Bouncing Back

It’s spring now, and the flowers are a welcome sight around here.  Our winter was much milder than usual, but I still felt cooped up like most mothers with a newborn do — so few safe places to take a teeny baby in the cold. It’s just easier to stay home.  The warmer weather is a fantastic bouquet of possibilities:  the park, walks around the neighborhood, hanging out in the backyard, really anything is at our beck and call.

Earning my padding: Six months pregnant, pushing Cade, 7 months old.

There’s one thing blooming that I’m not as thrilled to see – more of me.  I have done a really good job of getting the pregnancy weight off.  In fact, I just have two pounds to go.  However, my stuffing has shifted around.  I feel like a pillow that’s been jerked and tugged into a too-small pillowcase.  A lumpy pillow that’s been picked on by Gravity and his buddies, Age and Mileage.

I know there are women who bounce back quickly from having a baby, and to them, I say — enjoy it.  When you have your kids at 37 and 38, there’s no real bouncing going on.  It’s more of a jiggle.  Getting the curves back to where they used to be is a project not  undertaken lightly.  No sissies here.

There is only one path forward, and that’s exercise.  I wince to type the words.  I know exercise is good for me, and I actually feel good after exercising. I’m off to a pretty lamentable start.  It took approximately two months to purchase the postnatal abs DVD.  Then it took me another month or two to take off the shrink wrap from the DVD package.  Then one more month to watch it, only to discover that I needed to buy an exercise ball to go with said video.  Two weeks later, I had the ball.  Now the ball and DVD are collecting dust near my TV.

The warmer the weather, the harder it will be to hide my new self under loose sweaters.  I know this shape is well-earned and I’m okay with that.  I just wish my clothes fit.  The trick now is to make the time.  Exercising on the floor in front of the TV with a toddler in the room is kind of like jogging with a puppy chewing on your shoelaces.  I could work out during naptime, but that quiet hour or two is really precious.  Because it’s quiet; it’s not the time to start huffing and puffing and exerting myself in unpleasant ways.  By the time the kids are finally in bed for the night, I’m exhausted and in no mood to exercise – I’m sure you see the pattern here.

Wait…do you hear that?  Tank tops and bathing suits are calling.  No more excuses.

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