Years after Baby Number 9

[Mariah77]

Hi,
Once years ago a midwife felt my belly at 9 months and said it was as tight as a drum! That was 29 years ago! sigh…
I have had 9 pregnancies. I had two surgeries for hernia’s one being 4″ long and a mesh inserted. Before that I wasn’t allowed to do sit ups because I could burst my bowel. Ugh! So, here I am now with a little crest over my navel and it looks very discouraging. To add to that, I have a cracked vertebra from when a milk tanker took the back off my car and nearly took my daughter and her child seat with him. (Thank God we were all spared.)
The chiropractor tells me to exercise, work on my pelvic floor and get some rust out, but sit ups leave me in excruciating pain for days at a time with ice packs on my lower back for hours. If I don’t exercise I will deteriorate, and if I do, I suffer pain.
Walking uphill and my hips and lower back begin to burn and man does it hurt. 4-5 days of the same and I can tolerate it better and better… what that means I don’t know.
I taught alternative remedies for chronic and terminal illnesses for 25 years but exercise is not my forte.
The nearest swimming the nearest pool is 45 minutes away and I Home Educate 4 children daily. How do you look after yourself and maintain everything else in life, it just gets harder and harder as you age and your body cries out to be looked after, while you stand there juggling a whole lot of balls, with more and more personal maintenance needed.
I’m 48 in a few months and I have noticed that things need more maintenance than they did a few years ago.,
If anyone out there is in my situation in life and happens to have found the answer and reveled in it, please drop me a line.
NB*
We have bicycles.
We have beautiful walking tracks around a lake.
But all of these things don’t target the abdomen and the waistline and I find my days are always FULL!
And I wake up so tired every day and go to bed so tired, every night. The only time I am not feeling extremely tired is when I am fasting.

Diet is A1 and has been for many years, but I am here to get support for the above while I eat right, because I have learned while I was eating healthy it wasn’t enough. My body needs action and not in-action, but the how-to evades me.

Thanks for any ideas.
Mariah

[MoniMoni]

Hi Mariah,

I understand what you are going through! I am only 36 but have realized that if I don’t start moving that I will be in some bad shape. I do not want to end up in the sad shape as my sweet mother. I have aches and pains that will only get worse if I don’t do something. An object in motion remains in motion..as they say.

I have 6 kids and homeschool also. It is hard to find time to do these things especially if they aren’t #1 on the list. I get up with my husband at 5:15 and after he is off to work, while the kids are still sleeping I pop in PILATES FOR BEGINNERS WITH JILLIAN HESSEL. (Found at Gaiam.com) I am still new to this routine (you can’t call it routine yet…) But I noticed within a few days at it that I am not as stiff. The list goes on. The gal, Jillian, I believe was a dancer and sufferred some injury, hurt her back and found Pilates. She was in pain too. (granted she probably hasn’t had hernias and pregnencies and is only 120 pounds..) but she made an easy strengthening program that is do-able. It takes me 1 hour and I do feel energized. The hard part is making time for it. Really, I encourage you to give it a shot. Pilates says that in 30 days you will be transformed. (he put it more eloquently, but persevere)

Good Luck, Moni

[Mariah77]

Uh… timely advice yet, I cannot get up at that hour. I find that with menopause happening, and age creeping up that tiredness is something to be reckoned with. At 9pm my bed doesn’t only call it screams out to me.
Plus I have just only recovered from total burnout. So, I have just drawn up a new schedule that puts exercise as the first priority of the day.
Trackies, water bottle, hair in ponytail and out the door, for a long walk: fresh air is a major component of exercise. Changing the time factor to a time that I can manage has releived some of the push and everything gets done on time still. Plus we do phys. ed. so with the new schedule I will get 1 hour 45 in.
Great.
Thanks for your reply.

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