My Mom has had mysterious, painful, debilitating symptoms that resemble allergies for over 30 years off and on, and might finally have found a doctor who understands, her fourteenth doctor to visit I believe. He thinks my dear persevering Mother's symptoms, based on her round of lab tests, are due primarily to thyroid and adrenal causes. Amazing. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it? (Ten points if you can tell me what 80s chickster movie that line comes from. Would adding "Marilla" to the end of it help?)
How did my Mom find this excellent doctor, you ask. Through Mary Shomon who wrote a book she found extremely helpful, Living Well with Hypothyroidism, which you should be able to get at your local library. Mary keeps a running tally of extremely good thyroid- and possibly adrenally-minded doctors listed by state.
As soon as I have weaned my daughter, I hope to visit Mary's own doctor who practices in the McLean, VA, area and see where on the charts my adrenals and thyroid are, and what I can do about it if they're still low. Thank God for these doctors!
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Thursday, November 25, 2010
The most important meal of the day
Somewhere in the last nine months I think I've made a discovery. Before our little bambino arrived (would that be bambina since she is a girl?), I would sleep in the morning until my body woke me up, which was always at least 10:00 AM or later. I hated missing so much of the day and not really getting my game on til noon, but I knew I needed the sleep and having no job besides wifing, I could, especially since my wonderful hubs encouraged me to get the rest I needed.
I would have a substantial breakfast of eggs, toast, hot tea, and usually also yogurt/banana/flaxseed meal while pregnant. But I would still hit a slump about an hour after breakfast, even after all that sleep, and it was so frustrating. However, for the last nine months I've been getting up between 7 and 8:00, eating breakfast (same as above minus the yogurt), and going back to bed during the baby's first nap. Granted, I might be in bed during my after-breakfast slump, but I seem to be more energetic overall and wonder if my blood sugar got too low sleeping in so long and the extra sleep backfired.
Just a thought for any others out there with the luxury of sleeping in or blood sugar issues that might require a little bit of night-time noshing perhaps. I always hated getting up to find something to eat in the night when pregnant and an empty stomach prevented sleep, because you get so woken up and you have to brush your teeth afterward (which requires turning on a bright light) and what you ate might give you too much energy when trying to fall back to sleep. But...if it gives you more energy overall, it might be worth it.
I would have a substantial breakfast of eggs, toast, hot tea, and usually also yogurt/banana/flaxseed meal while pregnant. But I would still hit a slump about an hour after breakfast, even after all that sleep, and it was so frustrating. However, for the last nine months I've been getting up between 7 and 8:00, eating breakfast (same as above minus the yogurt), and going back to bed during the baby's first nap. Granted, I might be in bed during my after-breakfast slump, but I seem to be more energetic overall and wonder if my blood sugar got too low sleeping in so long and the extra sleep backfired.
Just a thought for any others out there with the luxury of sleeping in or blood sugar issues that might require a little bit of night-time noshing perhaps. I always hated getting up to find something to eat in the night when pregnant and an empty stomach prevented sleep, because you get so woken up and you have to brush your teeth afterward (which requires turning on a bright light) and what you ate might give you too much energy when trying to fall back to sleep. But...if it gives you more energy overall, it might be worth it.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Energy for a challenging year
I have not forgotten your comment, dear "ayarella," at the end of the last blog about how I am doing now. In fact, it has haunted me for months. It seems mommy-brain is getting the best of me these days (how handy to transition from fatigue-fog to mommy-brain as an excuse for anything), and even when I have two seconds to sit at my laptop, the tyranny of the urgent email is all my mind has room for.
I just reread my last post, now almost a year ago (oh dear), and found it encouraging to look back and remember. I had no idea what the coming months would bring. Let me just say that this year has been fraught with physical limitation and weakness (along with the immeasurable joy of the cutest and sweetest baby imaginable!), and I'm pleased to say my mostly-recovered adrenals and God's grace has seen me through so far.
I did in fact have enough energy for 18 hours of labor that started at 1:00 AM and a natural birth...at the hospital down the street...in the biggest snowstorm in Maryland history: the birthing center was too far away and, incidentally, closed. I had enough energy for the newborn night wakings which lasted a little too long since 2:00 AM somehow meant party time to our little stinker. But thankfully she started sleeping through the night at 7 weeks after we got her on a schedule. I had enough energy to endure four months plus of postpartum healing complications that I won't go into here.
At six months our little darling hit a growth spurt that had her waking up at night again, sometimes several times, for the next two months, and I somehow had the energy for that, though I blame getting strep throat in July on my being thus run down. But I was able to recover in less than 3 days without antibiotics, which I attribute to my many natural "remedies." After sleeping through the night for another month and a half, she hit teething/sickness/teething again, which become a weeks-long family sickness saga. I think I am finally over that virus, maybe. Perhaps my adrenals are reaching their limit.
Breastfeeding takes alot out of you, I'm realizing, though what an honor to pour your life into another so literally, and such a darling other at that. But I have had an over-abundance of milk all these months actually, and plan to keep nursing her until she is a year old.
In addition to often-interrupted nighttime sleep, every day I have gone right back to bed during our daughter's first nap. Most of the time I am able to sleep, and this is probably what has gotten me through. It's a little more challenging now that she's down to two naps and her first nap is two hours after waking in the morning, as opposed to an hour and 15 minutes (ie, it's harder to go right back to sleep). But I'm hoping that as she starts sleeping through the night again and thus I do, I won't need that morning nap. If I can go to bed early. Which I'm flagrantly violating at this moment. Uh, good-night!
I just reread my last post, now almost a year ago (oh dear), and found it encouraging to look back and remember. I had no idea what the coming months would bring. Let me just say that this year has been fraught with physical limitation and weakness (along with the immeasurable joy of the cutest and sweetest baby imaginable!), and I'm pleased to say my mostly-recovered adrenals and God's grace has seen me through so far.
I did in fact have enough energy for 18 hours of labor that started at 1:00 AM and a natural birth...at the hospital down the street...in the biggest snowstorm in Maryland history: the birthing center was too far away and, incidentally, closed. I had enough energy for the newborn night wakings which lasted a little too long since 2:00 AM somehow meant party time to our little stinker. But thankfully she started sleeping through the night at 7 weeks after we got her on a schedule. I had enough energy to endure four months plus of postpartum healing complications that I won't go into here.
At six months our little darling hit a growth spurt that had her waking up at night again, sometimes several times, for the next two months, and I somehow had the energy for that, though I blame getting strep throat in July on my being thus run down. But I was able to recover in less than 3 days without antibiotics, which I attribute to my many natural "remedies." After sleeping through the night for another month and a half, she hit teething/sickness/teething again, which become a weeks-long family sickness saga. I think I am finally over that virus, maybe. Perhaps my adrenals are reaching their limit.
Breastfeeding takes alot out of you, I'm realizing, though what an honor to pour your life into another so literally, and such a darling other at that. But I have had an over-abundance of milk all these months actually, and plan to keep nursing her until she is a year old.
In addition to often-interrupted nighttime sleep, every day I have gone right back to bed during our daughter's first nap. Most of the time I am able to sleep, and this is probably what has gotten me through. It's a little more challenging now that she's down to two naps and her first nap is two hours after waking in the morning, as opposed to an hour and 15 minutes (ie, it's harder to go right back to sleep). But I'm hoping that as she starts sleeping through the night again and thus I do, I won't need that morning nap. If I can go to bed early. Which I'm flagrantly violating at this moment. Uh, good-night!
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