So, yesterday, I had my 6-week postpartum appointment.

First off, whoa, that means that Liam was born six weeks ago, which I really can’t imagine, and that means that I have six weeks to get my shit together (mostly emotionally) before I go back to work.

About a week-and-a-half to two weeks after I gave birth to baby Liam, the practice I delivered with called me to check in, and to schedule my six-week appointment.

So when you go for your six-week appointment, that means a few things.  For one, the receptionists and nurses really really hope that you brought your baby so they can see him and say hello.  Which I did.  And only seems fair because they are the kindest people, check you in for the better part of 8ish months, and when I was in labor and they saw me hunched over in the parking lot breathing heavily just over a month ago, the really nice women who always sits on the right pulled my chart and had them rush me back so I wouldn’t have to wait.  For two, they bring you in to sort of gauge where you are mentally, which I think is a newer thing since my mom said her and all her friends sort of just suffered with the blues with no one to check in on them.  And for three (for third?), they bring you in to physically look at your stuff, assess where you are as far as healing (for me, I had stitches), and with postpartum bleeding, and at that point, they can tell you if you’re good to go as far as sex and exercise, or whether you need medication, further evaluation, or if you need a little longer to heal.

Because this was an appointment for me and not for they baby, like pretty much all of my other appointments have been, I decided that I wasn’t sure if I could handle the appointment on my own.  Since there was a distinct possibility that I’d be laying on a table in the stirrups, I figured that unless Liam was fully cooperative (and newborns aren’t always, folks), that it could be a little hard to wrangle him without being really distracting to the doctor and that nurses, so Austin scooted over to the doctor’s office and fed him some expressed gold while they worked me up.  I was able to see a few of the nurses, Heather and Ashley especially, who hooked me up to the “seismograph” the day before and the day of my delivery, and they were really sweet, and really excited to see me.  After I was worked up, Dr. K, of my delivery-room fame came into check me out, and it was so cool to see her.  Last time I saw her was, to the day, the day she calmly delivered Liam, and then sort of disappeared until the next morning, when she was about to be off for the day.

So, Dr. K checked me out, asked questions, talked about family planning for our future (definitely more babies, but not anytime soon), and cleared me to work out and resume all activities!  Up to this point, I’ve been walking, doing yoga, and ran my first postpartum mile  once, but had not yet been to any classes, or done anything that would be considered “high-impact”.

What all that means for me personally, is that I’m kinda back in the game, but not trying to hurt myself.  I’m going to work a day at Fleet Feet, and see how I do without him, and make sure he’s okay without me.  I’m going to do some higher-impact workouts, but adjust as necessary, and really focus on core and glute strength, since I truly feel like for me to run any sort of distance uninjured, that these two things are the key.  And I’m going to ease into writing more, cleaning a little more around the house, and getting things ready for the holidays and for me to return to work at the beginning of December.

Okay, so now that I’ve blahed, what are you up to on this fallish Saturday?