Life lately

The last few weeks have been quite tough. My back is still injured, a month after hurting it. I have also developed crippling De Quervain’s syndrome in my right wrist, resulting in a few days where I could barely lift Frida. Neither of these things have been making parenting easier, and combined with the four-month sleep regression (which has most definitely happened for Frida – we’re back to three or four wakes a night with boob to get back to sleep), I’ve been feeling a little bit sorry for myself!

What I have found the toughest has been the huge effort it’s been taking me to get out of the house. Usually I am out most of the day, every day. I find it’s more stimulating for Frida, and I find it less tiring than being at home all day – I don’t do well with feeling cooped up, especially in summer. There have been days where my wrist or back have been so bad that I’ve not really been able to leave the house, and I have found that incredibly hard to cope with.

I’m slowly recovering though, and am slowly going out more and more again. One of our favourite places to go is Tooting Common, and we spent the afternoon there a few days ago. Frida loves trees and being outside, so we spent a couple of hours looking at the various trees on offer. We watched a dog chase the geese in the lake, and looked at the turtles sunning themselves. We read our (ok, my) new favourite book, Beautiful Birds by Jean Roussen, and just lay in the grass pulling faces.

It felt very restorative to be able to get out into the sunshine without someone else helping me with the pram or wearing Frida (I’m struggling with baby wearing with the back pain), and I think Frida enjoyed it too.

We’ve also spent time recently in Brockwell Park (fantastic playground for older kids, wonderful lido, ice cream), and South Norwood Park (wild looking, beautiful little lake). We’ve gone blackberry foraging twice, and travelled to Birmingham for the day for a friend’s 30th barbecue. And tomorrow I’ll be taking Frida to Brighton to hang out with her baba (grandma). Slowly I am healing, and the sun is helping.