Happy 2021 everyone!!
I hope you all managed to find many things to be grateful for in 2020, even if the general air of 2020 was pretty abysmal. With this new year upon us, let’s make sure we celebrate the ups, surround ourselves with a tribe who can help us through the downs, and make sure we continue to help those around us.
The start of January also marks an exciting phase in my post-natal journey: I go back to work! To all my clients, prepare yourselves. To all my group classes, LET’S GOOOO!
Training
It was a slow training week this week. We just did a lot of walking. I was too tired to do much more than that for most of the week and my lower back was a bit sore so I made sure to not push it.
Monday
After clocking in some serious steps and a workout over the weekend I decided to rest today. Noah was baptised in a very small, family only service in the morning and I went for a super leisurely stroll in the afternoon.
Tuesday
Given our previous success with a longer (ie 2 hours) “hike” on Sunday we decided to try and climb up to the Peak and then drop down into Central today. A walk I haven’t done in a long time! Our previous hike up to the Peak was just that, a hike up. When we got to the top she was hungry and fussy so we had to get a ride home. Now that Noah’s a little older and has longer waking hours, she’s happy to chill and watch the world. It was a fabulous way to start the morning before spending an afternoon out in Clear Water Bay at a Merry Christmas/Happy New Year BBQ.
Wednesday
I was very tired and not feeling like doing anything today. So that’s what I did, we just lounged in the sun napping and reading.
Thursday
Started off New Year’s Eve by getting our 20k+ steps in straight off the bat. Went for a long morning stroll along the water - Noah slept the whole time! We spent the early afternoon binge watching some TV before heading to a friend’s place for an hour or so. We had our final meal of 2020 with our families and despite thinking I’d go to sleep at 9, I was awake to ring in the New Year with Noah in my arms (I did nap from 8:45-11 though).
Friday
Late and pleasantly quiet start to the day. Noah was super awake and bubbly so we all took turns talking to her. We did go for a nice 2 hour stroll in the mid-afternoon before sitting down for our traditional New Year’s Day Hotpot.
Saturday
After quite a few days of being southside hermits we spent the morning on a 2.5 hour stroll in mid-levels and grabbed brunch by the escalators. Noah slept the entire time, hashtagchampion. We had a quiet day at home afterwards.
Sunday
Today, is normally gym day but family comes first and after 3 very short months, my sister left to go back to Vancouver so today we optimised time with her. Despite the promise of COVID vaccinations in both HK and Canada we don’t know when we’ll next get to see each other so we made sure she got as many Noah cuddles as possible today. Life in General
We struggled a bit with getting Noah to take her probiotic for most of the week this week which meant we dealt with a pretty vommy baby more often than not. I’d like to say the bottle is going well, but this week it wasn’t such a hit. She was also pretty fussy and screamy on Sunday which made Sunday a bit tough but we got through it! It’s tough being a baby :(
Now that Noah is a little older and a bit bigger, the time between feeds has become longer - especially at night. This week her longest stretches of sleep between food were 6.5hrs and 5.5hrs. If I’m honest, I was slightly nervous for this stage as I was expecting rather painful engorgement to come back. However, I think because I’ve always fed on demand versus on a strict schedule, my supply has adjusted pretty quickly so it hasn’t been all that bad! I woke up once slightly engorged but it wasn’t as bad as the Day 3 engorgement and all I did was express a little extra milk for her morning probiotic bottle. Other than that, feeding is still going well!
On a slightly related note, this week Noah found out she can suck her fist to self soothe - queue the pacifier! We first introduced the pacifier at around day 5 with very minimal success, at week 2 she was very hit or miss with it, we gave it about a 6 week rest but last week I did start up with it again with slightly more success. I know pacifiers are controversial, as is thumb/finger sucking, but I’d rather her suck a pacifier so that’s the route we’d like to take.
Noah was a lot more talkative this week, everyone found that as long as it was relatively quiet, you could have full conversations with her. Of course she just babbles but she does so responsively and, more importantly, adorably.
As for me this week:
I mentioned this briefly earlier but I was pretty tired a lot of the week. We all still sleep really well at night but I did lack the incentive to do much of anything at all. Just one of those weeks I guess!
After 9 months, my hair has started to fall out. Fun pregnancy fact that no one tells you: due to the rush of hormones during pregnancy your hair doesn’t fall out. Normally I can see how this is a good thing - however, I’m my mother’s child which means I have very very thick hair. Normally I go for haircuts fairly frequently to simply thin out my hair. Due to COVID I tried to avoid close human contact with people I’m not overly familiar with (well, I normally do that anyway but you know what I mean) which means I actually only got one thinning out haircut during pregnancy. Now that I’m 9 weeks post-natal I guess my hormones are now in a place where my body feels less attached to the hair on my head and has allowed it to be free.
With that change there is now only one thing I‘m waiting for: my period to come back. This is a tricky one but also a nostalgic one. I kind of feel like I’m 13/14 again, I know it’s going to come but don’t know when. Time will tell!
On that note, we’ve survived through another week and we’ve survived the turn of a new year! Let‘s see what next week has in store for us!
Stay positive, team!