Day 4

Wow, day four already – India was born at 11.20pm on Saturday 24th July just in time to gate crash her older brothers 2nd birthday so now we have two beautiful angels born on the same day!  This blog is going to share with you my journey to reclaim my body after the birth of my second baby.  You can head back to 2008 and learn about my journey the first time around – I dare say it is going to be quite different.  It’s only day 4 and I already have an idea of the juggling and coordination that comes with two AND absolutely no idea how I am going to manage it.  I won’t be starting on the ‘time frame’ aspect of my journey for at least 6-8 weeks but until then I am going to share my journey and the planning and preparation that you can do for your body before that golden ‘6 week mark’.  I will share my personal ups and downs and I hope you enjoy my journey.  Please feel free at any time to comment or contact me to ask questions, share your own views, experiences, opinions and support – I would love to hear from you and it is for you and every other mum who deep down knows that they must look after number one (being ‘you’) that I write this for.  It is a challenge to give time and energy to mums needs but I truly believe that this is the only way to nurture your family, be the best you can be for them and for yourself.  Happy mummy = Happy baby.

So the fact that I am actually writing this now feels a little strange – my mind is very willing and has been ticking over with ideas for the last couple of days, but my body – my body says sleep – don’t go near the computer just sleep.  I am listening to my mind as I have to get some of this stuff down on paper for you guys but I have set myself a time limit and then sleep I must.

The birth – we were fortunate enough to have a very short water birth this time around.  I did hypnobirthing with my first son, Marley, which was a fantastic tool for me and kept me focused through what was a long and slightly traumatic experience (for us both) – learning to work with your body and to use its natural reactions is a wonderful thing and for me there was no other option but to do it again.  I admit, not being as naive as the first time around (where you think you can conquer the world and do anything) made me a little bit more nervous in the lead up to India’s birth but I practiced and kept my head together and we experienced a very calm birth in the water of the birthing center at The Royal Hospital for Women in Randwick.   I had a fantastic midwife, who also delivered Marley, and India was born within 2 hours of us arriving at the hospital.

We left the hospital on Sunday afternoon after having introduced Marley to his new little sister (whom he seems to have accepted very well so far!) and we were home – less that 24hours after giving birth we were once again sat in our lounge room feeling slightly in awe of how quickly everything had happened and how quickly we were thrust into our new world ‘as a family of four’.  

So I don’t know how many of you are first, second, third or more time mums but given only having been through this once before I already see how different the experiences can be.  Let’s start with the books – the to do’s and not to do’s of having a baby.  Correct me if I wrong but it seems many of us ‘live by the book’ the first time around – I know we did or tried to and found ourselves almost distraught at times that our days old newborn wouldn’t do exactly as the book said it would – how could it be?  What were we doing so wrong?  But you push on through running on the ‘I must do this otherwise the whole world might implode’ feeling and the adrenaline of being a first time mum.  You can do anything and you will do anything to make sure you are doing everything that is right so you can have the perfect child, perfectly timed routine and seemingly perfect existence.  So, I recon there should be books for first time mums, pretty much as there are, suggesting what you should and shouldn’t do with your newborn.  There then should be a book for second time mums that just let’s you know that chances are you will do everything different the second time around but more importantly goes into the reasons why you shouldn’t feel guilty about it and that it is okay to have the baby sleep on your chest because no one else is getting any sleep and it doesn’t mean that they will be sleeping with you forever more.  For me it was night two that my rule book flew out of the window and I slept with my beautiful daughter on my chest for an hour or so before gently settling her back into her bassinet – this was at 3am when I didn’t have the energy for the resettling that I probably enforced from day one first time around.  Do I wonder if us being so strict with Marley – settling, resettling, settling again but never bringing him into our bed was the reason that he has always been such a good sleeper? – Yep! And do I wonder that because we live in a two bedroom apartment and India has to be in our bedroom with us for a while (I would have never dreamed of this with Marley – it was his room from day one) that this will affect her sleeping habits? - Yep!  And what about just not having the energy to be so structured from day one – will this be detrimental down the track? – Yep – I wonder about it all and about how it might come back to bite me in the bum later on but right now it’s about getting on with it and figuring out some kind of routine for myself and my family – once this is underway I can start to think about my ‘Body Beyond Baby’.

3am Back & Biceps training!

Well sorry but once again it's been another 3 weeks! And a another crazy 3 weeks at that. My weekend in Melbourne with Manel (and no kids) was really nice, and as it turns out, the quiet before the storm. Since then Alex has been sick most of the time with a bad case of tonsillitis which has dragged on and on. Waking every hour at night in extreme pain has been a killer for me (and him of course) in terms of sleep deprivation. Luckily my sister has been in town and could stay a couple of nights to help share the waking up & resettling. This morning Alex seems to have turned a corner and maybe our life and normal routine might have chance to get back on track...fingers crossed! So with all of that going on, and believe me, it's been unrelenting, there hasn't been much time for anything else, including exercise. I have managed one run per week, but otherwise, my main form of exercise has been upper back & biceps work (and lots of it) while rocking Alex back to sleep on a (very) regular basis...something I don't normally have to do very often. One night while pacing the bedroom & rocking Alex to sleep, I felt a twinge in my lower back. It was a big reminder that during these moments it's especially important to put those pelvic floor & core strength exercises into practice!!!

On the upside, I'm on the homeward run. Manel finishes up his work in Melbourne in 11 days (not that I'm counting!) and then we head to Spain to visit family for a few weeks. So the time frame set for the end of July in terms of weight & fat numbers is almost up, and the good news is that I made it! I reached the goal and now the task is to maintain it! That's my biggest fear.....especially when it comes time to getting back to work in October. I think I'm going to have less time for me, but I will have Manel around, so hopefully it'll all balance out won't be tooooo hard. I hope. As for getting fit enough to run the 9km bridge run in September, I'll keep training and hopefully I'll make it!

Getting back into it

It is nice to be back after finally moving house, which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I even returned to training earlier than I expected - I craved some physical exercise and time for myself.

Moving house was challening for my fitness and diet but I stayed relatively on track during the process, which included a visit from my mum who isn't the healtiest person around (she considers fruit cake healthy since is contains fruit!). Writing down what I eat continues to be a successful way to eat healthy food and keep track of exercise. It brings it all home when you have it all written down.

Jenny's comment to me a while ago that I would need to exercise 6 days a week to loose the weight I wanted to shed really struck a chord. I thought 2 training sessions a week would be enough but realise that is not the case. In my old home I got into a routine of getting up very early for a walk, but as this is not possible to do in my new place I have had to look at other ways to exercise. Getting into a routine is fundamental in making this happen.

Food wise I am kind of on track but after I organise Zara's meals I have little time or energy to ensure that I am eating the right meals & snacks. It's amazing how we as mothers can neglect ourselves, despite it being so crucial to lead by example.

I look forward to reporting back on what other exericise I managed to schedule into my week. It has been great seeing everyone at training - if only Zara would stay the full hour with the nannies!

Wet weather glute wake up

It's cold and wet outside but here is a 10 minute glute hit that will get you warmed up a little.  We all want a toned bum and these exercises will wake up the right muscles and get them working.

Hip Raise

• Feet hip width apart
• Squeeze bum and push through heels to raise your hips off the floor until you have a line between your shoulders and hips
• If you feel any kind of pinch in your lower back  you can still complete the exercise don't push your hips so high

• Hold for 3 seconds then slowly lower - do 12 reps

Hip Raise with arms up - to decrease stability

• Complete another 12 reps going all the way up and all the way down
• Then a second set of 12 going just one third of the way down

Single leg hip raise

• Place one foot on top of the opposite knee
• Keeping the hips level squeeze the bum and raise your hips off the floor
• Hold for 3 seconds then slowly lower

• Complete 12 reps on each leg

Bring knees to chest at the end of each exercise to stretch out.  Repeat circuit two or three times depending on time and how hard you feel you have worked. 

A nice surprise

Last Thursday I decided to get a body composition scan as it had been 8 weeks since it was previously done. I almost wasn't going to bother as I wasn't expecting much of a change given it has felt like I havn't had much time to fit in exercise, or at least enough to warrant much change in my body. In the end I did it, mostly out of curiosity. As it turns out the results were awesome! In those 8 weeks I dropped almost 4% body fat and another 3kgs in total weight (all in fat, no muscle loss which is nice to know!)....which leaves me only a kilo or so to go and well below what I'd imagine I'd get to in the body fat percentage.

So as I've almost achieved my original goal, I've added a new goal to run the Blackmores Bridge run in Sept which is about 9kms. I'm currently up to running 5kms now (not much for some, but it's good for me...) and so have spoken to Jen about how to get me running longer and stronger. She's suggested running up & down hills and/or steps, doing interval training on flat runs and continuing with resistance training. I'll also keep up the pelvic floor/core strength exercises as I've noticed this has helped me enormously and practically eliminated any of the back pain I used to get with doing the normal mum things, such as lifting kids into car seats, lifting babies in and out of cots, picking up toys etc etc etc. Had I not had 2 kids and not realised the importance of pelvic floor/core strength I never would have gotten over back pain that I've had for years, let alone to run again.

So, I think as I normally ramble on, that's enough from me for today! I'm off tomorrow to Melbourne for a weekend with Manel and no kids! I can't wait