When Bastian was still a baby(or, more of a baby), it was pretty easy to find time to workout. Not that working out is easy. Or convincing myself spend an hour away from my baby was easy. But it was a lot simpler than it is now, that’s for sure. Bastian has been crawling for months. But it’s just been in this last month that he just. won’t. stop. He is EVERYWHERE. It takes him 2 seconds to get from the living room to the master bedroom. Somehow, that’s faster than I can walk there. With him being so so mobile, I’ve had to completely rethink the way I workout.
I used to turn on a show to somewhat distract him, sit him on a blanket, and do my BBG workout next to him. He’d generally sit still and watch until I was done. When he was younger, I’d set him in a swing during my workouts at home. And now I wish I would’ve taken advantage of those times better, haha. So, if you’re like me, and have a desire to workout but feel like no time with a wiggly baby, here are a few tips:
Workout first thing
This seems redundant. Duh, wake up early and do your workout. I am here to say NO. Please don’t. If you love yourself, sleep in and don’t wake up before your baby. Unless you can somehow wake up at 5 am and not need three naps during the day to compensate for the lost sleep. No, I definitely sleep until my baby does. But, I make sure to do my workout during his very first nap of the day. If I wait until later in the day, my motivation wanes. And as he gets older, he’s getting closer to dropping his third daily nap. So on days where he only naps twice, it gets to be 2 pm and I realize I’ve lost my chance. So, baby goes down for his nap, and you need to IMMEDIATELY throw on your sports bra and do that workout.
Wear your baby
In an ideal world, I’d get my workout in before noon everyday and get on with my life. As a mom, life is never quite ideal. You have to roll with the punches. So if nap time is past and it’s friday and you haven’t worked out yet the entire WEEK(@ myself this week), strap your baby on and do your workout. I usually turn on something for him to watch while I do this, at least to somewhat distract him. This also works best on leg days, and not so much abs or arms.
Be patient and kind to yourself
Sometimes you just don’t work out. And that’s fine. There are so many things that you feel guilty for as a mom. There’s no need to add “haven’t worked out this week” to that list. Workout if you can, but if you can’t, be gentle with yourself and appreciate the things you DID get to do that day. Cuddled your sick baby, finished that work project you’ve been putting off alllll month, or finally doing the dishes(only because you ran out of spoons yesterday, though). My physical health is important to me, but so is my mental health. So, if I don’t get my workout done, I don’t beat myself up, I just try to make plans to make it happen the next day. Rinse, repeat.
You’re doing great, Aurora! I like reading your blog, even though all my babies are grown now.
Some things I found helpful when I had lots of littles around was to use my baby as part of my workout. I would squat and lift them. I would dance and do leg lifts and kicks while they were in my arms and I was bouncing them. I would follow them up and down the stairs (that was a way they also learned how to safely navigate stairs while they were still in the crawling stage). I would sit or lay them on my legs while I was on my back on the floor, and let them bounce up and down on my legs.
Anyway, you get the idea. Honestly, I think that most days a mom of a young baby can get a lot of exercise simply by doing all the stuff we have to do anyway.
Your baby is your workout. Keep up the awesomeness 👏