Getting the pre-baby body back. Kind of.

So, I did a Kayla Itsines workout and now I can’t walk. But that’s what I get for not clicking the four week beginners course.

Saturday afternoon, in my sleep deprived haze, somehow I decided it would be a good idea to do a leg resistance workout. I’m also prone to getting really competitive with myself, so 2 minutes in when I realised it’d been a little over a year since I’d done anything slightly resembling this and should probably bow out – I didn’t. It’s now Monday and I’m paying for it, I still haven’t regained full control of my legs and sitting down literally takes my breath away, but I feel great.

I didn’t realise how much strength I’d lost and how lazy my muscles had become. I wasn’t that committed to exercise throughout my pregnancy, maybe a long walk here and there as well as doing sets of stairs to encourage bubs to move south, so I shouldn’t have been so surprised. My abs are virtually non-existent now, but that became clear when the midwife asked me to push and I replied ‘with what?’ (I found it was a weird combination of engaging your stomach muscles and pushing down through your legs which is such an odd thing to do after nine months of nothing) In fact, the only muscles that seemed to have develop post baby are my biceps – so lifting and carting around a 7.5kg bub is definitely working in my favour there.

But, I haven’t exactly been the most disciplined when it comes to working out post baby either and I have to admit breastfeeding, healthy eating and going for a walk once a day (…but mostly breastfeeding) are to be heralded as the reasons I’m back in my skinny jeans. I don’t know whether this is true for other mums but running on 4 hours sleep, cleaning the house and washing the 400 outfits she goes through a day leaves little time to eat let alone time for a workout.

But I’m going to make this a priority for me because it honestly does feel great to have done something physically challenging again. So, when I regain the feeling in my legs, I’m going to stick it out with the app and workouts and reclaim some of my strength, they’re only 28 minutes each and I can do one while she sleeps (and in between loads of washing). Us mums do have to go a bit easier on ourselves though and not only remember what our bodies have been through, but acknowledge what they’ve accomplished. As my doctor put it, “nothing is ever quite the same”.

Love, Mum who can now do 15 pushups without breaking a sweat – just don’t ask me to squat.

xxx

Find the Sweat with Kayla app in the App Store or here at http://www.kaylaitsines.com/

Newborns and an Ode to breastfeeding – you’re not alone.

So, I held my friends newborn today and all these memories came flooding back. Sounds very melodramatic, but it’s true.

There are so many things I’ve forgotten about that stage already and Bubs is only four months old! The way they flail uncontrollably, the little grunts and noises they make when they’re sleeping. How hard they try to get some kind of control over their disproportionately weighted head or, that hungry scream/cry they make that makes your heart hurt.

It’s funny how all through pregnancy (which for me couldn’t go quickly enough, I googled how to bring on labour more times than I care to admit) people tell you that time just FLIES by and before you know it they’ll be in high school. They weren’t wrong that’s for sure. I now have a four month old who’s already trying to crawl. I maintain that she’ll probably be bald till high school, but that’s just my theory.

Chatting to my new mummy friend and hearing all the things I went through only a couple months back, its hard not to get all nostalgic. Like breastfeeding – which feels like second nature to me now, I can whip my DD’s out wherever and whenever Bubs needs. But I’d forgotten the way you wince in pain just before they ‘latch’ onto your nipple, which are slowly but surely being sucked to oblivion. And how many times you hear the word ‘latch’, how you didn’t think you’d ever use the word ‘latch’, but ‘latch’ ends up being apart of your everyday vocabulary. Or, when they’re ready for a feed they madly shake their head side to side trying to ‘latch’ (see) – I think I recorded this once because I thought it was hilarious, am I a bad Mum? Or, when they fall asleep sucking and their suction of death sees your nipple stretched 15cm in front of you as you try to remove them…

I remember thinking how beautiful and natural breastfeeding was but how strange and weird it is at the same time. But it’s learning a new skill and everything takes time to get accustomed to as does the reality of blood blisters, cracked nipples and coming to terms with the fact a newborn can manage to scratch a stretched, bleeding nipple. I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten how engorged and painful my boobs were when my milk ‘came in’ and calling the ABA for advice – such a phenomenal service by the way, use it! I honestly had it easy, I really enjoyed how challenging and rewarding those first few weeks were. We were blessed with a great feeder and sleeper from the get go, but it wasn’t without some rough patches.

Looking back I’d forgotten how many times I had to deal with blocked ducts and night sweats and feeling so run down and sleep deprived. All the while knowing I had to keep it together because my gorgeous baby was so dependent on me. Reading this you couldn’t help to think how awesome all new mums are and how easy it would be to get overwhelmed by it all, could you?

I wouldn’t change the past four months for the world and I’m here to remind you that when everything’s going wrong just remember you are amazing and you’ve got this. You know your little person better than anyone, but just like any new relationship you both need time to adjust to each other and find what works best FOR YOU. Nights and night feedings that feel like they wont end actually do and everything gets so much easier, I promise.

Love, Mum who misses the newborn phase – as will you, so soak in as many amazing and horrible moments you can.

xxx

Things they don’t tell you about parenting – Volume. 1

Sleep regression: When your 4 month old decides sleeping just isn’t for them.

Yes, it’s a thing. And it’s a bitch.

This one’s pretty self explanatory… Their sleep regresses to that of a highly temperamental newborn. Just as you move into that sweet spot where you might be lucky enough to clock in some decent Z’s, (let’s be honest anything over 4 hours straight feels like you’ve won the baby lottery) you’re constantly being asked if you’ve established a ‘routine’ and proceed to talk about it like you’re pretty much nailing this whole parenting thing.

Enter sleep regression.

So, the sleep assassin decided Monday that she’d wake up at 11, 2 (can handle these) 3, 5, 5:30 (can’t handle these) and then just mumble and squeal to herself till 6  which is adorable at ANY OTHER time of the day. Rough night, I said. Must be a growth spurt, I said.

5 days of max. 4 hours sleep later I decided to google ‘what the hell is going on with my four month old and why is she torturing me?’ So here’s what google taught me*: it turns out that their sleep cycle ‘matures’ at around four months. It becomes more like an adult’s in that they begin to cycle between light and deep sleep. Interesting you might be thinking…but there’s a catch!  Where you and I; sensible, sleep respecting humans would stay asleep during this light sleep phase, they wake up… So many sad faces. :(((((((((

So, we’re 6 days in and the cracks are beginning to show. The sleep assassin shifts between my happy baby to an angry mess quicker than you can say ‘sleep regression’. She’s just, after trying with all her might for a few days, figured out how to roll from back to front – and BOY was this a contentious issue today. She’d scream until she flipped (which still takes a while and a few constipated faces) then decide she doesn’t actually like the view from her belly any better and scream till I rescued her from the baby prison that is her play mat. This by the way has expanded now to pretty much the size of the loungeroom. No amount of stimulating, fluro pink elephants could save me from this nightmare.

I’m yet to find a remedy to this lunacy but for now the hope that she will be too exhausted to fight swaddling at 4 am is all I’ve got.

*my riveting google search (see also; things I never thought I’d google till I became a mother) revealed that sleep regressions happen at 8, 12, 18 & 24 months too! – Hooray!

Love, Mum who would very much like to just skip this month.

xxx