I can’t believe it has only been 5 weeks since my little Kai was born – it feels like he has been with us for months now already and he is already a big part of the family.
I am hoping things will start to get easier soon but so far it is still pretty tough with the juggling act I am doing and the severe lack of sleep. I think of myself as a one armed bandit now as I seem to be doing everything with one arm whilst Kai is fast asleep in my other arm – which of course takes me twice as long and is tiring in itself.
I had one of my friends around the other day and she has got two little boys – who she warns me are like two little Tasmanian Devils tearing the place up and that boys are nearly all the same whereas most girls are well behaved! But I digress…
She offered me some good advice with how to put him down in the day time so I could have my hands free – she said to lie him on his side in his cot, pop his dummy in then pat him on his back a good few times then gently swivel him back onto his back. 4/10 times this did seem to work – which was a massive PLUS – but I was still faced with the one armed bandit routine for the other time! I have decided to find a baby whisperer in Sydney to come and offer me some more advice and help as I would love him to be able to sleep or some of the day in his cot.
The lack of sleep has had a real effect on my energy levels so I have to get my exercise in when I can or I end up too tired to do anything. My vibration Powerplate (www.cardiotech.com.au/getvibratin/) is a real help with this as I only have to do 10 minutes on it to get the benefits.
Then I try and do 5 minutes on my exercise bike at some point in the day as well as some floor and core exercises too. My little dog too always needs a walk so there has only been 1 day this week where I was just so tired that I couldn’t walk him but his big brown eyes and cheeky tail make me feel too guilty for me to neglect him!
I have concentrated a lot on my core this week and I really feel it has made a difference. The core is a really important area to work on post pregnancy as it is important to activate your stomach muscles that haven’t had a work out in 10 months and it will really help you get back in shape and gain confidence (for some core exercises see the Lose Baby Weight core exercise guide). The exercises I am doing every day are the ‘bicycle’, which involves lying down on my back and putting my legs up in the air and cycling – you can really feel this in your abdominals when you ‘cycle’.
I am also doing the plank which involved lying face down on the floor fully stretched out then bringing your elbows and toes up so you are supporting your body with you elbows and feet – I hold this move for as long as I can and currently this is about 15-20 seconds. I am also doing crunches and squats with my arms held out – if you do squats and hold your arms directly out infront of you then it really works the core – and if you give yourself something to hold when your arms are outstretched – like an ankle weight – this will work it even more.
So I am fitting in these core exercises when I can during the day – and a point I often make on the Lose Baby Weight facebook page is that us mums are tired a lot of the time and it is virtually impossible to try and fit in a 45 minute work out into your day – unless you have lots of help – so the best thing to do is do little bits during the day which fit around you, the baby and your energy levels. Here is an example of what I do on most days;
- A 30 minute walk with my Jack Russell terrier
- 5 minutes of crunches when I am up in the night breastfeeding (this may sound crazy but once he has fed and I put him back down I always wait 5/10 minutes to make sure he stays asleep before I get back into bed so I use this time to do some exercise!)
- 10 minutes on my vibration machine and on this I do squats, marching on the spot and horizontal leg lifts.
- 5 minutes on my exercise bike
- 3 sets of lifting my 2kg ankle weights with my arms – I do this on the sofa so it is easy to do
- The plank twice a day
- 2 sets of ‘cycling’ action whist lying down on my back – each set lasts about 3 minutes
- Some days I do more and some days I do less and it depends on how much Kai sleeps, how much I have slept and how energetic I feel but the key for me is spacing it out throughout the day and fitting in what I can when I have some energy. There are times when I think ‘I am so tired I just can’t do it’, and when this happens I give myself a kick up the butt and just do something as the more you think about it the more likelihood there is of you not doing anything.
My diet has been great this week and I have stuck to the Lose Baby Weight program really well having 2 smoothies a day plus the snacks and a main meal and I am overjoyed at my 1.2kg weight loss this week – hoorah!! If I can continue at this pace I will be back in my pre pregnancy clothes in no time! I am finding the smoothies really easy to stick to and as sad as this sounds I actually look forward to them when I am going to bed! My favourite one this week was raspberry and chocolate where I blended up;
- 2 tbsp of smoothie mix
- A cup of frozen raspberries
- 2 tablespoons of oatmeal
- 1 tablespoon of psyllium hulks
- 1 teaspoon of flaxseeds
- 8 ice cubes
- 200ml of rice milk
I also managed to make a couple of new yummy, healthy and protein packed dinners – one was Chilli and lemon calamari and the other the Chilli prawn vermicelli – delicious and filled both me and my hubby up nicely.
Although my diet has gone really well this week there have been LOTS of times that I have been tempted to be naughty and order a pizza as I have been so tired, and I can definitely relate to being so tired that you don’t even care about eating right but when I have had those feelings I have had a big glass of water which helps fill me up until smoothie time, snack time or dinner time. I also make sure that I have easy snacks to eat when I am hungry that are pre prepared so I don’t get tempted to eat bad things.
For example before I go to bed, I make myself a fruit platter with a chopped up orange, apple and some of my frozen raspberries as when I am up in the night breastfeeding I am ALWAYS HUNGRY and this is super easy for me to pull out of the fridge and munch on while my little terror is munching away on me! I also make sure I have lots of low fat yoghurt to dollop onto some frozen raspberries or blueberries as this takes a few seconds to make up and is very tasty and healthy – for more healthy snacks see our healthy snacks to keep you going page
So as I finish blog off I look forward to week 6 and what next week will bring – hopefully good things – and some sleep!!
