Day 7 - No more underwear! And why no coffee (yet).

So happy my boobs are no longer as sore, and we could have some proper morning cuddles.

Morning family photo of us all half asleep or asleep

Okay - on a different note - I am super happy to announce (I'm aware it is weird to share) that I am officially done wearing underwear! I hate wearing underwear. In usual times I only wear underwear if I am wearing pants made of polyester. The rest of the time - panty-free.

Towards the end of pregnancy, I wore underwear, because many of my maternity pants were polyester and also... you know cervical plug and all (I ended up not losing it until literally little M's head was coming out).

Then post-partum I wore underwear + organic cotton reusable pads (Hannahpads), then switched to cotton light flow period panties and yay - now nothing.

Side story: Before birth I sewed crotch pads into all my period panties, except the cotton light low ones. I sewed crotch pads made of organic terry cotton over the existing one to make them organic cotton. And after doing all that (it wasn't much work) - I didn't get to use them because it seems my hips widened even more with this birth / pregnancy (or my bum is bigger - which I kind of think it is. I don't have that muscle loss bum - called Mom Bum. Which I had in my pregnancy with Elba. P.s. we want to avoid it, because it is an indication we are losing muscle. So, lacking in some nutrition or enough calories). Anyways - all my usual period products didn't fit this time. And I am NOT willing to wear anything tight right now. Definitely not squeezing myself into things. So, I never got to wear them. Oh well.

Other physical things while I am on a TMI roll

Digestion - it's not great

I struggled with digestion after my first birth. Many people do. It is a slow digestion time - hence needing to stay clear of unnecessary grains / grains that aren't well prepared, and to prioritize warm easy to digest foods.

We have been doing that, plus a raw carrot salad every day, but also Milk of Magnesia. Because I developed hemorrhoids from birth I not risking a solid bowel movement in this time. I want them to heal. My choice of stool softner is Milk of Magnesia (I ordered another bottle today).

So far bowel movements have been okay - thanks to the milk of magnesia, but I am definitely nervous about it and wanting to make sure I do whatever get things up and running again smoothly. I am considering a light magnesium citrate supplement as part of my daily ones. I can't keep taking milk of magnesia, because then body will depend on it to go, which I want to avoid.

Anyways - I will continue to be strict with what I eat and drink, and see what I need to do or change to get digestion back up and running.

P.s. Aside from hemorrhoids being something to consider - I also prioritize soft stool because of how much the muscles in that area stretched and how uncomfortable it feels to go when they aren't back up to usual strength. Which I think this time will be faster, but still.

Food, Beverages, Snacks & Supplements

Our current routine with this is - Ian brings up milky cacao and broth with the supplement box (I still have lots of my other drinks next to my bed. He refreshes whichever needs it). We all have this together while the oats cooks. Then he brings up the oats to eat. Then later lunch or snacks (depending on the time we ate oats), then dinner, then, if necessary, more snacks and refills all beverages for the night.

Broth

Same supplements today:

1. Desiccated thyroid - From the Life Giving Store

2. Vit D drops (it is winter in Canada)

3. Organ Blend

4. K2 - Lifebud (I have the capsules & the drops)

5. B Vitamins - Lifebud

6. Probiotic

7. Lactoferrin

Drinks

1. Adrenal cocktail - apple juice diluted 50:50 with water and a pinch of salt

2. Warm cacao milk with oyster powder, kelp extract, colostrum and syrup (I have two of these a day).

3. Herbal tea - dried berries (for Vit C & taste), nettle, red raspberry leaf and oat straw with some honey.

4. Broth - at least twice a day. A mug of homemade broth (recipe coming soon).

5. Water - filtered and remineralized.

Food:

Ian has started cooking more meals now that we're a week in. We do have freezer meals for the days he doesn't want to cook.

1. Snacks - Date collagen balls  (these are my overnight and during the day snacks currently)

2. Digestive balls made by a friend with oats, prunes and dates

3. Breakfast - Oats (sprouted, organic and soaked over night) cooked slow and low in milk with whey and wild blue berries.

4. Lunch - Crackers (not ideal because not sourdough, just wheat), sausage, butter and cheese.

5. Dinner - Ian made cottage pie - it was so lovely! And of course, daily raw carrot salad. Ian is don't the alternative - boiled mushrooms. See my Ray Peat Carrot Salad Blog for more.

Coffee - my feisty unusual take

In usual times I drink 1 x ice coffee a day. Always after food, and full of good things. I chose this time NOT to have it in the first week PP. As someone who subscribes to prometabolic health outlook / bio energetic / Ray Peat Inspired vibes (I need a shorter way to say this) - I view coffee as having health benefits when consumed properly (with milk and sugar). BUT coffee is a stimulant. Which means it is only beneficial in times where we are in a good state to ride that stimulant, not when we are in a compromised state. For this reason, I never drink it sleep deprived or if I am not consuming enough other things. AND given the sensitive time after birth I also chose NOT to consume it this week. I told Ian no coffee for week 1, but then I will evaluate how I feel going into week 2.

If I were to feel anxious, exhausted, depleted or anything in that realm - coffee is staying OFF the menu. I do not subscribe to the cultural "joke" of moms surviving off coffee because of being exhausted. This is not good for us. I only consume coffee when I am feeling good. I don't push and exhausted body to be stimulated to function. If I am exhausted, I find ways to rest and nourish.

How I write these blogs

Nursing M

Little M does a long sleep in the afternoon. I typically type them up in this time. I make notes in my journal during the day of my own and M's symptoms and other things (I've always liked journalling as a way to reflect on healing and changes).

My view

I can see the mountains from our bedroom window. I can see trees. I can see people walking their dogs and being outside. I like this view in this time.

Can you believe it has been a whole week of me being in this room? The furthest I have gone is our 2nd bathroom that is just down the hall from our bedroom.

Changing diapers

Initially M would cry through every single diaper change. I made some changes to make it more pleasant for him - like changing to fitted diapers that are faster to put on rather than flats. And him only wearing one layer of clothing rather than a vest as well.

Even though he doesn't like it, I still don't rush through it. I rather pick him up and gently talk him through it. So far it seems to be getting better where now he is only upset through SOME of the changes and not all of them.

He doesn't mind the potty, and he doesn't mind lying down - it is very specific to being changed.

The organic cotton diaper I made

The organic terry cotton diapers I made are working so well! I am so pleased since I created the pattern. I will be uploading the pattern as soon as I have a moment to retest it (just before birth I finished it, but the program for some reason distorted the page size and I didn't manage to fix it before little M made his way to us).

If you have even basic sewing skills (can sew in a straight line) I highly recommend making these. It is such an affordable way to make super practical very pure diapers!

Organic cotton cloths

For diaper changes I use organic terry cloths - but a different organic terry cotton. A lighter weight one compared to the diapers. When experimenting with what I wanted I ordered a bunch of different organic terry cotton fabric and made different things from it - hand towels from a super heavy one, face cloths for me and the personal care box for SIMPLY, diapers - fitted and flats, and baby wipe cloths.

Final things for Day 7

I washed my hair! for the 2nd time since birth

I am wondering if I will be doing a mom cut soon to avoid the task of brushing my hair. The rest of it is easy to do. Maybe if/when it starts falling out PP - it will be a good time to cut it. Thoughts?

Less screen time

I bought a little temperature and humidity reader with the time visible - actually it is a repurchase. Elba threw our previous one in the bath and it broke.

I don't want to be picking up my phone in the night to check the time when I wake up to nurse little M, but I do somewhat like to see the time and how long we've been sleeping. So, I got this little clock / reader next to our book light (which btw is working better than the night light I bought to use for changes). We also have a salt lamp on dim the whole night. It just isn't enough for me to see for diaper changes.

It is very easy in this time to do too much phone time. I like my phone for messages and feeling connected a bit to the outside world, but I also need to manage my phone time. And spend most of my time not looking at any kind of screen.

I do not watch movies or series in this time. I have been reading a book on Kindle - a fiction book (very unusual for me) written by someone I know and loving it so far. Skin Deep by H.J Worthington-Smith

I also started reading some of my non-fiction books again - specifically Aware Baby.

While it may be tempting in this time to scroll or watch movies/series - I do believe it is best not to. The sounds and imagery are very stimulating. They will mess with natural sleep and rest, and also the actual content could be not so good in this sensitive time.

Best to leave the phone, TV, tablet and rather read or stare at your baby or out the window.

And lastly connection with my toddler - this has been challenging, but the better I feel, the more I can do. She gets a lot of 1:1 in the day, but just not from me.

We're finding small ways to connect in this time - like she is loving bringing me her tooth things for me to do her tooth routine. I've pretty much always done it. Ian doesn't like doing it and I think Elba doesn't like him doing it haha.

Elba has weak enamel which means her teeth were deteriorating before she was properly eating solids. We have been incredibly diligent in doing what we can to naturally make her teeth stronger and so far, we have managed to do a lot. Mostly it comes down to internal health. Weak enamel is a 'birth defect', not an issue of lacking now.

Anyways - this has meant this elaborate tooth routine every single night for 2 years - tooth blotting (blotting not brushing), followed by brushing with re-mineralizing tooth paste, followed by her rinsing and spitting (we taught her this early), followed by remineralization tooth puddy from Bliss Energetics - the primal one, followed by some supplements (Vit K mostly and now in winter D&K - rubbed on her cheeks).

I love that she brings me the things to do it for her since we've done it every night for so long.

And that brings us to the end of our first week of the first 40 days!

See you in week 2 as I gradually start to make a bit more changes and do a little bit more (slowly). Thanks for being here :)

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