Saturday, March 7, 2009

Recovery Pants.


Yesterday I passed the big 6 week mark: 6 weeks post Lily-Pie's birth. This means that I can now start exercising again after months and months of total sloth. As soon as I found out I was at high risk for preterm labour (I think that was at about 6 months) all exercising came to a halt. The only thing that mattered was trying to get baby-one to "38 weeks" where it would be safe to bring her out into the world. Well, gratefully, we made it safely to that goal but with the c-section I was instructed that there should be no exercising for 6 weeks after, either. Not even "hoovering" the floors as one, funny, British nurse put it.

But, here we are! Six weeks past her birth and, as luck would have it, it was the most beautiful day we have seen around here in months. We reached a high of about 15 degrees Celsius and we even saw a bit of the sun. I promised myself that on that day, the six-week mark, I would get out there and go for a nice, long, fast-paced walk. I signed my pal, Shan (aka The Fairy Blogmother) up to be my walking companion. Unfortunately, her little My-Pie, got "the burps" so Shan had to bow out of our expedition. This would, normally, be the point where I may let myself off the hook and pass on the hike...but it was such a gorgeous day and, I tell you, I was eager to move it! I knew I had to start off easy since I've been so sedentary for so long (the longest stretch of not having any form of exercise I've even had in my life), so I just put baby in her stroller and we headed off for our walk around town. I went as quickly as I could without getting terribly out of breath and I hit a few little hills and dips as well.

It was fantastic! I swear, I think I could feel my blood moving around my body again! I even met another one of my neighbours on my walk. A lady (who seemed really, really, nice) who just had a little baby girl of her own a couple of months ago. Yay! I've found a new friend for Lily-Pie already!

So, this will be a regular thing from now on. Dave has teased me throughout the pregnancy with, "I don't know...are you sure you are going to be able to recover from this one?" Well, I don't have a scale in my house (I don't believe in having the horrid things around), but I do have the "series of pants". The series of pants goes like this...1) My pre-preggo pants 2) My preggo pants and 3) My "recovery" pants. The "recovery" pants are sized somewhere in between my preggo pants and my pre-preggo pants and they are what I can fit my butt into at this point. The goal, of course, is to get myself back into the pre-preggo ones. Once I've done that, I know I've pretty much reached my goal.

I also measured my waist the night before having Lily-Pie and we were up to 40 and 1/2 inches. Having given birth to her in itself quickly shaved 4 inches off that number and just getting my uterus back down to size has knocked another 3 inches off...the rest, I suppose, will be my responsibility. ;-)

So, wish me luck!

I figure "9 months on, 9 months off" so I'm not in any hurry...but I'll post updates here regularly just to keep me going. If you have any fitness goals you are working on, maybe you could join me and we could spur each other on! I can always use the encouragement (especially since that 15 degree weather is already gone and it's just getting cold and wet again...blahh).

{btw--the picture above isn't me. I just found it on the web because I really don't have time to take a picture of myself right now - 6 weeks is also a growth period for the baby and she is wanting to eat constantly! Gotta' go! bye!!}

5 comments:

WIDNEY WOMAN said...

LOL!! I thought that pic was you, so thanks for clarifying!! Congrats on losing 7 inches in 6 weeks!

Leah said...

good luck, and congrats on being able to be mobile again! I spent a lot of my 3rd pregnancy on bedrest and I was shocked at how tired I was after just 5-10 minutes of walking once I was finally allowed to be active again!!

Shan said...

Aww I'm sorry I had to skip out on you. I had been looking forward to it all day. I certainly wasn't looking forward to vomit down the front of my shirt. Let's reschedule for soon. I haven't seen you in forever! And Lily-Pie's little friend... is she around the corner?

Stephanie said...

Ok, so you are SO inspiring me to start exercising too. I've actually been wanting to start something again... anything... to feel active and alert and get my body moving once more. I'm still recovering a bit myself, so perhaps after 6 weeks (one week to go), I'll get my butt in gear too!

Mommy Project said...

It could be me, huh, WW? Kinda' looks like me from that angle. And, the carpet even looks like our carpet!

Thanks Leah - I'm surprised I didn't get more tired. Instead I just felt so terrific!! :-)

Next time, Shan! And, yep, she's right around the corner.

Stephi - you can keep me going, too! I hope you don't stop blogging.