"Back to normal"?

[GoBecGo]

Hi,

Well, i'm a bit torn on my "recovery" and wanted to talk.

After i had DD1 i had a thyroid crisis which was very hyper and then suddenly very hypo in the months after her birth. The hyper phase was so bad i was 55lbs lighter than pre-pregnancy by 4months PP, and the hypo phase was so bad i lost my milk and most of my hair.

So this time PP last time i was thinner. And i was running and swimming every week. I just can't seem to get back to it this time. I WANT to, but it's like every time i get a theoretical chance there's something in the way. DH is at the gym right now and the poor guy is willing to do basically anything to help me feel better and get back to normal (because *I* want to be back to normal), but i just think if he's never been alone with DD2 then the first time begin when he also has to put DD1 to bed is a little much (for all 3 of them).

Is anyone else back to their running/normal exercise routines? I would even like to just swim for a bit, but whenever we go we go together and i don't swim, just bob about with the baby then get out after 20mins before she gets cold. I used to run at 6am before DH went to work, but typically now i'm breastfeeding or so full of milk it'd be really uncomfortable. DH offers to give DD2 a bottle of EBM (we have 7litres in the freezer) so i can run in the evening, but to me that is increasing my work because i'll need to find the time to pump...

Am i just making excuses? I am *just* in my pre-baby jeans but they are WAY tight, and they are a bigger size than i'd like to be in anyway, because i had 2 miscarriages and 6 months living somewhere i couldn't run or get to the gym before i got PG. This week i have cut out all the cake and chocolate i was getting through the tiredness with, but i guess i'm impatient. I don't own a scale so i don't know what i weigh.

Feelin' a bit low.

[Burnindinner]

I have no suggestions, jusr empathy. nak, sorry for typos. W/ ds1 i was back to running around 11-12 weeks pp. this time i haven;t eve been walking bc it's so hot. i'm taking it easy til sept and counting bfing and babywearing as the most workout i NEED right now and any extra i manage is just icing, you know?

[amberdcm]

oh, gosh, i empathize . i 'm only 19 days pp, but i'm low & incredibly impatient. Nothings fits. I was at an amazing fighting weight at the start of this pg, but gained a large amount of weight and fear nothing will fit anytime soon. I have no interim clothing, too boot. I realize I need to be gentle with myself - this is of course the advice I'd give any 19-day pp mama - but it's hard to feel good about this space when I look & I feel both mushy plus squished like a sausage link into the few items that *barely* fit. sigh.

[Aka mommy]

havent been able to find time to work out either. sorry nak. 7 weeks post and i fee as if i will never get back to running!

[GoBecGo]

THank goodness i'm not the only one!

I think i need to accept that there is no point comparing my life and thus recovery after DD1 with my life and recovery this time. We'll be 7 weeks PP on Friday, and by this stage with DD1 i was one week from breaking up with her father, she was a HN baby so i didn't feel any urge to be there in case she needed me - she screamed for 4 hours every evening no matter who was there and what they did so to escape the horrible home situation i DID go out and run or swim whenever i could, plus XP had lost his job so i didn't feel anything about leaving her with him and a bottle of EBM in the day for a few hours so i could escape his attitude. DD2 is such a sweetie, the breast will cure any terrible ills and a cuddle usually helps whatever is wrong. Plus with DD1 i had a baby to look after, this time i have a house, 4yo and partner to take care of as well as the baby (and DH helps a TON, but we're having a family rather than a break-up here).

I realised when i was reading your responses that breastfeeding is actually the same as a 5 mile run every day, and actually i DO babywear most of every day AND walk or use public transport for most of our daily activities. I haven't had a "normal" schedule for more than a few months since DH and i moved in together, because we moved house 3 times in 18months, i had 3 pregnancies, 2 miscarriages, and my lifestyle totally changed. So maybe i need to look at forging a NEW normal, rather than looking hopelessly back at my old normal and trying to recreate it.

I think for now i need to buy some new jeans and be nicer to myself.

[bananabee]

I'm trying not to freak out about having a belly now, and I'm not able to work out (I do aquarobics) yet because I'm not ready to leave DD for long enough to get a session in. My life now is also incredibly different than it was prepregnancy/prebaby. I was a housewife w/o kids yet, and though I have narcolepsy, it was well treated. I was very active and painting the house. I weighed 107 lbs at conception, and I'd never had a belly in my life.

Now I'm at least 140lbs, and have GAINED 7-10 lbs since giving birth. Being a tiny person, it's really noticeable, and none of my prepregnancy pants fit. Even my maternity jeans are tight now! Most of my tops are snug around the boobs and belly, so they look so strange to my eyes. Narcolepsy also is known to cause weight gain in spite of efforts against it, and being off meds means I sleep all day about every other day. So I'm kinda wondering if I'll ever lose this belly. Maybe I should just get used to it. My mom said hers was gone by about 8 wks, and DD is 7 wks old now.

On the bright side, my DH thinks I look great considering I housed and birthed a growing human for 9 mos. I'm so glad it doesn't bother him at all. Gotta love him.

[Buzzer Beater]

I started "running" about 10 days ago, 7 weeks PP. It's kind of a shuffle/jog, not much more than a walk, but I'm struggling through it most mornings before DH goes to work. I'm wearing a Belly Bandit so smoosh in my belly fat, loose muscles, and incision... otherwise it all moves around too much and hurts. I've also got on my nursing bra with pads, then a super tight running bra with more pads so my boobs are just bearable with all the motion. They are not big even now but man they do get themselves all over the place if I down have 'em nailed down.

Anybody want a running/workout buddy? I'd love to be more motivated... love to fit in my clothes... it WILL happen, right?

[Tiffanoodle]

I cant even consider doing anything that even resembles working out yet. Tomorrow mark 5 weeks, and I went to the OB yesterday to get treated for a minor infection on my incision. The pain from that is making it difficult to even walk, let alone anything else. Because my incision isn't closed up, I haven't been able to take a bath and definitely can't swim. Thankfully, once the swelling from surgery went down, I found that I lost half of my pregnancy weight. I only have 13 pounds to lose now to get to where I was last October. Then I have another 50 to go to get to my goal weight.

Right now I actually need to focus on eating more to get my milk supply built up. I said I was going to give myself 6 weeks to eat what I wanted and recover, then back on my diet. Looking at timeframe, though, I think I'm going to give myself until September. We go to the IL's for a week at the end of August and I don't want to ask them to cater to my diet. Then dd1 will be back in school, we'll be starting homeschooling with ds, and I can get truly focused.

I've always heard that it took you 9 months to put the weight on, you shouldn't expect it to come off right away. Expect it to take the same amount of time to come back off. And yes, be kind to yourself. Some people might be back to their skinny jeans 2 weeks later and some may always carry around a little extra. We have beautiful children to show for it, though. I'd rather have the "battle wounds" of pregnancy than to never have gotten the joy of going through it.

[jdg]

I didn't have a workout routine before I got pregnant, so I have nothing to "get back to". I do have some clothes to get back to and should probably start some form of workout routine, but haven't found the motivation. My weight almost all came off, it's just proportioned oddly now - all in my boobs and tummy.

Originally Posted by GoBecGo

Hi,
I used to run at 6am before DH went to work, but typically now i'm breastfeeding or so full of milk it'd be really uncomfortable. DH offers to give DD2 a bottle of EBM (we have 7litres in the freezer) so i can run in the evening, but to me that is increasing my work because i'll need to find the time to pump...

My morning before-work routine includes both feeding Francesca directly and also pumping. Depending on when she wakes up, I do them in either order (pump-then-feed or feed-then-pump) and have found that she can easily get enough even if I just pumped 20 minutes before. I set up the pump the night before so when I stumble out of bed it's all ready to go.

If you want to add your morning run back in, could you get up, pump at least enough to make yourself comfortable, and go? If your daughter wakes up before you return from your run, your husband could feed the EBM.

[Burnindinner]

Originally Posted by Tiffanoodle

I've always heard that it took you 9 months to put the weight on, you shouldn't expect it to come off right away. Expect it to take the same amount of time to come back off. And yes, be kind to yourself. Some people might be back to their skinny jeans 2 weeks later and some may always carry around a little extra. We have beautiful children to show for it, though. I'd rather have the "battle wounds" of pregnancy than to never have gotten the joy of going through it.

Easier to say than I really believe of course.

[GoBecGo]

Originally Posted by jdg

I didn't have a workout routine before I got pregnant, so I have nothing to "get back to". I do have some clothes to get back to and should probably start some form of workout routine, but haven't found the motivation. My weight almost all came off, it's just proportioned oddly now - all in my boobs and tummy.



My morning before-work routine includes both feeding Francesca directly and also pumping. Depending on when she wakes up, I do them in either order (pump-then-feed or feed-then-pump) and have found that she can easily get enough even if I just pumped 20 minutes before. I set up the pump the night before so when I stumble out of bed it's all ready to go.

If you want to add your morning run back in, could you get up, pump at least enough to make yourself comfortable, and go? If your daughter wakes up before you return from your run, your husband could feed the EBM.

My DD sleeps 5.5-7 hours at night, so i literally am STUFFED by morning. This morning she fed at 5.30am, but she can only manage to somewhat relieve one side. I actually think it takes feeding her until about now (11am) for my first-thing-milk to be used up. I used to pump 9oz (the maximum my pump bottle can hold) off the other side and THEN feed fer from it too. Also to complicate everything further i can pump for 45mins and get no letdown, so need to pump the unsucked side whilst she is feeding to actually get a decent amount off and relieve the fullness.

I bought new jeans yesterday - size 18! (i'm in the UK, so i think that's a US 14, but i'm usually a UK 14 - US 10) I'm wearing them right now. My butt is comfortable but my self-image is NOT!

For years before i had DD1 i was overweight, i was a UK 18-20 when i got pregnant with her. After she was born i got down to a UK14 and i felt FANTASTIC. I'm 5'10.5" so a 14 looks well on me, slender but not skinny iykwim. I felt so sexy and fit and healthy. And it terrifies me that i'm nearly back where i was. Because i'm so tall a dress size is about 7-10lbs on me, so i'm looking at losing about 20lbs probably!

Anyway, i'm going to bite the bullet later and go out for a run when DH gets home from work. It'll only take me about 20mins including stretching anyway, because i'm going to run 15mins, about 1 mile, and very slowly build it up. I also dug my step and some free weights out of the garage (i have a rowing machine in there but it's inaccessible right now!) so i can stiick MTV on and do some step in the house with the kids here.

If there is a way, i'm gonna find it, because i don't want to feel like this a second longer than i have to.

[mosquitoswamp]

Originally Posted by Buzzer Beater

Anybody want a running/workout buddy? I'd love to be more motivated... love to fit in my clothes... it WILL happen, right?

Yes me me! Pick me! I've never been motivated about working out, always lose interest a few weeks into whatever I'm doing. Pre-babies I used to play tennis a lot and stayed in shape, now I don't have a tennis partner and am trying REALLY hard to take up running.
I've made myself enter a 5k for the end of Sept, but I can use all the motivation I can get to keep running daily.
It's discouraging now because I'm starting from 0, and I get exhausted after a half mile. And still wearing my maternity pants. But it WILL get better.

What are your goals Buzzer Beater? Running a certain number of times a week? a certain distance?

[Buzzer Beater]

mosquito swamp, pm me!
I am running a 5k on September 25 to raise money for the women's shelter here in town. I used to help on the crisis line, but can't take that stress right now. I thought having a goal like that would get me motivated. I'm thinking of doing the Couch to 5K program. It helped me a ton the first time I took up running. And oh yeah, still wearing my mat pants, although at least they are baggy in the butt.
Goals- exercise daily, run 5k by 9/25, start sit ups, and hopefully head back to the gym when the weather cools down. I'd also like to lose about 20 pounds.

[homew/two]

I agree with previous posts - sign up for a 5k because goals motivate. I'm 6 wks pp and just starting to exercise a little. Played Ultimate frisbee the other week and felt sooooo slow and tired and out of shape- depressing! Also hate the belly roll - just back from family reuniun with two babies 6-7 months and their moms were in bikinis - that didn't help me one bit

[Buzzer Beater]

Trade off for taking time to run- I just realized the only shower I've had in two days is in the garden hose after execise. Wet tshirt contest it's not!

[GoBecGo]

YUK, i went for a run on Friday and since then i've had really bad rectus pain, like a burning bruised feeling above and below my bellybutton whenever i twist, bend or lift (so constantly). I had checked they were "back together" before running and they felt fine, but i guess my rectus muscle halves weren't knitted back right or something..