Blessing my Back

About nine months ago I slipped and fell. It was February. I walked outside without any thought about the fact that it was freezing and hit the stairs outside of my apartment. Literally, I hit the stairs. For several days prior, rain had fallen off and on - mostly on. This particular Saturday the sun shone and I felt like skipping. Okay, maybe not skipping, but it put me in a good mood. So out the door I went, stepped onto icy stairs without even looking, and down on my butt I landed.

Heavily pregnant and due in about eight weeks, I screamed in fright. My dear husband came running to see if I was okay. I sat about a third of the way down the flight of steps out of our second floor apartment and took stock of my body. Everything seemed okay. The baby seemed okay. I had a few scrapes on my hands from trying to catch my fall and a bruise on one arm, but I felt like nothing major had happened. Phew! Having assured Dear Craig that all was well and I was simply shaken up, I proceeded to stand up.

Hmmm. How do I get off of these slippery steps? Finally taking a good hard look around me, I realized that every single one of them had ice on it. What's a big ole preggo mama to do??? There were fewer stairs to go up than to go down. I stood and took one unsteady step up. No good. Too much ice. I sat back down. Aha! I'll go down on my butt. So, one slippy step at a time, I lowered myself down until my feet hit the blessedly dry ground at the bottom. I stood back up and went off to teach a piano lesson.

I pulled up at my student's home and tried to get out of the car. Uh oh. Super stiff body with a giant belly crammed into a compact car. What now? Find a way out of the car. I needed the money from the lesson. Gingerly, I made my way out of the vehicle and up to the door. Somehow I made it through the lesson and back home. Having gone through the same stiff motions to get out of the car once again, I headed for the inside stairs. (We don't usually use them as they go through a Preschool and we don't want to disturb them.)

By this point, I had developed quite a pain in the area of my tailbone. I took some Tylenol and rounded up my husband to do the driving for the rest of the weekend. By Monday the pain was excruciating. Tylenol had no hope of touching it. I called the obstetrician's office to ask about taking something stronger. The answer was, "No and you need to come in today for a fetal stress test and why didn't you call on Saturday when it happened???"

As I had already figured out by my baby's regular movements, he was fine. It was Mommy to Be that had the injury. The doctor narrowed it down to my pelvis. She sent me off to Physical Therapy. The therapist narrowed down the injury to my sacrum and informed me there was not much she could do as my pregnancy was working against me at this stage. I needed to tighten the pelvis back up, but my body was busy loosening it so that the baby could fit through during labor. Great. She did manage to deliver some relief. I was able to sit again without pain even though the discomfort persisted.

Along came the baby via Cesarean section. My stomach was not in particularly stellar shape before I got pregnant. The c-section put it into worse shape. My back ached all the time. Picking up my sweet baby became difficult. I knew the answer would be to exercise. But how? Where? My floor was covered in clutter and pretty icky underneath it. After all, in my exhausted late pregnant and injured state, I had become unable to do any housework. My husband had lost his marbles and was unable to do any housework.

Enter FLYLady. On and off over the past few years I have been using her system to keep the house clean. It was time to get back on. Now I have a clear floor that has seen a vacuum. I can do all of those exercises to strengthen my back and pelvis and whatever else I want to strengthen. One of the many things I love about FLYLady is that she has renamed many activities that often become seen negatively i.e. exercise. She calls it "Blessing Your Heart." Tonight I decided that I would be "Blessing my Back."

Go Me!!!

I love the Internet!

I have never had a period in my life where I didn't have to fight with the Clutter Monster. For the past few years I have had an ally on the World Wide Web helping me to fight that Monster. She goes by FlyLady. You will find a link to her website here on this blog. With her help, I have been able to tackle my clutter. She also encourages us to care for ourselves by exercising and eating well.

This brings me to today. I had been wondering how to work some exercise into my life. My home is on a very busy road without a sidewalk. As I have a seven month old that I would have to push in a stroller, that means driving somewhere safe and paved to take a walk. So, needless to say, I have not been walking very much.

Joining a gym is out. Even if I had the money, I would need to find someone to watch the baby. And then I'd have to pack up my stuff and get over there. So, I have not joined a gym. I could buy an exercise video. I've done that in the past. But some of them are too hard. Some of them require more room than I have in my tiny living room. And even if it is the perfect level for me (super easy on the totally out of shape body...) AND there is enough room in my place for all of the moves, I'll probably grow bored with it at some point. Then what would I do with the video? Let it clutter my home?

I found the solution!!! Several years ago I joined Netflix because there were no late fees. You just return your video at your convenience and they send you another one. Perfect for me who is rarely on time with video returns. They also have way more movies to choose from than any regular store can keep in stock. Recently, they added a new feature. You can watch quite a few of their movies right over the Internet. Voila! I can do an exercise video!!! If it turns out to be too difficult, I can stop it and try another one. If it requires more space than I have, I can stop it and try another one. If I get bored, I can try another one without ever having to figure out whether I should store or get rid of the video. If my baby needs attention, I won't be away at a gym.

No clutter!!! Healthier me!!! I love the Internet!!!