It has begun, like a trickle from the smallest mountain spring. I began some approved post partum exercises such as head and shoulder lifts, leg slides and whatnot. All very simple stuff. It’s not good to rush abdominal strength development when one’s abs are still “unzipped” by 3-4 finger widths.
We’re also incorporating regular walks. By regular I mean Monday and today, but not Tuesday when it was raining cats and dogs. It’s no fun dodging house pets when carrying a baby. But really, folks, we’ve got a new baby carrier sling and it seems to be working out nicely. Today we saw some guys from iRobot testing out their Ranger unit in our neighborhood lake. At first, we thought they were fishing but then realized they had laptop computers instead of fishing poles. You don’t see that every day.
I’m also doing some stretches that don’t involve inner thigh stretching because I still have stitches to heal that don’t need me pulling them apart before all is kosher. I need to do more of those today, so I will.
I also re-introduced my upper body weights routine with the whopping 3 pound dumbells. It was no problem, since I did those sessions about once a week throughout third trimester. I should probably do those more than once per week now– maybe every other day?
So that’s my current plan. It’s a far cry from 5 hour rides and 3 hour trail runs, but it’s a start.
In other news, the Remster lost his umbilical cord nub and now has a belly button that looks way cuter than his Mommy’s. Mine is still rather outie. All in due time.
what do the abs feel like?? i’m totally curious about this phenomenon (while hoping it doesn’t happen to me!). do you basically have no strength in them? like, getting up from lying down or something, can you do it?
and what kind of sling do you have? i’m due in december (= cold in CT) and figure when i’m able to get out and walk it’ll be WAY too cold for a stroller, but carrying the kid in a sling sounds cozy enough.
glad to hear you’re getting back into the swing and feeling good!
Well, I can get up from lying down and it’s a little easier now than it was while full term because I don’t have such a big baby-filled belly weighing me down, but the strength is definitely off. The way to feel for the split is to lay down, knees up and head and shoulders raised then feel just above your belly button. You’d be able to feel a gap.
We bought the Boppy brand sling. We also have one of those magic wrap things that can be made into a sling or front/back carrier, but didn’t feel like the sling was secure enough, so we bought the Boppy one. There were a couple of other options at Babies R Us, but decided on this one because it looked nice and substantial but not girlie, so my husband would feel comfortable using it too.
Glad you’re on your way back. Just moving in the right direction, no matter what the pace, has to feel great!
Hope those abs heal up! I’ve heard about that…thought it was happening to me at one point but I don’t think it actually has yet.