Well, Owen is 4 weeks old and a few days away from officially being a month old so that means that I had to pull out the old swim suit and take a few pictures of myself to track what my body has done over the course of this last month as it attempts to get back to "normal"... whatever normal means now. I really have no "goal" per se in the pursuit of my body after having the baby other than I just want to have my prior level of fitness back. I want to go out and run 7, 10, 15 miles and not have an issue. I want to be able to lift weights with ease a few times a week (and baby Owen mocks me... HA, like you'll have time, Mom...) I want to be able to wake up on a weekend morning and head out to the mountains for a hike and pound it out without a second thought (again, commence baby mocking...). While fitting in to my "skinny" jeans is a definite plus, I don't think that's going to be an issue. I think I could sit on the couch for the next 6 months and achieve that, no problem from breast feeding alone. But, I want to be fit and strong like I was prior to popping out this kid. I maintained a lot of my muscle mass throughout pregnancy, now it's time to continue on this fit journey. So, here we go.
This month I can't really say that I did a lot in terms of fitness (feeding and changing diapers? Definitely). The first week I did absolutely nothing as I was recovering from labor and delivery (my poor lady parts...) but by the end of the second week I was back at the gym for an easy workout. It felt weird. The third week workouts resumed to almost the pre-pregnancy state which meant oh HELL, my poor little abs that haven't been used in MONTHS. I did push ups during one workout this week and thought I was going to die... not from the arm/chest use but from the fact that I literally have zero abs right now. The fourth week I ran my first mile post pregnancy. It was weird. Totally weird. It felt somewhat like my insides were going to fall out and I think it was almost too soon for running. So, gym workouts commenced and a bit of walking but running is going to wait for just a little bit longer.
All of that being said, it sounds like a lot but mostly I just took it easy this month. Most of my time was spent in what Justin calls "survival mode." Making sure I eat and sleep and occasionally remember to pee since my sole job has been feeding and taking care of Owen. It's really all I cared about anyway and it was a much needed "rest" time both mentally as I was exhausted and physically as my body still needed time to do it's thing to recover from pregnancy, labor, and delivery. Oh yeah, and that god awful thing called a BOOBIE INFECTION (aka officially, mastitis) sort of made me just want to curl up in a ball and will myself not to die... But we're here, at the end of month one and we made it! (in more ways than one...)
Pictures- week one post delivery is one the left, month 1 post delivery is on the right:
Measurements:
Week 1 post partum
Belly- 33 inches (-8.5 lost from week 38 of pregnancy)
Waist- 36 inches (-4 lost from week 38 of pregnancy)
Hips- 39.5 inches (-.5 lost from week 38 of pregnancy)
Thigh- 19.75 inches (-1.25 lost from week 38 of pregnancy)
Boob - 37 inches (1 gain from week 38 of pregnancy)
Bicep- 10 inches (0 change from week 38 of pregnancy)
Month 1 post partum
Belly- 32 inches (-1)
Waist- 34.75 (-1.25)
Hips- 37.75 (-1.75)
Thigh- 19 (-.75)
Boob- 36.5 (-.5)
Bicep- 10 (0 change)
Weight, week 1 post baby- 131.5 (-20 pounds lost from week 38 of pregnancy)
Weight, month 1 post partum- 129.4 (-2.10)
The results are about what I would expect to see for the next several months going forward which is why I wanted to track this on my blog... not really for anyone else but for me to see that there are actually changes going on. When you go through day to day, it sometimes doesn't feel like it but gradually you get there.
