Chug-along-chica!

Hey look, I am back!  Not really back, but I had my baby, see?

Danielle Elizabeth Winzenz was born on July 3rd 12:12 am by emergency C-section.

Basically, I started bleeding like a stuck pig so they yanked her out in 5 min. flat to try to save both our lives.  I have definitely felt better, people.  THIS, my dears, is why I can not have a home birth.  I am high risk for this kind of complication--placental abruption.

But it all worked out and I am the happiest woman in the whole world.

Now that I have a daughter, I feel that I have been given every really important thing that my little heart has ever desired.

P.S.  Forgive me, I will not be running for quite a while.  Doctor says "ABSOLUTELY NOT!"  But around six weeks from now WATCH OUT!  I will be hitting the roads (but hopefully not actually hitting the roads, as I am prone to doing (chi style, remember?)

Okay people, one important AND applicable adage about life is that the more pathetic you are, the more potential you have to be inspiring.  When a healthy person with 5 extra pounds looses 5 pounds, it is no big whoop.  But when somebody in horrible health looses 200 pounds and becomes really healthy, it is worth reading about.  From that perspective, I am just bristling with potential these days!  Here's the scoop...

So I lost a lot of blood and have a hemoglobin count of about 7 (it was 14 before the birth) AND I've got this pesky incision in my tummy that is very particular about my laying around like a dead walrus in order to heal.  Take for example my first day home from the hospital...  The discharge instructions said "walk every day."  SoI went for a short walk.  I couldn't imagine walking less than half a mile, but about .25 mile out, my incision started hurting so badly I couldn't walk.  I was stuck!  It took me almost an hour to inch my way home, and guess what?  My incision *urp* opened on one side, setting my recovery back by almost a week.  (As if it were not taking it's sweet time as it is!)  Later my doctor clarified that I should "walk" to the bathroom, or into the kitchen, not GO FOR A WALK.  What was I thinking? 

Bleh.  So for the last 2 weeks I've done almost NOTHING with this bod but feed my lovely baby (who is sooo sweet, by the way--she never cries) and walk to the bathroom a couple of times a day.  Today I was feeling brave (and sick of being inside) so I braved a little leasurely walk outside.  A third of a mile.  Hooray for me.  I hope that by the time I get to 6 weeks post partum, and can "officially" start exercising, I will be able to walk a mile or two with minimal pain.  We shall see.

Tonight was very very windy.  The monsoon storms have been threatening a lot these last few days, and I just love 'em!  The sound of the palms swishing around like waves on the ocean, the heavy scent of rain on the creosotes, white lightning scratching through the dark clouds...it was heaven.  And as a bonus I squished a bark scorpion that had crawled onto the sidewalk in front of the WRONG postpartum lady...  And it's all up from here.  I'm looking forward to the journey. 

Another little walk in the monsoon wind.  It was lovely.  The momma ducks were out with their babies.

I timed myself today.  15 min.  Hmmm.  That puts me at about a 45 min. mile. 

I can't deny--it did sting my tummy just a little.  The key is that I need to take itty bitty steps. 

I'm feeling impatient about getting better.  There are SOOOO many people from church and other friends that are helping me.  Meals are coming in for the next couple of weeks, people are taking care of my 3 older boys every day, and people are signed up to help clean my house.  I am the recipient of TOO MUCH GENEROSITY.  So I should be sky high, feeling loved and taken care of, etc. etc.  But for some reason I feel a little bit miserable about having so much help.  Like I am doubly pathetic or something.  It is a little frustrating that I don't really feel better from day to day, but I know I feel TONS better than I did a week ago.  Progress is progress.  It strikes me that I would be a terrible person to have a chronic illness or something.  I mean, so many people struggle for YEARS with serious health problems, and here I am, 2 weeks in, singing the blues.  Ridiculous.  If I'm still blogging like this tomorrow, ya have my permission to give me a dope-slapping!

Wow.  How often can a person brag that they took a full min. off their 600 m record?  Yup.  It only took me 14 min. tonight to make my nightly meander around the lake. 

By the way, don't worry, I wasn't TRYING to go faster.  Jeesh.  Everyone around here keeps telling me to get back in bed, back in bed.  If we had restraints at our house, I would probably be in them--tied to the bed & gagged. I promise I spend about 18 hours a day flat on my back.  I just don't like it.  And I think that .3 miles is short and slow enough to just get the blood flowing and wake up my legs a tiny bit.  Plus it's good to be in the habit of making time for exercise (if you can call walking this slowly exercise). 

What I really need is for people on this blog to stop being so funny and making me laugh, because even the slightest chuckle feels downright painful (Marion, I am looking at you).