The most challenging part of pregnancy is not the morning sickness or lack of energy, it is after the baby is born. I love holding an infant, but it is not easy balancing sleep and gazing at the new baby. With the first two children I felt like there was actually time to rest and even take a nap. Newborns are like the perfect sleep aid, nursing puts one right to sleep. Unfortunately, sleep during the day is rarely possible. Even if I could find a time when all my kids happen to nap, I need the time for other things like meal prep and such. Cooking for a big family require more time chopping, unless you happen to be the perfect plan ahead mom who makes all the weeks meals in advance when the husband is home.
I have thought that maybe I could just work everything out perfectly and there would be more time to rest, but spacing out the work makes it less stressful. Cooking is my retreat from the crazy household. It is a place for creativity (when my baby is actually sleeping). One would be surprised at how relaxing it is to make a salad or mix home ground wheat for a fresh loaf of bread. Now that I think about it, I could create the perfect workout by just spending time in the kitchen. My arms are still aching from making homemade tortillas.
Working out is so helpful for feeling some kind of well being after having a baby. It is so hard to find time alone, but if it is possible sometimes working out can quiet the mind a bit. If I had had a stressful day, putting on a Jillian Michaels dvd really helps me. Then there are times when I am in a more quiet frame of mind, so I will use a New York City Ballet workout dvd. These options have been great. Also for strength training I go back to Erin O'Brien. She is a mix of the ballet workout and Jillian Michaels. Then if I do not feel like using the dvds I have, I search on the Netflix watch instantly workouts. I like the Crunch workouts the best.
My problem is not trying to workout, though finding the time is hard, it is being patient with the fact that it takes time to get one's body back after nine months of pregnancy. In my case, I am looking at three years of pregnancy. I had a two year gap in between my first two kids and my most recent three. During that two year gap, I never reached my goals for getting back into shape, so I guess one could fairly say, I have months of work ahead of me and I need to stop being to hard on myself. Let's face it, women want to look their best at all times. I want to as well. However looking my best will have to wait.
For now I can focus on workouts and eating healthy, but feeding my newborn has to be the priority. Some people lose all the baby weight in a couple of months with or without breastfeeding, but that is not the case in my experience. If you happen to be like me, remind yourself that it took nine months to grow a baby and it will take up to two years to fully recover. I have not found a lot of stats regarding moms like me who have had several babies in a row, but I can imagine it might take me longer. I will just have to wait and see.
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