XP from MMM: Fitness and infant care

[MrsE]

This is an XP from MMM particularly for any Mamas with BTDT advice for how to get in workouts with a baby under a year old.

Can we talk about fitness / workout routines and how you fit them in while caring for your baby?

1. What is your workout routine?

2. Do you fit in workouts in the morning, lunchtime, the evening?

3. What is your baby doing (who is watching your LO) while you’re working out?

Bonus 1: Any single mamas or mamas who solo parent frequently or mamas who have daycare drop off and daycare pickup have any tips for fitting in a workout??

Bonus 2: If you’re still nursing, and workout in the morning before your LO is up, do you pump first or nurse the baby and put the baby back to sleep?

These questions brought to you by me, the mama who is *really* trying to figure out how to fit everything in while solo parenting most weeks while DH is traveling or otherwise out of the house by 6am.

[wawa]

When my kids were wee I would have struggled mightily to get in a workout if h was out of the house by 6 am. But that's because my primary workout was running and I haaaaaated the treadmill.

But now we've got a whole home gym, so I'd be able to get in a bike trainer or weights workout in the morning.

Also we now have a family membership to the Y, which has childcare, and I'd have been ALL OVER heading straight there after work if h weren't around.

When I was bfing I'd typically feed them, lay them back down and then go run. I did miss some runs that way by dozing off in my nursing chair...also by those growth spurt days when they just drank and drank and drained both sides rather than just the usual single side feed. Also a cockup to my routine were the days they didn't drink enough and then I had to pump rather than be uncomfortably full for a workout. So... yeah, probably not a perfect solution. Pumping would have been more reliable, but I hated washing parts and bottles so I avoided pumping at home whenever possible.

[mrshandy]

I agree that H leaving the house at 6AM would've made things very complicated. I usually ran in the mornings and would pump while eating breakfast. I had my pump stuff all set up the night before. Evenings I would go sometimes after putting the kids down, but that is such a huge struggle especially if you're not sleeping through the night.

Once I was done pumping, I could bring back lunch time workouts.

Solo parenting makes things so much harder IMHO.

You're still in the trenches now, it gets so much better as they get older. Be kind to yourself and realize you can only push yourself in so many directions.

[campermom]

Jun 24, 2019 10:41:19 GMT -5 MrsE said:

This is an XP from MMM particularly for any Mamas with BTDT advice for how to get in workouts with a baby under a year old.

Can we talk about fitness / workout routines and how you fit them in while caring for your baby?

1. What is your workout routine?

2. Do you fit in workouts in the morning, lunchtime, the evening?

3. What is your baby doing (who is watching your LO) while you’re working out?

Bonus 1: Any single mamas or mamas who solo parent frequently or mamas who have daycare drop off and daycare pickup have any tips for fitting in a workout??

Bonus 2: If you’re still nursing, and workout in the morning before your LO is up, do you pump first or nurse the baby and put the baby back to sleep?

These questions brought to you by me, the mama who is *really* trying to figure out how to fit everything in while solo parenting most weeks while DH is traveling or otherwise out of the house by 6am.

My husband is gone by 5 am and I do most of the daycare pickups. I was able to do one gym workout per week either right after getting home and getting unpacked and nursing...or bring the kids to the gym in the evening. Then I did the same class, one time on the weekend. So two strength workouts per week. My gym has great childcare. The class was CX works and only a half hour. I could bring wipes or shower quickly before picking up the kids and nurse him right in the locker room. That way we didn't reach stress meltdown when pullling into the driveway. That helped a lot. 

As for running i made made use of my treadmill and occasional evening runs, but mostly early treadmills. I have to leave by 7, so typically the baby would wake up or I would wake him up around 4:30, nurse, and put him back to bed, then run and shower. I also had the monitor on and many times had to stop to go get him. I kept the exersaucer in the basement by the treadmill. 

My H also deploys and goes on trips and we are looking at small trip in the fall, about 2 months before my marathon. I'll use my treadmill a lot then. I'm not sure your other logistics but I almost always run while my kids are at sports practice. That way I feel like I'm not losing any time since I'd be there anyway. 

 I never really did YouTube workouts but I know a lot of people like them.

[breezy8407]

My twins are 7 now, so it was a long time ago. Up until they were about 6 months old, H and I would trade off in the evenings and I would go running. It was about 30 minutes at a time, maybe 3x a week. H didn't travel, but he coached in the evenings from them being about 6 months old to 10 months old, and I was solo for daycare pickup. I usually only managed to run on the treadmill after they went to sleep if he was gone, and then I tried to get some running in on weekends.

This is not helpful at all, but I started a new job when they were just under a year and with that job came the ability to workout at lunch. If that is an option for you, it makes things so much easier. I only recently started having the ability to workout in the mornings before work if H is okay with it since getting out the door isn't as much work with them being older.

[Wines Not Whines]

My general routine was to wake up early, nurse and pump (I had an oversupply, so I had to do both in the morning or else I’d explode), and then do a workout (30-45 minutes). Then I’d shower and get ready for work. But my husband was usually home during this time. I got a treadmill and I had a jogging stroller, so I could run with LO outside if the weather was good, or try to hop on the TM when he was asleep. Neither was ideal, but they were better than nothing.

After I stopped pumping, I started using my work gym on my lunch break. That made things much easier.

[itsme]

When I had an infant:

1. What is your workout routine? Anywhere from 2-6 times a week.

2. Do you fit in workouts in the morning, lunchtime, the evening? Evenings during week, mornings on weekend

3. What is your baby doing (who is watching your LO) while you’re working out? Either gym daycare or at CF, I would bring her in her carseat or stroller and leave her in the general vicinty of wherever I was where I could keep an eye on her. If I was running, she was in the jogging stroller.

Bonus 1: Any single mamas or mamas who solo parent frequently or mamas who have daycare drop off and daycare pickup have any tips for fitting in a workout?? I did drop off and pick-up and would go to the gym straight after work.

Bonus 2: If you’re still nursing, and workout in the morning before your LO is up, do you pump first or nurse the baby and put the baby back to sleep? N/A


Now my youngest is older and everything is the same except no jogging stroller and if I really want to run and H is not around, I drop her off at the gym daycare and run on the treadmill.  At CF, she sits and plays games in the waiting area or plays with the other kids.  We just set up a gym in our garage so that has opened up more possibilities for me with having a young one.

[woowoo]

My little one is only 6 weeks so I don't have a work schedule to work around right now, but I've been using the Apptiv app for at-home workouts until this point. I was just cleared to run again today, so I'll try and head for a run hopefully twice a week from here on out. I'm also considering getting a Peloton.

For right now, he's taking a decent nap from 10:30 - 12:30 or 1 pm each day, so I'm using that time to pump, workout for 45 minutes in my home "gym," shower, and each my lunch.

Once I'm back at work, it will be twice a week in the early morning then hopefully twice a week on the weekends, with maybe a bonus workout here at there. I'm hoping we can use a jogging stroller once he's old enough.

I have it easier than most because my husband works from home. I agree that you need to be kind to yourself and get the workouts in when you can. I love the Apptiv app because there are some great, hard workouts in there that are 10-20 minutes. I can schedule out 2 or 3 and if I only get one in, at least it was something.

[runblondie26]

When I was working full time, and DH was traveling, my home gym was a life saver! I’d be on the treadmill, or elliptical (or insert your workout of choice here) at 4:30am. Dressed, and out the door for work by 6:30 am. If the baby was still sleeping, I’d pump first. That was a must.

Now that I SAH, we use the YMCA gym childcare in the mornings. They also have evening and weekend hours. My kids are older, but they take babies as young a 10 weeks, and do a good job engaging older kids in activities.

The jogging stroller is also an option during warmer weather months.

It’s a tricky dance to coordinate, but you can do it.

[Susie]

I really struggled with this when my DD (now 3) was an infant.

Early AM didn’t work for me reliably because I couldn’t workout with full boobs, i couldn’t get her up to nurse and get her back down to be able to go, and I hated pumping and wasn’t willing to take the 20 mins to pump + part washing time added to the workout to pump before I went.

Lunch time didn’t work because I didn’t have shower access or a place to change at the office, and without those amenities, a law firm is a hard environment to come back sticky to midday.

Right after work wasn’t good either, because it was her witching hour. Even when she was old enough to ride in the Bob, I hated doing that because she would barely make it half a mile before melting down. It was so frustrating that it was worse for my mental health than not going at all.

After she went to bed was also no good because I couldn’t run on an after dinner stomach.

Eventually I wound up settling into a routine with no real dinner, but a 5:30pm snack and a 9pm snack, and my run happened after she went to bed around 7-7:30pm. My boobs were empty from her bedtime nursing, and H either was home with her freeing me to go outside, or I did it on the basement treadmill with the baby monitor. I missed “dinner,” but it was the only thing that reliably worked for me while nursing. After she weaned I switched to early morning workouts, before she got up. It was the first time in my life I was happy to be able to do early AMs, lol.

Now I have a 3 year old and an almost 7 week old, and am getting ready to plunge into it again. Now I have DD’s bedtime/stories falling in the 7-8pm time slot, so we’ll have to see what works this time.