The Next Stage

So Sunday I woke up to full body aches and I was a little nervous. My morning elliptical work out was awful. I was tired and I just couldn't get myself going. Despite everything I've written here, I did not take steroids.

But it was okay. I got a little more tired after the work out, but it passed in a couple hours.

Then I took a delicious nap because we had agreed on a lazy Sunday after church.

And did another Zumba workout.

All without steroids.

We'll see how it all pans out, but I think I'm transitioning to the next stage where I may not need to stress dose for exercise anymore. Illness remains to be seen.

A couple things have changed in my body's status quo:

1. I don't get the 'adrenal pain' so much anymore. It used to be almost constant but now it's mostly gone. Medicine doesn't recognize this pain, but since it correlates so well with when I feel adrenal and now that I'm not so adrenal, I'm comfortable blaming it on the adrenals.

2.I can gain weight now. Not so much lose, but I have to be careful with what I eat. So far I'm maintaining, but I really have to watch the scale and remember my carb free pass is now gone. All those times I ate ice cream and cake and candy and didn't gain weight? Yeah, that's over.

I do still have issues with low appetite when I get run down and I have continued to have low immune symptoms after exercise, just not every work out.

As for baby shower gifts... yes gift cards are really awesome because, even though you put the entire store on your baby registry, there's always something you need that didn't know you needed until after the baby arrived. Plus, diapers are expensive. So are breastfeeding and formula feeding, those gift cards are great financial cushions.

My favorite gift was from work where they presented me with a $500 Target gift card that somehow lasted us a year. It was a huge help.

And,when in doubt, books. Babies need books. Tactile books. Classics like Cat in the Hat. Just books. Nobody buys babies books and it's a crying shame. At 7-8 weeks their vision is such that they like to look at the pictures and hearing mommy or daddy's voice? Is just gravy.

In case you wondered, I got them several books and then a few outfits in bigger sizes, because everyone gives you cute newborn outfits and then your baby has to go naked after their first big growth spurt (about five minutes after birth) until you can get some bigger clothes. Not that I know anything about that because I'm a perfect mother. Ha.