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At-home exercise

1. It’s still winter and though we had a brief taste of spring, it’s cold out.
2. Two babies in my apartment. Busy.

I’m not in the mood to run outside. Maybe when it warms up. Maybe. And with the two little ones, I don’t have a ton of time to exercise right now. Certainly don’t have time to join a gym and go on a regular basis. And I’m not going to get up before Johnny and do a workout. And I am NOT going to skip a chance at an afternoon nap to exercise.

So you might think I’d just be stuck being a couch potato for now, right? Wrong. I’m still able to exercise throughout the day. Here’s what I’ve been doing in case you wanna be my internet exercise buddy.

- Time on the exercise bike. We didn’t spend much on it. It doesn’t take up as much space as you think (this is a compact version for sure). Nothing fancy, but it does work your muscles and also gives a decent cardio workout. Shane and I have put 160 miles on it so far.

I hop on for 5-10 minutes at a time until I’m needed for something else. I can watch TV or talk to Johnny while pedaling. Reading is too hard. The bike is extremely quiet and won’t wake anyone up, so that’s a plus. I don’t bother to change my clothes since really, who cares? In 5-10 minutes I’m not that sweaty.

- Exercise DVDs. Love a good exercise DVD! I’ve tried a bunch through Netflix and I’ve only bought one so far (10 Minute Solution: Prenatal Pilates). There are several available on streaming, so you can sample a bunch easily.

I have an ab DVD on loan right now (10 Minute Solution: Quick Tummy Toners). I’ve done two segments so far and they aren’t like any ab routine I’ve done before, so that’s nice.

The 10 Minute Solution DVDs are wonderful because they are five 10-minute segments that each do a different thing. You can create your own workout on the DVD menu and do just 1 segment or a combination of all five. My favorites are the Pilates ones, but they also have cardio, boot camp, dance, yoga, exercise ball workouts, and a few others if those are more your thing.

It’s not a workout routine that could prepare you for a marathon or anything, but it’s enough to feel like I’ve done a little bit of exercise and it’s enough to give me an energy boost. Later on when life chills out a little, I might branch out a little.

I think if I’m going to go for a run, I’d rather just be by myself. I don’t think I’d enjoy pushing a double-jogger.

What does your exercise routine look like?

2 months and 26 months

I took the kids to the pediatrician. Vivienne is 2 months old, and Jonathan is almost 26 months.

Her weight was 13 lbs. 5 oz. (up 5 lbs 2-3 oz. from birth!) and Johnny’s weight was 31 lbs., give or take. I had to hold him to be weighed, and then I was weighed separately because he’s apparently not interested in cooperating for his checkup.

My weight is maybe down a pound or two from the last time I saw it. Still about 10-15 lbs. or so I’d like to lose. I just want to be able to fit into my regular clothes! I’m still wearing a size up in jeans (and sometimes Shane’s pants when I run out of clean pairs!) but today my fatpants were a little loose, so yay.

In a few months when it really warms up, I can wear some elastic-waisted skirts until my hips finally pop back into place (if they do at all!).

Both V and J are growing and developing fine, as we figured. They’re sweet little things!

The doc asked how often Vivienne nursed and I seriously have no idea. I’ve never timed a feeding with her and I’ve never counted the frequency. She just nurses when she needs to and doesn’t when she doesn’t. Seems to be working just fine for us. Sometimes I think, “I’ll pay attention to how long she feeds” and then I get distracted by the time she’s done and I forget.

The doc was impressed with Vivienne’s strength in her body. She has good head and trunk support, though she’s still wobbly of course. She likes to bear weight on her legs and has for awhile. The doc said that she’ll probably hit milestones sooner than Johnny did, since she has him as her role model. He was walking at 10 months, and I hope that she’s not walking sooner than that! Too many bonks when they walk that early, since they’re not all that good at it.

She likes tummy time and she loves bathtime. Total opposite of her brother! One thing they have in common is they both absolutely hated the car seat at this age. I think they are mad because they don’t understand why they have to sit there. They know that I am really close by, but I’m not holding them and that makes them furious.

At times, she cries so hard that it sounds non-human. It’s horrible. I hope this phase passes quickly. I think it took several more months with Johnny.

Oh, and Johnny is now forward-facing in the car. He did that around his 2nd birthday when we had to reinstall the car seat anyway. I don’t much like it because he kicks the front seat. Plus, he can now see what I’m doing and I can’t sneak a snack without him knowing now! Pfft. We could turn him around again based on his weight, but I dunno. Maybe.

Anyway, life is busy, nuts, and exhausting right now as you might expect. The exhausting part will chill out soon enough. In theory.

Misc.

Went to the midwife for my last post-natal appointment. Everything is fine, and I still have about 15 lbs. to lose. I have a feeling I’m going to have to really work at it this time. Right now, my appetite has been really strong and I’m just going with it, and trying to make healthy choices.

We bought an exercise bike and Shane and I have been putting it to work. It’s really nice to be able to jump on and do a quick workout! Way easier than going to a gym, or even going for a run right now.

The midwife thought that given my history, I have a pretty significant chance of having pre-ecclampsia if I’m pregnant again. She thought it would be good for me to meet with the specialists in maternal/fetal medicine to have them evaluate me.

Kind of a bummer, but whaddya do. I hope I don’t get it again, but if I do, I hope I’m full-term and already in labor when it sets in (like it has the previous two times).

I’m a bit discouraged about blogging right now. On my main blog, I put a lot of effort into a week’s worth of posts. I wrote most of them at once during the weekend when I had time. Took a bit of effort to research and write. I barely got any comments. What’s worse, I’ve lost 100+ subscribers.

I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, so if you have any insights please share. Maybe my topics as of late haven’t been interesting. Maybe I’m offending people somehow (though I don’t know how).

I try not to focus so much on the readership number, but when i lose a bunch at once it really makes me wonder. And the minimal comments are a bummer.