11 weeks postpartum
Last week I saw in my 36th birthday, got a tattoo and had a really bad cold - the gift that kept on giving.
I spent the latter part of the week and weekend in a bit of a haze and I don’t really feel like I had a birthday, which is fine, I’m not overly precious about it.
I mentioned in last weeks substack that we were starting to gather a few bits for potty training. I couldn’t believe how much they want to charge for some plastic toilet seats and steps these days?
I ended up finding some rubber style toilet seats on vinted.
£4 for two of these bad boys…
I’ve never been a fan of pottys. Although you might need one for the car and for travelling, there’s extra clean up involved for pottys in the house. When the toilet seats came, Freyja knew instantly what they were for.
‘That’s mes weewees’
Yes, that’s for your wee wee.
She helped me place one in each bathroom, and even chose to sit on them on the floor whilst I was using the toilet.
and so the familiarising began.
We then started to have a few issues around bathtime. The poo bath situation escalated. Freyja decided that the bath was an unsafe place where there could be a poo lurking without her knowledge. She started to remain standing, asking us to look under the bubbles for hidden poos - like we put them there and they don’t come out of her own ass.
On one occasion, she refused to get in the bath so I asked her if she would like to sit on the toilet while I checked the water for her. She screamed ‘no’ in my face and then crawled away shouting ‘stop’, so I don’t think she’s quite ready for potty training to start 😅
I’ll continue to gather the things we need, like step stools and maybe some books.
If you don’t already, follow me on vinted.
There’s a popular phrase in spaces where rejecting diet culture is at the core and that phrase is…’give yourself unconditional permission to rest’.
I am fully invested into this concept but it isn’t always straight forward or even possible for some of us. I spent 2 days feeling like utter soil but I still had two small children to look after. Both of them at an age where they cannot do anything for themselves.
And at a point when your head is full and you just want to curl up in a corner and ignore everything until you feel better, you realise that you can’t and no one is coming to save you.
And this is why the only true parenting hack is to have people around who can help you. I was fortunate that Matt’s parents were on hand to help me during the day on Thursday.
If you want to rub salt into the wound of a parent, tell them ‘just take it easy’ when they’ll not feeling good.
This week on things I can’t live without, I wanted to give a little shout out to those laundry bags designed for delicates.
Back when we had Freyja, we found that her bibs with Velcro fastenings were wrecking other clothing in the wash. Also, the bibs would all get tightly wrapped around themselves when the load was spinning.
I cannot recommend these little bags enough…
You can grab some here: laundry bags
(Amazon store front link)
These are also great for tiny socks that tend to get stuck in the rubber of the door and then end up soaking wet at the end of the wash. I’m so glad we remembered this time to put the bibs in the bags (she says even though she doesn’t do the laundry, that’s Matt’s job).
I unfortunately missed my second running club, as Matt was away Thursday night and I was ill anyway. I also didn’t attend CrossFit on Sunday morning as I was still not 100%. That means I haven’t engaged in any activity in over a week. A few years ago, this would have really bothered me and I probably would have dragged myself back to some form of movement when I wasn’t ready. Now, not so much. There is nothing worse than doing a workout when you’re full of snot and you feel better when you feel better. You can’t rush it.
If you enjoy reading this substack then maybe share it with a friend, no worries if not!
Before I go, I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has voted for me for the active pregnancy foundation awards so far. These things are usually monopolised by the hey hun influencers and I’m definitely an underdog so your votes are honestly so appreciated.
If you haven’t already, follow the link and vote for me for pre and post natal instructor of the year, but of course, no worries if not.