Photo and Video Catch Up

Murray is walking BIG time and like his crawling, is developing a serious pace. He is Duracell bunny. He never stops. See below how the idea of sitting in a hammock is his idea of hell and is desperately trying to escape.  It is very difficult to tire him out. He simply has to walk everywhere which at times is v impractical, but the boy won't be argued with! 

I attacked Murray's hair with the scissors, so this is his first haircut.

 Al picked up Murray from nursery the other night to find him dressed in these rather fetching pink leggins! Apparently at snack time when the staff were clearing up all the unwanted fruit Murray took a run for it and shoved a whole handful in his mouth and ran off. He consequently choked on his uber mouthful and sicked up a little! Ah Murray!

And finally a wee video of the wee dude with his new toy. He went round and round and round!

Coming to a Tricky Decision.

Today I came to a decision. I won't be doing my bike race next weekend.

After my last long bike ride I was in a lot of pain again. The downward pressure on my pelvis for that long on the bike was obviously a step too far. I was in really bad pain for a week after and so skipped my long bike last weekend in an attempt to help it ease. In addition I was so tired I keep going a bit dizzy when I stood up, so figured if I rested I'd knock any bugs on their head before they amounted to anything. Unfortunately, despite waking up on Monday feeling less fatigued, while at the gym, my tummy started cramping and well, without going into too much detail, Murray had given me his bug. I managed to stagger through the week despite a bloated tummy that made me look about 5 months preggers and too many trips back and forth to the loo to count. My tummy is gradually settling down although it's still a bit dodgy. I could handle the tummy bug though as I know it would eventually pass and if it was just that I would probably muscle on, but I had physio on Friday and the treatment she does leaves me really quite sore after on a normal day, but, as I was still sore from the previous ride nearly 2 weeks prior, it was jump off the bed pain. So as I am still sore today I have made the decision that it would be ridiculous to do the bike ride next weekend, especially as I have my coccxy manipulation 2 days after the bike ride.

I'm pretty gutted as I was looking forward to both the ride and a wee family trip away, but I cannot afford to put my recovery back. It has taken 14 months to get this far and so I'll just have to be a little more patient. The race will be there another year when I'm not in pain and my health is tip top. For now Murray needs a mummy who is healthy and not in unbearable pain.

Longest Bike Ride + Bad Nights.

It has been another tough week. Murray took a relapse on Tuesday and has been up at 2, 4 or 5am pretty much every night screaming for milk. At least at 2 we got him settled again, but at all the 4 or 5 wake up times, he just cried and cried and cried, so after an hour or so of trying we just got up. I'm hoping this is the bug and not just a bad habit. His nappies are only just improving (scrap that - Al has just changed another explosion) and he's been so incredibly thirsty, so I think it is the bug. We'll soon see.

Despite all this going I have managed to maintain exercise and for that I'm feeling quite smug. Being booked in to the sportive helped with that as I can feel time ticking away. I had wanted to do more cycling/spinning over gym work, but with the bad nights it was just a case of doing whatever got you motivated to go.

Mon: 30 mins pilates; 3 mile hilly walk with buggy; 100 lengths swim.
Tue: Rest (Murray v ill again)
Wed: 45 mins gym + 20 mins pilates
Thurs: 45 mins gym
Fri: 60 min spin
Sat: Rest
Sun: 48 mile bike ride.

Today was my longest bike ride ever and boy did my butt and legs ever feel it. It was a lovely route, but with the lack of sleep this week, a bad time in my cycle and slightly squishy tyres (note to self - make sure they are like bullets next time) I'm not sure if I actually enjoyed it. OK, I enjoyed sections of it, but at about the half way point when I stopped off at a hotel to use a loo, I could have quite easily booked a bed for a few hours, lay down and gone to sleep! Anyway, now that it is done I guess I feel pleased with the achievement. Trying not to think too hard about next week's long ride and the actual event itself!

Next week I think I'd quite like to do 50+ (thinking 55) because the event itself is 65.5 and I think psychologically if I've only got 10 more miles to do it will help. Then the week before the event I'll do 25 - 30 I think. I'm questioning my sanity at this point after that ride. How on earth my butt is going to cope with that length of time in the saddle I have no idea. Why oh why did I think a 65.5 mile first sportive would be a good idea! Never mind the B+B is booked, so we're going and I'll just have to keep pedalling onwards. Just please start hoping for good or at least dry weather, oh and that Murray goes back to sleeping through or I'll fall asleep on the bike!

On recovery news, there has been some positivity. After much complaining about my coccyx pain, it turns out Murray's delivery has displaced my coccyx and it is sitting out and quite markedly off to the left. No wonder it has been sore. Apparently this only usually happens in skinny women - now there's a reason if I ever heard one to eat cake! Anyway all my perseverance in finding a physio who deals with this sort of thing has paid off and at the end of the month she is going to try and manipulate it back into place. If she can't do it that way she'll try under general anaesthetic so fingers crossed the first way will be successful. I'm excited that that source of pain will hopefully be gone or improved soon. I'm trying not to get too excited, but it will be good to not be in pain driving the car or even sitting in a car. Thankfully you lean forward on a bike and take the pressure off the coccyx or if I was in the pain I am in the car, the bike would be a no go too. They hope with the coccyx in line, that some of my pelvic pain will be reduced, but that they will tackle that after. We'll see. It's been a long road with lots of disappointment so like I said, I'm trying not to get too excited. It would be nice to have some pain removed as it can really get terribly tiring. Lots of positive vibes would be gratefully received.

I bought Murray a pair of crogs - mainly because I couldn't find his left shoe the other day (I found it eventually in the pots and pans cupboard - hmmmmmm, I think he's found a new game) but it turns out they're good for putting on over his baby-grow in the morning so he doesn't keep wiping out on our slippery tiled kitchen floor. He thought himself rather clever walking about in them.

I ran an Open day at my centre on Saturday to celebrate our 5th birthday when we received our 5 year certificate. Murray and Al came with me so we could spend time together once I was done. Murray really enjoyed walking around the central table and helping mummy work. The Kip McGrath balloons we had to hand out where an even bigger bonus.