{article published on Hawaii Sport Magazine – Sep/Oct issue}
When you have a newborn at home, you also have various excuses to not exercise. My own list include: recovering from postpartum; being tired from the sleepless nights; adjusting to a new-mommy body (aka: larger breast and hips); worrying if it is ok to take baby outside and what is safe to do with her; juggling time between taking care of baby, house, and work; and after all choosing to spend most of my time kissing, hugging and laying down with her instead of anything else.
Bottom line, being a new mom feels like you are constantly “exercising” so there is not too much energy left to actually exercise. But on the other hand, if I force myself to move my body in a conscious way, even if it is just for a few minutes per day I feel better. And if I include Sky in my exercise routine, there is a higher chance to get the job done. So here are my three favorite ways to exercise with Sky:
1. Sunset walk
This is the simplest way we have been exercising together since she was just a few weeks old. I put her in the sling and we go for a nice easy walk that can vary from one loop around the block, to one hour plus walks. 99% of the time she sleeps half way into the walk, so I just enjoy every step carrying her close to my heart, knowing that soon she will be too heavy for me to exercise with her like that.
New-mom tip:
One of our first walks together, Sky started to cry. A family got out of their house to see what was happening, I felt embarrassed and the only thing that came to my mind was to try to breastfeed her inside the sling, while we were walking. Oh my! Bad idea, because I had no idea how to do it properly and her cry got even louder. It was the longest walk around the block we ever did. Lesson learned: Do not leave the house before feeding your baby.
2. Mom & Baby Yoga
If you are looking for “exciting” things to do with your little peanut, I would suggest giving a try to the Mom & Baby Yoga class at the Purple Yoga Hawaii, Tuesdays at 11am. I went for the first time with Sky when she was 8 weeks old, I had no idea what to expect. The class starts with a nice stretch for moms while our babies (if we are lucky) happily watched us up and down, then the majority of the class consists in, tickling your baby while you stretch some more, making your baby fly while you get an awesome arm strength workout, massaging baby, and one of my favorite things…holding baby close to your chest and start to “ommmmm”. The class taught me a few precious exercises and fun tricks to do with Sky anywhere at anytime.
New-mom tip:
Sky loves her morning nap. One day I knew she was a little bit tired, but I got everything ready and drove to our yoga class anyway. When I got there, of course she was deeply sleeping. I didn’t have the heart to wake her up, so we just drove back home. Another lesson learned: respect her baby naps, it doesn’t matter how much I wanted to do the class with her, because she needed something else, her precious sleep.
3. Home Exercise
Sometimes getting out of the door feels like an impossible mission. So I learned a few strength and stretch exercises to do at home while baby is lying down next to you. They are simple enough that you can get a couple of a nice exercises in just a few minutes, and the best part is that when Sky watches me counting and going up and down she thinks that I am playing with her. Well, I guess she is right!
New-mom important fact:
As I shared before, my body is not the same, so I am looking for ways to strengthen my muscles and joints before I start to train again. I have been researching which type of exercises are healthy for postpartum recovery, and I am finding out that actually some exercises can hurt instead of being beneficial for postpartum recovery. I am still learning about them, so maybe this is going to be my next article “My 3 favorites exercises to recovery from postpartum and when and how to start running again”
Sometimes I have no reason or excuse to not exercise, but I still choose to just lay down with Sky and watch her because the feeling of being with her fills my heart with more love that I could ever imagine.
some dreams are worth sharing…
mariane
photos by: Mércia Uehara
