Get Fit

My thirties have been spent pretty much pregnant or breastfeeding. It has a been a challenge to get (and stay) fit during the past 7 years. (Have I given away my age there?)

Right before baby V was born, I was in the best shape of my life. My body had been mine, and not shared with a growing fetus or nursing baby for over a year. I was going to the gym regularly. I was running. I was cycling. I had, in fact, just completed a bike tour of New York City with my brother. 

I tried to keep it up while I was pregnant. I bought a fitbit. I started walking. When winter settled in, I took my jogging stroller and my two year old to the mall to speedwalk the halls with the mall-walkers in their shiny white sneakers. Then somewhere around my 7th month of pregnancy I got lazy. Some people can escape the part of pregnancy in which you feel like every move you make feels like you need to lay down afterwards. Unfortunately, I am not one of them. 

I was excited at the 6 week post-partum mark to get the clearance to start working out again. I was going to dust off that bike and start riding again. But, I had a newborn who would scream if anyone else tried to hold her. I put off getting back into shape for a little longer. And then I lost motivation. 

Sometime in December I decided to charge up my Fitbit. I was ready. I was motivated. But, no, I really wasn't. I wore the fitbit for two days and didn't do anything else. 

New Year's is usually a time for people to commit to getting fit. But not me. I didn't want to be part of all that. Those people never stick to it anyway, right? 

My bike is sitting in our den. I look at it every single day, collecting dust. I wanted it so badly. I saved up for it for months. It makes me sat every time I gaze on the water bottles still sitting there from that bike tour that happened almost a year and a half ago. 

So, today, I made a decision. It may be cold and gray outside. I may still have a baby who needs to be attached to me every minute of the day. But I can do it. I can get back into shape. 

And I did something I really did. I navigated the xbox to the "Xbox Fitness" game and chose a 10 minute work out -- and did two of them. So even though there was one kid trying to do it with my and one crawling around at my feet, I DID IT. 

Try All the Wraps

Woven wraps are an addiction. They really and truly are. I didn't believe it at first, although I should have known it would happen.
Somehow I got through three kids without being bitten by the bug. Then, while pregnant with Little Miss V, I started to research baby carriers. I bought a half buckle Kokadi Tai-Tai, a Tula SSC, and a Wrapody Hybrid. I had never tried any of these, I just went with reviews I read online.

When V came into the world, I started wearing her almost immediately. She wasn't big enough yet for the Tula, but the Tai-Tai was perfect. I wore her exclusively in it for the first three months. I tried the wrapsody. I wanted to love wrapping because the wraps were so beautiful and it looked so cozy. But the stretch hybrid was so long, and I was intimidated.


Then, I joined my local babywearing group. I watched them flip their babies on their backs and twist themselves in all sorts of ways. They moved and placed fabric in ways I didn't know was possible. "I'll never do that," I thought. "I'm an SSC girl," I thought. Oh how I was deluding myself.

I kept going to meetings and kept denying I wanted to do what those moms were doing so beautifully. "I'll just admire their wraps from afar," I thought, secretly lusting over the intricate patterns and restraining myself from reaching out a hand to fondle the textiles surrounding me.

I came home after one such meeting, and spied my wrapsody in corner. I hadn't touched it in months. But I felt this irresistible pull. "Wrap with me," it whispered. "You know you want to." And then...

Oh no.

I loved wrapping. But the wrap was still too long for me. I had overheard the moms at the meeting mention a sale. SALE? Ok then. Hello my first woven.

Whee! Down the Rabbit Hole I go.

It was love. I had fallen. Hard.

A stash shot? Yes. I have one of those. 

I'm up to 5 wraps. That last picture doesn't show one I had to keep secret for awhile. And I have two on the way. And my Tula still lives here (its my go-to for errands!).  Its an addiction. It really is. 

Down the Rabbit Hole

I recently sold a whole bunch of stuff - to fund a new woven wrap. I swore I wouldn't become involved with this obsession. I just knew if I started, I would fall deep into the rabbit hole. I resisted for a few months, watching the other moms in my babywearing group wrap their littles with their gorgeous wovens. I said to myself, "I'm an SSC girl.  I have no patience for wovens."

I had purchased a jersey wrap (Gypsymama Hybrid Stretch) when I was pregnant with V, but it wasn't for me. It only came in one size and was very long for me. I tried it a few times when V was a squish, but couldn't get into it. Then, at our October meeting I became inspired to try again, and pulled out that crazy long wrap. And I just loved the squishy close cuddles I got. Sigh. I was hooked.

I remembered some of the moms talking about a sale on Pavo Hearts. Sale? I can't resist sale. It was a seconds sale, but I didn't care. As long as it was safe and functional. So onto the Pavo site I went, and a few minutes later, my first woven was ordered. I waited [not so] patiently for my fluff to arrive. And a few days later... love...

I immediately knew I needed another. I had fallen. Hard. A few weeks later, and I am awaiting two more wraps. One was supposed to arrive today.
I was nursing baby V so she would nap and heard a knock on the door. Damn, the mail was early! I hoped he'd leave it on the doorstep, but signature required.
Which means I'll be at the post office at 9am on the dot tomorrow.

With a baby on my lap.

I don't really know what I'm doing. I've tried at this blogging thing before but, well, they've been less than successful. I've never really been good at this. You should see how many "journals" I bought and never wrote more than a few pages in. And now this - blogging - is supposed to be for the whole world to see, but I don't really think anyone would find anything I say interesting, except for maybe my future self and my mom.

Baby V is 5 months old and is currently sleeping in my lap even though I've already put her down in her side-carred crib twice already. This is because she will not sleep unless she is touching me in some sort of way.It was in my broken co-sleeping sleep that the idea of this blog came to me a few days ago. Although she is number 4, I somehow had time in the last few months of my pregnancy to research baby-wearing. I wore the others - the twins in first a Bjorn (the gateway drug) and then an Ergo. With A I decided to try a Moby but she hated it and I wasn't really a fan, so she got an Ergo sport, which was used sparingly after we both overheated in the hot June sun while picking strawberries with 2 year old twin toddlers. I had no idea that it was the infant insert that made it unbearable, or that were other options.

So, here we are in month #5 with baby #4, and thanks to my pregnant research and the moms in my babywearing group, I have a Tula and am on my way to building my woven stash. I'm really new at wrapping but am loving it, so I thought that it would be fun to start chronicling my wrapping adventures here.

So you might think what's up with the whole crunchy geeky thing? Well - I love science. I am a former science teacher.I believe in peer-reviewed journals. (Not the fake ones I read about today on IFLS) However... a lot of people would call me crunchy. I babywear. I cloth diaper. I breastfeed. I believe in baby-led weaning.

I told T earlier today I wanted to tie-dye and he asked me if I  was a hippie. I shrugged and said I guess I'm not all that far off.