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.