Joyful Home: Mommy's Sickies

My girls are still sick. My midwife said that many infants have been coming into the clinic with this cold. Sam and I have joined them. We are all just making it through each day and night with enough sleep. I think Sam is the best though. He gives me the sleep I need. I found out on Wednesday, at my last midwifery appointment (six weeks post-op) that my body isn't recovering at the rate they were hoping it would. My uterus has only contracted down half way. It should be a lot smaller by now. It is still the size of a four month pregnant uterus. So, either my body is just slow to go back to normal, or something is wrong. We are just taking it easy until we find out. Thankfully, I haven't had enough negative symptoms to warrant a trip to the OB-GYN yet. The doctor we saw is hoping that my body will resolve the issues naturally. That's what we are praying too.
When I was pregnant, my mom and I studied a website called Spinning Babies that addressed positioning of unborn babies and how to spin them into better positions. It was fascinating to me. The website is full of information and is difficult for me to navigate through. I recommend bookmarking specific pages on the website if you find them interesting... because they are hard to pinpoint.
While we were studying how to spin babies, we practiced some of the exercises. Despite our best efforts and sore muscles on my part, the baby's position didn't change. We ended up having another posterior baby and my mom, Sam, the midwives and myself are all speculating that the massive amounts of pelvic pain combined with two posterior babies could mean that I have some muscle problems in my pelvic floor. There is a pelvic muscle physical therapist in Kelowna that the midwives recommended I have an appointment with. According to the Spinning Babies website, if your babies are posterior and the exercises don't work, your pelvic muscles could be keeping the babies in that position.
I found a website that addresses the topic of myofascial pain syndrome. It defines it as "when (for whatever reason) a muscle tenses and contracts too much, forming tight bands (ever felt a knot of muscle in your neck?" I'm wondering if this MPS could be what is wrong with my pelvis. Not sure. Anybody heard of this? I'm going to do more research and talk with the local physical therapist to see what she thinks, after getting an evaluation done.

I have been diffusing peppermint and thieves essential oils to help our breathing at night and during the day. It seems to be helping quite a bit. Since getting the oils, I've been doing some research to see what it is useful for. I found out that peppermint essential oil helps aid in digestion, headaches, colds, pain relief and even a drop on the tongue can give you super-fresh breath. Thieves essential oil aids in boosting the immune system, so we've been using that one a lot! It smells great too.
Speaking of natural remedies, I learned something that rocked my world the other day from my midwife. Apparently you can put breast milk in an infant's eye to help with clogged tear ducts. It may sound strange but it works. You can apply breast milk to your baby's skin if they have dryness or cradle cap. We are also using a humidifier to keep the air from being too dry. The air in Kelowna is significantly dryer than in Washington State.