Working out while having a baby/ young kid
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I have a 5 yr old and a 2 yr old, I do have a gym membership that includes daycare, but when I didn't I would use nap time to work out. There are definitely other things I should be doing (cleaning house, paying bills, etc.) but it's important to me so I just do it. I would do a 30 min workout and then after dinner take the kids out for a walk. I'm currently pregnant with baby number three so it will be interesting to see how my workout schedule changes once the baby comes. Good Luck and just get in what you can when you can! If it's really important to you, you will find time to do it!!
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to poster who said " Are you ladies single moms? I ask my husband to watch the kids so I can work out.
Seriously I'm surprised at how many people don't just simply get the father to watch the children."
wow you seem very asuming. My husband works overnight 3pm-3am so he is sleeping suring the day and im not gunna ask him at 3 am when he gets home...
To OP: I choose to TRY lol to get up early before ds is up. Its the only way to be SURE i will get a good workout in. Iv learned not to be so rigerous if DS was up till 1 am I will sleep in a little I just know I will have to be more creative with my workout. You can do it!!!
I was just surprised by how many people don't utilize the father No need to get your panties in a twist :laugh:0 -
I have a 9 yr old, 8 yr old and 8month old. I work full time and we have soccer and baseball practice two nights a week. I just walk when we are at the fields with the baby. When we are at home the older kids play with the little one so that I can do a workout video. My husband has other things that he is taking care of, so I take care of the kids, dinner and bath after work. Squeezing in workouts when I can, where I can.0
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My kids are a little older (6 & 10) but i still find myself working out later at night. My husband helps a bunch but b/w their schedules and our schedules thats the only "free" time i get! I want to work on getting up earlier and doing but im also not a morning person!0
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I am SAHM of 4. My husband works waaaaay to much. on my slower days I workout at naptimes comsistently. I dont expect to ever get more than 30 min (but if it comes and Im not beat I iwll do more) Somedays I tell my oldest or my husband hey, Im workoing out you let me be for X amount of time. And some days, like Wednesdays, I take my day off and sometimes on Sunday too. the hardest part I have with all this is it never feels like its a habit because the time can vary. Just do it when you can and the older they get the more you can incorporate them or find time. Def dont beat yourself up over it. And like many suggested just getting a good walk with a baby attached is a good workout. 0
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Are you ladies single moms? I ask my husband to watch the kids so I can work out.
I seriously don't mean to offend anyone with this, but I hate it when people say husbands "watch" or "babysit" their own kids! It's called parenting. What I hate about it is that it assumes that all the mundane stuff related to kids is automatically my (as "mommy") responsibility. The inference is that hubby is doing me a favor when he's simply supposed to do it anyway. This is a battle I have with my hubby.
To answer your question, though, I work out at 5:15 a.m. every morning, before anyone else in my household gets up. Then, I can get hubby up, get my child ready for school, and out the door, then get ready for work myself. By 10:00 p.m. I am done.
YUP! me too! up at 530 am cuz I know there is NO WAY anyone is gonna bug me at that time! Like you though I am dead to the world by 10pm!0 -
I have a 3 year old and an 18 month old and I work from 8:30-5. Usually when I get home I make supper and then do my workout after the kids eat and are bathed. They keep each other entertained for that hour and I'm just right there in my Living Room. I have not been a member of a gym since I had the kids. My husband helps me CONSTANTLY so when he gets home he plays with them and feeds them so really the only days its complicated is when he goes to the gym and gets home later. I find that I HAVE to make time for myself and if that means the kids destroy my living room for an hour and I have to clean it later that's fine...I have to get my workout in!!! Lately my 3 year old tells me she has to work out too! LOL!
Today is my 30th day of 30 Day Shred! I finished it!!!0 -
I work full time and have a 2 year old. I started walking at lunch on the nice days, or when I don't need to work through lunch.I also either put her in the jogging stoller and walk/jog or put her on the back of my bike (I had one of those child seats added on). She loves being outside and I get the exercise.0
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Could be that their husbands work out with them.Are you ladies single moms? I ask my husband to watch the kids so I can work out.
Seriously I'm surprised at how many people don't just simply get the father to watch the children.
Me an my wife workout together, so we can't just have the other one watch my son (18 months), we just stick to early mornings, or after he goes to sleep at night, also lots of walks.0 -
Well, with mine, I had to wait until she could walk around and figure out her own thing to do, which was just before she was 10 months old. Otherwise, I'd have to try and work around her random nap schedule, and it meant that I didn't have a very regular schedule.
What I did before that was put her in a carrier, and wore her like a backpack while I went for a walk. She would fall asleep on the way, and I could get up to five miles in on a walk, which was a good enough workout for that time. I actually used to jog with her on my back, as well, which made me feel like a crazy Marine in training, haha.
Now that she's a year and a half, I can do my workout while she plays around the house, and she only comes up to me once in a while to ask for something. I also do my runs either before her dad goes to work, or in the late afternoon when he gets home. Sometimes, I'll also drop her off early at daycare before I do them, but it just depends on the day, and how I'm feeling. I don't have a set schedule that I follow week to week. I end up changing it up to work around different things, but it works for me.
You'll kind of have to experiment, but my number one piece of advice is: Don't be afraid to ask for time to yourself. If you want to have time to go for a walk by yourself, or a run, or anything else, ask your husband or significant other to watch the kiddo. I felt bad at first, and then I got over it, and now he watches her while I go do my own thing for an hour. Saved my sanity, I tell ya.0 -
Perhaps their spouse works 12+ hour days and has a commute? My spouse sometimes barely has the energy or time left to shovel some food in his face and read books to the kids before they are in bed.
What if the mother is exclusively breastfeeding and cant go more then a hour away from the baby during the day. No matter what you try you cant force a child into a nap schedule. All these things are biologically NORMAL for babies and toddlers.
Next time stop being so judgmental and better then every one else because you are lucky and have a schedule and kids that are easy.0 -
I started back at the gym a couple days a week when my son was 2 months old and eased back into it. My husband or sister would be with the baby and I got some much needed alone gym time! I now go 3-4 times a week usually when he goes to bed at night or weekend nap time. I sometimes feel guilty leaving to go to the gym and not see him for a long time as I work full-time, but then I realize that being healthy is important to my whole family and not just me. Also, I suggest Jillian Michaels dvds at home for quick workout during naptime or a treadmill so when I can't make it to gym I can run after he goes to bed.0
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I have a 3 month old and I work 8-5 and right now the only time I have is my lunch hour. I am able to take about an hour and 15 minutes which gives me enough time hit the gym to lift. I just started doing Jamie Eason's live fit trainer so the first 4 weeks is all weights no cardio, so its working out well right now. However, when I start the second phase and add cardio in it's going to get more difficult.
I want to spend as much time with my little guy as I can in the evenings so by the time I get dinner made/cleaned up, we get him bathed and down for the night it's about 8:30. Then I have to get everything ready for the next day and do any house work (laundry,dusting, etc.), so by that time it's 10:00 and I'm pooped! I'm already getting up at 5:30 to get ready in the morning and out the door by 7:30. My little guy never quite caught on to breast feeding so I have pumped and bottle fed since the beginning. I was planning on doing this until he was at least 4 months old and then using what I have frozen till it runs out. This will free up 30 minutes in the evening and in the morning making it possible to get up at 5:00 to get a workout in!
I am quickly learning that a mommy's job is never done! My husband helps as much as he can, but there are some things he can't/won't do and some that I just feel better doing. I can't imagine doing this alone! If any of you are single mom's you are definitely super heros in my mind!!!0 -
I have a 2 year old and a 6 year old. I'm not a single mom, but my husband works 14 hour days, so I basically live as one much of the week. When my kids were younger, I did Stroller Strides (which is great, if there's one in your area). I also did long walk/jogs on my own with the stroller. Now that my kids are a little older, I generally give them some snacks and put in a kids' movie for them to watch so I can slip downstairs and workout. I usually get at least 45 minutes before they get bored and start bugging me. I also belong to a gym with childcare, but my 2 year old has separation anxiety issues, so I don't use it very often.0
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Perhaps their spouse works 12+ hour days and has a commute? My spouse sometimes barely has the energy or time left to shovel some food in his face and read books to the kids before they are in bed.
What if the mother is exclusively breastfeeding and cant go more then a hour away from the baby during the day. No matter what you try you cant force a child into a nap schedule. All these things are biologically NORMAL for babies and toddlers.
Next time stop being so judgmental and better then every one else because you are lucky and have a schedule and kids that are easy.
I believe you're mistaking "curiosity" for "judgmental" hummmm....0 -
I have two children (3yrs and 1yr), and I just started working out in January. I give you a lot of credit for working out with an infant! We just got a membership to our local YMCA and I take them there just about every morning. They offer 2 hours of free child care a day for members. It's actually really affordable, and I feel like I get more exercise in because I am not stopping every 5 seconds to keep them from fighting, or get them something. I also just started doing the 30 day shred, but I wait until they go to bed at night. On warm days I put the kids in the stoller or wagon and walk for about 30 minutes, sometimes twice a day. According to my old HRM I was burning about 90 cals each walk, but it was messed up and didn't count accurately and I have yet to walk with my new one (the old one would count lower than what I actually burned when I did intense exercise). I think it would be pretty accurate though to say I burned about 90 calories when walking though. It is definately hard to work out with children at home, but there are ways to do it! Good luck! 0
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Another option for working out with kids-if you like to ride a bike getting a pull behind trailer is fun too. And when they get a bit bigger, talk about a work out!0
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Are you ladies single moms? I ask my husband to watch the kids so I can work out.
I seriously don't mean to offend anyone with this, but I hate it when people say husbands "watch" or "babysit" their own kids! It's called parenting. What I hate about it is that it assumes that all the mundane stuff related to kids is automatically my (as "mommy") responsibility. The inference is that hubby is doing me a favor when he's simply supposed to do it anyway. This is a battle I have with my hubby.
To answer your question, though, I work out at 5:15 a.m. every morning, before anyone else in my household gets up. Then, I can get hubby up, get my child ready for school, and out the door, then get ready for work myself. By 10:00 p.m. I am done.
I do understand completely what your saying about the husbands watching or babysitting the kids. But my husband works a lot right now and yes I feel bad about making him watch our handful of a 2 yr old. which is now turning into a better wellbehaved almost 3 yr old so soon I wont feel obligated to ask. while I dont call it babysitting I do ask him to "watch" the kid while im not in the room. And I see nothing wrong with that.0 -
I tried getting up before my boys (2 and 7) but my younger son is unpredictable, and needs supervision once he's awake or he may climb the dressers, so that didn't work so well. I work part time as a substitute teacher, so on the days I work, I work out after school and pick the kids up from day care afterwards. On days we're home, I work out at naptime, as soon as he falls asleep, and hope he sleeps long enough to grab a shower. It works fairly well most days!0
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Married with two kids here – 3 ½ and 1. I work days, my husband works evenings (5-11 or so). We both are students as well. Any free time we have is usually running errands or doing homework! If he is home and the kids are napping, I’ll go for a walk (hopefully jog soon!) in the neighborhood by myself. Any other days, it’s a compromise of pushing the 1 year old in a stroller, while the 3 ½ rides his bike. He’ll get tired of the bike on one trip. We go back to the house, ditch the bike, switch to the sit and stand stroller. He can have a variety of ways to travel without having to sit the whole time, she is happy sitting in the front, and I’ll push the two of them for about a mile and a half walk each evening (2 kids+stroller=86 lbs!).
Right now, that is my exercise!! I slip in weights a few nights a week (just a set of dumbbells) for 15 minutes or so. If the kids are asleep early enough and I don’t have homework breathing down my neck, I’ll do a P90x dvd. Some afternoons, the exercise ranges from volleyball in the trampoline to chasing butterflies in the backyard! Another staple in my “routine” is I ALWAYS take the stairs at work. I work on the 4th floor, so it takes 8 flights to get to my office. I take the stairs in the parking garage to the 5th floor as well. Every little bit counts!
I got kickstarted by going to the gym for three months, but my husband was not in school at that time. Now the gym just isn’t feasible for me, but I have found that my little “routine” is still successful in helping me lose weight.0 -
I workout during nap/rest. I love routines and schedules for this reason because it allows time to do the things I want to do and focus on me.
My 4 year old twins rest for an hour and then get 30 min of tv while I finish my workout.
My 20 month old has nap for 2 hours in the afternoon.
I am about to go on a walk/run with the youngest in the stroller while the other two are at preschool.0 -
The best thing for me is to just get up before they do. My kids are much older now so I don't have to worry about it as much.
My youngest is 5 and still at home with me but she knows not to bug me. Some days she gets her little pink yoga mat out and works out with me. She has a set of pink 3 lb weights that she uses too.
She LOVES to do yoga with me. She knows that she can stop whenever she wants as long as she doesn't bug me.
If things get crazy I call my husband at work and give him the heads up that I didn't get a workout in.....that way when he gets home he takes care of the kids and I go squeeze in 30 min.
When they were smaller I pulled them around in a wagon or pushed them in the stroller. Also, pushing them in the swings is good especially if you do lunges while doing it.
Do squats holding the kiddos too.
My theory is if you really want it to work you will find a way to make it work but if you are looking for excuses there will always be excuses. Even a 15 min. workout is better then nothing!
^^^ now I feel lame, because my weights are the same as a 5 year old, LOL :laugh:0 -
I have 3 kids, 2 of which are at home with me and the other one is school age. The little ones are 3 years and 18 months. I have to do all working out from home. I try to do it when they are down for a nap which is never at the same time. My 3y/o is sometimes awake when I workout and can play for a while but I have to workout when my 18 month old is sleeping. He's pretty unpredictable with naps so I try to start as soon as he lays down and sometimes I have to stop and other times it doesn't happen.
I sometimes workout at night after they all go to bed. That is only if I don't have to work, because I work nights.
I can't get up in the morning and do it because sometimes my little guys are up around 5-530. And like I said, I work nights, so mornings aren't my thing!
Just try to fit it in whenever you can. I can't wait until I can actually plan out when I'm going to workout, but for now I just try to fit it in whenever I can!
Good luck to you! Feel free to add me as a friend if you'd like!0 -
Perhaps their spouse works 12+ hour days and has a commute? My spouse sometimes barely has the energy or time left to shovel some food in his face and read books to the kids before they are in bed.
What if the mother is exclusively breastfeeding and cant go more then a hour away from the baby during the day. No matter what you try you cant force a child into a nap schedule. All these things are biologically NORMAL for babies and toddlers.
Next time stop being so judgmental and better then every one else because you are lucky and have a schedule and kids that are easy.
I believe you're mistaking "curiosity" for "judgmental" hummmm....
Nope, getting snarky and asking why the father isn't doing his job and asking if these women are single moms is judgmental. Then getting offended when someone calls you on it, well lol.0 -
Exactly. People are always quick to judge. You don't know if the father works nights, etc.Are you ladies single moms? I ask my husband to watch the kids so I can work out.
Seriously I'm surprised at how many people don't just simply get the father to watch the children.
Ummm... I am not a single mother, but my husband just had his second back surgery so him watching LO is great unless something happens and LO needs to be picked up.... You never know the situations that someone else might be dealing with.0 -
I'm also in the get up early group. It's too hard to exercise while he's awake, even if he's playing with my husband since we have a small house. If I can't seem to drag myself out of bed that early or I'm going for some bonus exercise, I'll stick him in the stroller with a snack and walk at the park. He also enjoys riding in the backpack so I'll put him in there and then go hiking- add in a few hills with that extra weight and I get some awesome jelly legs. He finds it hilarious when I walk through mud and likes watching for birds and squirrels.0
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When my son was younger I tried to workout around his naps or took him with me on my runs (I have a jogging stroller). Now he's 21 months old and his naps are shorter and he doesn't like being in the jogger so I wake up early and workout before he gets up. I did p90x, online workouts and the elliptical. Right now, I do cardio plus the nike training workouts. If you have an iphone i would highly suggest downloading the nike training app.. they have awesome workouts you can do at home. Hope this helps. Best wishes!0
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My son is 9 months old. I have a treadmill at home that I'll use when I can't get to the gym. I will run on it during his naps. My husband and I have a schedule worked out, so we can both get to the gym. We both work. I go on Monday, Wednesday, and he goes on Tuesday, Thursday during the week. We both go on Saturday and Sunday because we are members of the YMCA and they have a great childcare facility. We don't use it during the week because we feel bad taking him right back to the daycare when we pick him up. It's worked out great for us. I'm training for a triathlon right now and I've never felt better. Good luck.0
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Perhaps their spouse works 12+ hour days and has a commute? My spouse sometimes barely has the energy or time left to shovel some food in his face and read books to the kids before they are in bed.
What if the mother is exclusively breastfeeding and cant go more then a hour away from the baby during the day. No matter what you try you cant force a child into a nap schedule. All these things are biologically NORMAL for babies and toddlers.
Next time stop being so judgmental and better then every one else because you are lucky and have a schedule and kids that are easy.
I believe you're mistaking "curiosity" for "judgmental" hummmm....
Nope, getting snarky and asking why the father isn't doing his job and asking if these women are single moms is judgmental. Then getting offended when someone calls you on it, well lol.
I wasn't the one getting snarky, although I can if you want me to. I was simply curious. I didn't say anyone was a single mom, please re read what I wrote. KTHNXBYE.0 -
This has been my issue until recently. I have an almost 6 year old and a 3 year old. Only just within the past few months have I felt like I could exercise during awake hours. And it shows them that Mommy exercises and I feel like I'm setting a good example. But other than that, I either got up before them and did it in the morning, or after they went to bed. SUCKED either way...0
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