Back to business

I am back! Feels like after the past year of very little structured exercise I am now getting a daily dose of exercise and what a difference that makes!

Since my daughter was born just over 2 years ago, it has really been tough to have any sort of regular exercise beyond basic survival activities. Tough to even find time or motivation to write in my fitness blog. After all if I wasn’t feeling fit, how could I write a fitness blog?I was in super amazing shape when I was pregnant with my daughter, (Check my Pregnancy Fitness Blog), but now, not so amazing. Still 5 pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight, not a big deal, but I have been feeling weak and squishy, not toned at all. My back has been aching every morning and I just haven’t had energy. But exercise does wonders for the energy and the motivation, my back doesn’t ache every morning and I hope soon I will actually let my kids climb on me without complaining that they are too heavy!

The best part was this morning: My daughter, remember she turned 2 in June, woke up early and decided to get out the yoga mat and “do yoga”. I was still laying in bed trying to sleep. Then later my son wanted to do yoga with me. We did tree pose separately and then holding hands helping each other to balance. Very soon there was a bit of a tussle; only two yoga mats and my daughter wanted to join us. I pulled out the other mat and all three of us were doing yoga (they also did somersaults, donkey kicks and cartwheels) together.  I guess even though I feel that my exercise routine has been super irregular over the past year or two, my children have seen me exercise enough to understand and believe that “exercise,”  yoga and all types of physical activity are normal activities that people do; may they continue to believe that for the rest of their lives!

It’s been almost a year since my last post…

and I am still struggling to juggle work, the needs of two kids and exercise! Luckily I have an active life, but really it’s hard to do everything, especially meet my own needs. I have managed to exercise every now and again, and really the only way to do it seems to be to either incorporate my children or ignore them as they crawl over, under and through me. But really that is the best way to exercise, fun for them, fun for me and even though it takes a bit longer at least they will see that exercise is something that I enjoy doing!

New Year: New Headache interfering with exercise and children

Was planning on getting back to the blog, to fitness with the kids, instead I have a concussion…. Let’s hope I can at least dance with the kids tomorrow!

Baby is born and I can move again!!!!

Mateo’s little sister was born one and half days ago and I can move again!  No more telling my first born that I am unable to do things because there is a belly in the way. I can now crawl through tunnels (which I haven’t yet), lie on my back and use my legs to fly my son like an airplane (which we did yesteray), and put him up on my shoulders so he can do a back flip to come down and he can just balance up there while I walk. It’s great!  Of course I’ll still have to modify and change things, but now more saying “I can’t” to my son, now it’s “let’s figure out how we can do this with your sister too”.

Scootercise with Purpose (one week until due date)

Saturday morning, 10 days before my due date I went for a jog. I’ve been doing this throughout the pregnancy (visit www.lynnewells2.wordpress.com  for my activity log), but this time I decided to try something different: I would bring Mateo with me. He would ride his scooter while I ran. He has finally learned how to use the brake proficiently and listens (most of the time) when he is asked to stop or to slow down. I thought he would stay with me most of the time.

It worked really well, better than I expected actually. The pace was definitely not too fast for me, except on the down hills. The pace even ended up being a little slow in places. After 2 loops around Cadman Plaza Mateo was tired. He still did a third lap with me, I could have done another but he would not have been able to and he was so tired he almost fell apart, he wanted to go a different way and I wanted to get closer to home. But we chatted and then he went downhill to the playground (I ran down) and he played while I did pushups and pull ups. Not exactly pull ups, more of an equivalent exercise for the back muscles between the shoulder blades using my body weight while holding onto part of the playscape.

How will this work if we continue this? After I am no longer pregnant three loops at that pace will feel super slow and super easy. Mateo will get stronger and faster and maybe it will work out okay if I add in more interval training, jumping jacks and such, or I’ll just do that on my light days… And where will the newborn be?

5 weeks to go

Okay, second pregnancy really sucks. I can’t keep up with Mateo. He loves to play chase: I chase him. I used to always catch him, quickly if needed, or at least stay close to him. I can’t anymore. The last few weeks it’s become really tough, next to impossible. Now really it’s impossible. I can’t move that fast without hurting something: my abdomen, my thighs, my legs give out. I have 5 more weeks of this.

Mateo can no longer climb on me the way he loves to and the way that I used to let him. I liked being his jungle gym, but I can’t be his jungle gym any more. What’s worse is I keep on telling him that I can’t do things. “Mama can’t do this.” “Mama can’t do that.” It’s horrible. And I’m getting angrier at him than I ever have before. Mostly because I’m scared that he’ll run somewhere dangerous before I can catch him, but also because I’m so tired all the time. Really I don’t believe the human species was designed to raise children in isolation the way we do today in the “nuclear family”. It’s impossible to be a good mother when pregnant and needing to care for another young child. Maybe that is why children should be spaced 4 or more years apart? Or grandparents or other siblings of the parents should live close by, or as New York families and other wealthy families in other countries tend to do: hire a full time nanny. Or as the less well off do: drop the child at a full time day care, of course here in New York that is ridiculously expensive also. But I want to be an active and available part of my child’s life, I want to be able to chase him, let him climb on me, and not get angry at him for being a three year old who wants to explore and enjoy the world.

So, back to that first sentence: the second pregnancy doesn’t really suck; it offers unique challenges. I suppose you could say, as a woman said to me today, it prepares mother and child for the addition of a newborn and not being able to meet all the needs of the older child. He gets used to not having his mother at his beck and call, before the arrival of the younger sibling. Not what I want to have happen, but I suppose it is a bit of reality, unless I can create a different reality for my two children, where the needs of both children can be met, meshed together, not separated or placed in a hierarchy of who gets care and attention first. Oh, an extended family who lived nearby would be quite helpful then everyones needs could be met, including my own!

Third trimester challenges

It’s hard to play the same and keep active the same after entering the third trimester. My belly is in the way on everything, my feet have begun to swell, my pelvis aches in the morning and I can’t breath especially when carrying Mateo.  It’s tough this part of the pregnancy. I taught my last Creative Movement class for the spring yesterday. It was fun. Two new students, but so tough, the being a mother and being a teacher at the same time. The teacher and the mother had to compromise and reach a middle ground; take care of Mateo’s needs enough but also keep class going at the same time.

I am finishing to write this post two weeks after I began: Now my pelvis can ache at anytime of the day, unpredictably. I can’t breathe when I am sitting unless my spine is completely lengthened, any relaxation and my diaphragm muscle is squished and I feel short of breath. Walking, I’m short of breath. It’s constant. My feet aren’t so bad if I can get off them periodically. Super tough to carry Mateo so he is riding the scooter a lot or I bring the stroller. I think at this point in the pregnancy the Ergo is only good for carrying him on my back.  At least with him on the scooter, Mateo gets lots of exercise and I can just pull the scooter when he gets tired. But we can still play on the playground equipment together and I can still do somersaults with him and some jumping, so that is good. He is having a hard time getting comfortable when he sits in my lap though. There is very little space left for him. Nature’s way of making the older one grow up before the next one arrives?

Two months later…

I can’t believe it’s been almost two months since I last posted anything on my fitness adventures!

I’ve been having plenty of adventures, just too tired to write anything. That’s the problem with pregnancy and a preschooler. Just pregnancy or just a preschooler, I would have been able to still write, but both combined… no way.  The last three days the weather has been pleasant enough to spend lots of time at playgrounds. Playgrounds are not designed for parents and especially not designed for pregnant mothers to be able to play on with their children. All the running up slides and ducking under bars to go down the slides just does not work well with a 7 month big belly! (I don’t know if I’m 7 months, I’m 29 weeks tomorrow, but does the seventh month start the last trimester, it must. Otherwise the 9th month would begin on the due date and that doesn’t make any sense.)  I get winded so easily chasing Mateo around, I’m tired of always telling him I can’t do things because of my belly being too big. I can’t crawl through tunnels, let him climb all over me, I need to rest frequently. I can’t wait until I can do all those crazy things with him again, only where will the new one be????

I guess that is why baby wearing was invented: to facilitate movement with a baby.

Growing Up (Too Quick)!

 

Toss Your Toddler dance class

Today I taught a creative movement class for preschoolers, 2 1/2 years to 4 1/2 years. I do this on most Mondays. The class used to be a Toss Your Toddler dance class which was a lot of fun and both parents and toddlers participated. (I still teach this class but it has now been moved to Wednesday mornings at 10:30 am). In this class there is a lot of running, jumping, falling, rolling and partnering with your toddler. Mateo and I loved this class; loved the partnering parts, the rolling together, climbing on top of me. I miss not having him participating in the class when I teach it on Wednesdays, but he’s getting too old, he’s growing up, the other kids are so young. He’s a preschooler now, not a toddler. But we have the Creative Movement class now….

 

It’s not the same. It’s me and a whole bunch of wonderful other kids and Mateo, who I have to treat as just another student. Which I can’t do of course, especially when he says, “Mama, I want to eat.” Luckily that was just two minutes before class ended. But today was difficult, sad really, even though it was a great class and I had a blast teaching. Mateo wanted to partner with me; he wanted to ride on my belly when we did the crab crawl, he wanted to come up and waltz with me for the waltz music, he wanted to roll with me instead of by himself, and a couple other times. It was sad to have to tell him that we couldn’t do those things together.

He understands that I’m the teacher and that there aren’t any other moms in the class, but soon he will really understand and stop asking me to partner with him in the class. Will we make enough time or the effort to do those things at home? By ourselves? Without the dance class? As my belly gets bigger and bigger?

Ah, but we did slither on our bellies this week. I kept my weight mostly on my arms and knees to keep the pressure off the belly, but it worked. For how many more weeks?

Where have I been?

I have been neglecting this blog.  I’ve been keeping up with the other one, the fitness blog turned pregnancy fitness blog. This one has been neglected. Actually I had a topic I was going to write about while I was on vacation recently, I just never wrote it. Maybe I should discontinue this blog, but I would hate to and I actually am still having plenty of fitness adventures with my toddler (I guess he is a pre-schooler now) and my belly. For instance, yesterday I was teaching a Creative Movement class for the 2.5- 4.5 year old. It was fun, but I forgot to do anything on our bellies. Usually we do snakes (slithering around the room) and cobra stretches and a lot of rolling. We did a little bit of rolling, but no snakes, slithering or stationary.

My belly is too big….

 

The 18 Week Bump