buy some floatation devices so that I can manage it with two children alone, early evening isn't always going to work.

    Hopefully we'll get our BBQ up and running soon, we acquired a 2nd hand one that has been outside for a while, so it doesn't look great, but it needs new gas, if we get new gas and that doesn't work, we'll have to look into buying one, our inside grill is just an option on our oven, so is not as easy to use as one separate to an oven, plus it's fun to eat and cook outside!

    I'll have to figure out recipes for marinading meat, then buy in bulk and stash it in the freezer. One thing that isn't really possible is to have a supply of salad without going to the shops about once a week :-(. As a great disliker of shopping, this is not a good thing. Fortunately we have two supermarkets in walking distance and Trader Joes close by, but the car park there is horrendous, the food is usually worth it though.

    Current Mood: hungry
    11:49 am
    this is ridiculous
    ok, I am stupidly nervous and anxious, I know it's about this doctors appointment, but is it really that bad?

    possibility 1
    they diagnose exactly what they said it was, a labral tear, is that so bad? possibly, I've already done the non surgical treatments, so it means surgery, which I'm petrified of - so that's a good reason to be anxious

    possibility 2
    it's something simple - that's unlikely, if it was we'd have fixed it by now, so fixing it would still be invasive in some way

    possibility 3
    it's something worse - let's not go there

    possibility 4
    they still have no idea - this is my worst case scenario and it could still mean I have a labral tear as the MRI diagnosis is not foolproof and all other diagnostics point that way, I did my research and at this stage, with the level of pain I'm having, going in would likely be the next option anyway and I don't think I'd want to do that, which means live with it, I think we've pretty much explored all non surgical treatment options - this is what I'm most nervous about them saying today.

    So I think I have a right to be nervous and anxious, but that doesn't help the next couple of hours, N has to be at preschool in 21 minutes, then it's another hour until the appointment is supposed to be, how to fill that hour? maybe go to the home depot, we need bamboos and possibly look at plant pots, I could do with one of those big tubs that has lots of holes in that you can do strawberries in, Anita has runners so I just need to get hold of a tub.

    Current Mood: anxious
    Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
    9:18 am
    Summer?
    Last week wasn't exactly warm, even when the sun came out, there was still a chill in the air, but yesterday turned out to be a glorious day. I went through the gatehouse and noticed the pool had been opened, the official date is 1st May (not that we remembered that), but the necessary work had been done at the weekend (which we didn't know about - we don't seem to be getting all information about what is going on, I think I need to make an effort to walk through the gatehouse more often).

    I wondered down to check the temperature and it was very reasonable, thankfully the pool is heated, otherwise, I don't think I'd be in there at all! So Nathanael and I took a quick dip at about 7.45, it was feeling cool by that stage as the outside temperature had dropped, but I've gone swimming in much cooler water in my younger days!

    Nathanael seemed to enjoy himself and when we got back inside pronounced himself as hungry and had a slice of pie and then an orange, which he kindly shared with Ada, taking the pips out for her in an interesting manner, basically biting off most of the segment, giving her the rest and removing the pips from his own mouth.

    So we will see if this lasts, I promised Ada I will take her for a dip on Wednesday, but looking at the forecast it might be cooler, today looks like a better day, but I have dancing at 8, so I'm not sure if we'll fit it in!

    +++
    Friday, May 4th, 2007
    11:13 pm
    kick boxing
    Should you ever wish it, our church now has daily kick boxing sessions at 5.30am, to Christian music! The mind boggles.
    5:47 pm
    All Change!
    Oops, long time, no post, no real excuse, but it's been all change round here. Ada had her final day at nursery on Monday, we survived Thursday ok, so we'll have to see how the first full week goes next week.

    Also, Bible Study has stopped for the summer, so there is no where to escape to Tuesday morning. Thankfully Nathanael still has preschool until the end of the month, then a two week break, then 3 weeks of summer school, another weeks break, then my parents are her - did you follow that? That means my parents are arriving on 15th July, I think, it's a Sunday in the middle of July anyway!

    I took Ada to gymnastics yesterday, I had great plans for Nathanael to watch, it's only half an hour, I provided activities and snacks, but no, would he sit down? no way! Thankfully the class was small and the teacher let him join in, I ended up signing him up for a class too, but of course, his and Ada's classes are not at adjacent times or anything convenient like that.

    I got discharged from physio too, which is a good thing, but is yet another chunk of time that's no longer scheduled, I'm working out at the gym instead, so it actually gives me a bit more freedom to choose a time that works, but I'll have to watch and make sure I keep working out on a regular basis and that I do improve strength and fitness, I don't think that is straightforward, I don't seem to get feedback as to whether something is too much, I felt really good working out today, but I have this horrible suspicion that I went too far.

    The good thing is, that this working out, has made me loose weight, actually far more than I ever intended, I didn't have a target weight, I've not been dieting, but here I am, at 126 pounds and I have been for a month. Problem is, I don't think I look 126 pounds, and if I do look it, then I need a new target weight - I think a toned 126 would be fine, but I have a tendancy to put on muscle mass when I do weights, I've started doing an upper body work out and I wouldn't be at all surprised to pop some muscles and gain weight! Oh well, the truth is now, I'm at the weight that any doctor would want me to be, if not better, so no one can blame any of my symptoms on weight. I also seem to have grown, I thought I was 5' 4 and 3 quarters, close enough so I could say 5 foot 5, but having been measured at the gym, I find I'm 5 foot 5 and half, so my BMI is nicely between 20 and 21. It doesn't give me much satisfaction to still be in pain, but a good weight, it just doesn't give a doctor weight as a get out clause!

    I seem to be lucky in that though my stomach is not very toned, it's basically flat, apparently that's depends on which pelvic shape you have, but I haven't figured out what mine is! I'm pretty convinced it's not anthropoid, it's quite obvious I'm not that shape, but when I look at the front pictures (see http://www.spinningbabies.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=78&Itemid=37), the x-rays I've seen of myself look most like this shape! The next most like this shape would be android and this would fit my birth history, that if the baby is well positioned they just slip through, and if it's OP, as Ada was, they are impeded from turning and struggle - but the fat carrying profile doesn't really fit me. I don't suppose I'll ever know - although the distinctions do have implications in obstetrics, it doesn't seem to be something doctors or midwifes really consider, more something that lay people observe and muse over.

    I really really need to buy some new sports clothes, my current stuff is both worn out and completely the wrong size! Maybe I'll go shopping tomorrow.
    Tuesday, April 10th, 2007
    10:00 pm
    survived 2 days
    We've managed to survive 2 days of spring break without killing each other! Monday was good, Ada was at nursery as usual, but it's usually a busy day for me, but with no preschool run and then not seeing Brian either made it quite empty. I had to go to the post office which wasn't full, it always seems to be ridiculously busy, they do a lot of advertising to try and get you to use their parcel pick up service, but you either have to have stamps available, or uses stamps.com, we don't post things very often, so we don't have a random selection of stamps available and stamps.com has the same problems, the subscription fee is only worth it if you would go to the post offices about 3 or more times a month, plus, you need a printer, which we don't have.

    Tuesday was more different from normal, usually it's bible study in the morning, then home for lunch and a nap for Ada, but we had nothing to do in the morning, so I took the plunge and went to the supermarket, we usually do that on weekends, but it went ok, I think it's definitely a morning job with 2 kids, but I usually end up doing it in the afternoon if do go with them, so must remember this in future, go in the morning! We were home for a bit before going to lunch with Andrew which was fun, we haven't done that for a while. Ada was then a bit of a menace after her nap, she wants everything just her way and gets very cross if it isn't.

    Tomorrow I have pool therapy in the middle of the day, then a busy evening, an appointment with Brian, then book club, then I'm doing an overnight sleep study, I'm a bit nervous about that, but at least the next day is an Ada at nursery day, so if I'm totally exhausted it's a little more manageable.

    With Ada stopping nursery at the end of April and bible study finishing, I'm going to have to figure out how we manage our time a bit better, then with preschool ending at the end of May we really will start to be unscheduled! I need to investigate other libraries, our local one is not ideal, there is this ramp that leads up to the children's section, problem is, my kids just want to run up and down it!

    Went to dancing again tonight, really enjoying it, got some compliments from the teacher this week, which was nice. It's tricky to see where it is going, but as long as I enjoy the classes, that's not really an issue, but I can't really see myself going to a social dance, it wouldn't be fair to leave Andrew with the kids and if we got a babysitter, his choice of activity would not be a dance! My legs are feeling a little achy, but just in a I've done some work, I'm getting stronger kind of way. Although it's not high impact, it is still weight bearing and that's something I'm not used to. You really do use the core muscles though, now I'm learning the correct body position.

    Current Mood: accomplished
    Thursday, April 5th, 2007
    9:30 pm
    Nathanael just said
    "When I tell the truth, pink is my favourite colour, when I don't tell the truth, blue is my favourite colour"

    This is sooooo true, recently he's stopped telling us his favourite colour is pink and has switched to blue, but he still gravitates towards his pink boots if he's in need of comfort!
    Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007
    10:20 pm
    Ballroom dancing
    As part of my picking up other fitness activities, I thought I'd investigate ballroom dancing, I figured that maybe it would be low enough impact to be ok. So I called the ballroom next to Ada's daycare (funnily enough it's called Impact Ballroom), and discovered they have latin and standard separately and that assuming I was level 2, the class was tonight, and no, I didn't need to bring a partner.

    So I decided to take the plunge, only to realise in a fit of despair last year I sold my shoes on ebay! Not a problem, my wedding shoes are very similar shape and height and the heel is only fractionally broader, so I wore those and I really couldn't tell the difference, they may have even been marginally better for me.

    At first I thought the class was a bit too hard, but once I got a mental picture of what we were doing, I realised I knew those steps, I just hadn't been taught them, I must have picked them up when dancing with people like Chris, but it's at least 5 years since I danced. It was a good call to only do the one class, everyone else was doing Latin first, then standard. I prefer standard anyway, but I think it's easier on my body too. It seems that they work on one dance for a month, which is good in some ways as it really sets it in mind, but it means you could forget the others, which isn't much use if you want to go to a dance and there isn't another class that you can join to learn a different dance, all the levels are on the same dance. We're doing quickstep right now, which is one of my favourites, when it gets to foxtrot, I think I'll have to drop down a level, I've only done it about 4 time and know none of the basic steps, I can't even remember the rhythm, the way it flows up and down or anything, I can only remember something wierd about tracing out circles on the floor and that it has heel turns in it!
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