Mind/Body After Baby: Month 1

Hey all! So I decided to do a little series called Mind/Body After Baby and track Cooper’s first year of life as well as my role as a new mum.  I’ve got the first month recapped for your today (it’s a little late due to the holidays). Hope you enjoy! 🙂

Baby

I can’t believe how fast one month went. Where on earth did the time go? The little man has grown so much. We discovered he absolutely hates baths. He loves eating (who doesn’t?) and is such a gorgeous boy. Typically he goes down to bed at about 10pm and wakes up around 3-4am for a feed. It’s then back down until about 7:30 or 8am.  Sometimes he goes down later and wakes up around 5am and then sleeps until about 9:30am. We feel pretty lucky that he isn’t up every two hours but let’s not count our chickens before they all hatch. 

Although we obviously think Cooper is the most adorable baby ever, his faces are so priceless. You know how some people have bitchy resting face? Well, Cooper has grumpy baby resting face. He seems to have a little scowl on a lot of the time. It’s gotten better over time as he spends more time in quiet awake rather than just eat/cry/sleep. But his Dad and I still laugh hysterically over his faces. My favorite ones are when he stretches after a meal or when waking up. His faces are just too priceless.

He is also a peeing and pooping machine. Not that you all want to hear about my child’s bowel movements but he has peed on our couch at least 5 times and the two of us countless times. Not to mention that he did the biggest poop ever when I was trying to change him. I jumped of the way and started cracking up! Seriously, what are these diapers for!?!

Mum

Body

I think there is a misconception that women give birth and all of a sudden walk out of the hospital looking like they did before they got pregnant.  Not so, my friends.  I looked like I was about five months pregnant when I left the hospital but my belly started to shrink pretty much daily since we got home.  

I finally found out my weight when I went to my two week doctor’s appointment.  I have no idea what my total pregnancy weight gain was but I would like to lose about 16 lbs initially based on my weight at my two week appointment.  I would then like to lose another four or five pounds once I’m back in my top shape for a total of about 20 lbs.

The most shocking thing for me since giving birth has been the recovery.  I was totally not prepared for a C-section so needless to say that I was totally not prepared for the recovery from a C-section (more on that here).  Let me tell you, the recovery is no joke.  I honestly felt better at nine months pregnant in terms of my level of fitness than I did in the initial weeks after Cooper was born.  Even walking was a struggle at first.  I totally thought I would be able to jump back into my fitness routine after a few weeks of rest but that has so not been the case.  

My surgery has required that I take extra time to rest and heal and even after starting back into an exercise routine, my progress has been very slow.  I started by doing some light arm weights (3lbs) for ten minutes at about 2 weeks.  I usually did the moves sitting or just standing still.  It was more of a way for me to get a break and start getting back into my “normal” routine than a real need for fitness.  I also started walking with the stroller.  At first I couldn’t go very far but I eventually worked up my “mileage.”  By one month I was officially allowed to workout again.  I started out doing some light yoga, light barre moves and some postnatal pilates.  I’m going to do an entire post on postnatal fitness but let’s just say that slow and steady has been my mantra.  

Mind

This has been the toughest part for me.  I was such a happy pregnant lady (well, aside from complaining about my general uncomfortableness) and while I am obviously overjoyed to welcome Cooper to our family, I was not all prepared for the anxiety I faced and have been facing since he was born.  It came out of the blue and kind of freaked me out.  I’m still working through it but I’m happy to say that I’ve had a ton of help with him and that has made me feel so much better.

Readers, how has your month been?  Mums, what was having a newborn like for you?