Getting back in shape

I want my old body back!!

Well that's probably never going to happen. While the extra puffiness on my arms, legs and face disappeared a long time ago, my baby belly is hanging there longer than I thought it would, especially since I'm breastfeeding and it's meant to help with getting your old shape back.

I was feeling someting strange just above my belly button, so I went to the doctor's so she could tell me what it is. I wasn't worried about it, I just wanted to know what it is. And basically, my big long abdominal muscles have separated, which happens all the time (well, in 80% of cases) to pregnant women. Usually for big babies (Logan was not), twins (Logan was on his own) or multiple pregnancies (Logan is my first baby!). Ah well...

The doctor was pretty useless as she told me the only way to fix it is surgery. Nice. She also told me to look it up on Google!! Honestly. I need to change doctors. (By the way if you do want to look it up on Google, it's called Diastasis Recti or Divarication of Recti) So I did some research and before I can even think of having a flat belly again, I first need to bring those muscles together again, so there is a series of exercises to do. Then I can move on to crunches and sit-ups.

The doctor DID say something useful, i.e. it took 9 months to make a baby, it's not in 4 months that my body will be back to normal (if it ever does get back to normal).

In the meantime, the weather has been really nice lately and Logan and I have been out and about a lot. Logan laughs a lot now, it's excellent. He absolutely loves his bath, especially when we put just enough water for him to be able to lie in it without any support from us, and then he just kicks about it's hilarious!

I'm going to start weaning him next week. Interesting times to come...

Logan est Francais!!

'Twas a really good week for Logan and I as we both got our brand new French passports on Wednesday!

What a pallava though... But then again, it's quite lucky we have a French consulate in Edinburgh or we would have had to go all the way to London.

It started about 6 weeks ago when I made the enquiries to have a French passports for him, and have mine changed to my wedded last name. For me, no problem, I didn't really need to do anything except from bringing the marriage certificate to the Consulate on the day.

For Logan though, we first needed to have his Birth Certificate "translated" into French. This is done at the Consulate and costs nothing. We then needed to have a passport photo taken, and I was wondering how that was going to take place given all the rules about passport photos. He's not supposed to be smiling, he should be on a white background (but then I need to hold him, are they going to photoshop me out of the picture?) etc... Went into the photographer's in town and he laid Logan down on a white mat on the floor, and took the photo while standing straight over him. Easy peasy. Logan, who never smiles on photos, was in hysterics. We managed to have a photo where he is smiling a bit but not too much.

Once all this was done, we went to our double appointment, where we "applied" for our passports. It then takes 3 weeks for the passports to get done (that probably takes place in France) and then no, they don't send them to your home recorded delivery, we had to go back to Edinburgh to pick them up. 

It was a beautiful day in Edinburgh on Wednesday, and as the appointment was in the afternoon, we all went in the morning as a family and had a lovely lunch outside at Cafe Marlayne. 

So Logan now has a French passport, and that will be the only passport he has until he can get a Scottish passport, so his Dad says! (Scottish passports don't exist at the moment, only British!!)

Logan's passport photo!!

 

 

Drop-in Baby Clinic

As suspected, now that Logan is a little bit older, I don't have enough to write about for more than 1 entry a week. He is growing and changing everyday though. He is now 3.5 months old and as my mother predicted he's gone all chubby everywhere, with fat little thighs that are super cute! :)

My surgery do a "drop-in" baby clinic every Friday morning and it's a brilliant service. Once the midwife stops coming every day and the health visitor stops coming once a week, then the baby clinic is really good for reassurance in case there is something wrong with me or my baby. Mind you, i always forget to ask about me!

Logan's had conjunctivitis in his right eye for about 5 weeks now. The first set of eye drops worked, but when we stopped them the conjunctivitis came back. So on a Friday morning I went and asked the health visitor what else we could do. She suggested breast milk. Breast milk seems to be the cure for everything apparently! Well it didn't work on Logan. So I called during the week, and I got a different set of eye drops. These are much more gooey and I was really struggling to make them fall into Logan's eye without causing him a lot of distress. So I went and asked her to show me how. So even for little things like that I can just go and ask! Drops still not working though so will have to have him seen by a doctor I think. Hope he's not allergic to cat hair (he's breastfed for goodness sake's, shouldn't be allergic to anythign AT ALL!).

Everytime I go to the baby clinic, I get Logan weighed. It's wonderful to see his progress like that, and if he's had a bad week when he's maybe been sick more than usual (or in Logan's case, if he's been sick at all, cos he's never sick!), it's very reassuring to see that he HAS put on weight despite the sickness. Sometimes I get him measured too! 

It's also very good for me as when the weather is good, I walk there, which is roughly 35 min each way. Makes me exercise a bit, because my grand plans of starting running again to do the Great Scottish Run in September are just not happening. Between the business, the housework and the baby I just don't have time to run just now. Hopefully when he's a bit older.

We've had a few sunny and warm days lately so I've been able to make Logan wear more of the lovely outfits he got as presents, as shown in the photos below.

 

Dreamfeed 3

It's been about 10 days now and YES Logan is sleeping through the night! It's wonderful! So he goes to bed usually at 7.30 pm (no later than 8.30 pm), has a dreamdeed around 10.30 pm then sleeps all the way till 7 or 8 am! This morning it was 9 am! Love being able to sleep more than a few hours at a time!

He still won't take the bottle though. Annoying becuase I can't be away from him for any linger than 3 hours. This proved to be a problem last Friday night as I had a work do. The company invited us all for dinner as a thank you for a season that went really well and I was really looking forward to go to have some adult conversation and to get the latest news. I fed Logan just before leaving the house, and left a bottle of expressed milk for Mike to give him before he put him to bed for the night. 3 hours later I got a text from him saying the baby wouldn't take it. So I had to leave the party without any dessert (was looking forward to that Tiramisu!!). But it was brilliant to have those 3 hours in adult company, talking just a little bit about Logan but mostly about what had been happening at work while I had been on maternity!


The week-end brought some lovely hot and sunny weather so on Sunday we packed Logan, some suncream and plenty of water and drove to Glen Trool. We had lunch at the House O'Hill then parked the car, put Logan in the baby carrier and set off to Bruce's stone. Mike was carrying Logan and I had the rucksack packed full of baby stuff and water. We got lost a bit in the woods but made it to the viewpoint and it was well worth it. Again, to make sure Logan kept hydrated I fed him often (I'd taken a baby bottle of cooled boiled water for him but of course he didn't want it!). He was fine on the way up, even fell asleep against Mike. But the way back was a bit much for him and he wasn't so happy to be strapped and restricted for that long, in that heat.

It was a pretty long day for him as we only got back home around 7 pm!

  Lost in the woods

At the top (I'm holding him up and away from me hence the weird shaped face!)

View from the top!!