3 Weeks

Mio is now 3 weeks old and looking so grown up. Still an easy little girl that lets me sleep at night and lets me have a shower while she naps in the evening.

Unfortunately Mio developed a little fungal nappy rash a few days ago. She woke one morning looking a little red and despite spending a few hours each day sleeping without a nappy on, putting breast milk on it, putting probiotic powder on it, and covering it in coconut oil (for it's amazing anti-fungal properties) I couldn't get it to heal. It didn't get any worse but it wasn't getting any better either. India had a similar problem once when she was real little and as much as I hate chemicals and do everything in my power to avoid them I knew that it just wasn't going to go away without a trip to the pharmacy. With only 2 applications and less than 24 hours it has healed considerably which makes me feel much better about the situation.
Considering it is a fungal thing it got me thinking about candida and the fact that her body is a direct reflection of mine because everything that I have goes into my milk so if she has a candida problem then chances are I have one too. I've been taking probiotics but it has been very sporadic as I often forget now that I have two little ones to keep me busy. I considered an anti-candida diet but the diet recommends eliminating all dairy (except yoghurt) and all legumes and as I don't eat meat and have had to take it easy with nuts and seeds otherwise I get stomach aches I decided it wasn't a good idea because I need protein and a varied diet to make milk for my baby. Instead I resolved to eat less sugar (and try to cut it out completely), take it easy with starchy foods like potatoes and take probiotics, I'm sure both Mio and I will benefit from this.

The niggling little pain in my back that I suddenly had at 37 weeks pregnant was still hanging around and was worse if I sat down for an extended period. Curious about exactly where this pain was coming from I looked up some pictures of the bone structure in hips and lower back. I figured out that it was my left sacroiliac joint that was causing problems and did lots of reading and started to get real worried that I may have done some real damage. I decided to go to a physiotherapist to see what they thought and to hopefully knock this problem before it got too bad.
as I suspected it was a problem with my sacroiliac joint but it wasn't as bad as I initially thought. The joint was very tense and the surrounding muscles were also quite tight which was twisting my left hip forward. This fits with my initial thoughts when I first felt the pain when I was pregnant. The cause is most likely from Mio being in a funny position when her head engaged in my pelvis which is why my back hurt and I had a pain at the front of my left hip. The pain in the front of my left hip was probably from her shoulder pressing into it. I mentioned this to our midwife and she said that it did always seem that Mio did seem to lie sort of half sideways across my belly. Mio's positioning caused the sacroiliac joint and the surrounding muscles to become tense which is most like what made that later stages of my labour feels more difficult than it should have and made the labour take longer than I expected.
I find it all incredibly fascinating and it's a relief that I haven't done any serious damage. The physio gave me a few gentle stretches to do so with time I'm sure this niggling little problem will fix itself.
My trip to the physio was also the first time I let Mio out of my sight, Dave came with me and I fed Mio before I went in and then Dave took her for a walk to the coffee shop where they had their first daddy daughter coffee date. She slept through the whole thing but it was still a bit special.

The past 3 weeks have been really beautiful and it's so lovely to see my little girl growing. She really is such an easy baby to take care of, I've been able to do a little crocheting, and some drawing and painting, and I've also been able to cook dinner most nights which is something that I really enjoy doing. I'm trying to soak in these early days before they disappear.