B.A.B.E. Week 14: Rolling, rolling, rolling

 Elle and I have been rolling over both literally and figuratively.   Elle rolled from her stomach to her back for the first time this past week.   And I have rolled into my new life as a working, exercising mom.  My maternity leave ended last week on Monday August 3^rd -- just before Elle turned 3 months on August 5^th.

Rolling back into my old life has been hectic.  My first week back was in DC (away from home and our own baby infrastructure).   Hard.  But luckily Wilson’s parents came to DC to help us.   This meant the world to all of us. Elle loved cooing and talking to her grandparents.   She showed off her newfound skills of grabbing everything (toys, shirts, hair).   This girl loves to hold on (and cuddle).

So returning to work – well Wilson’s parents made it much easier to leave Elle for 9 or so hours per day (35 minute commute each way and then 6-9 hours at work depending on the day).   And my work is super flexible about working remotely so I could head out early on some days so that also made it easier for the first week.   

But the logistics of babycare while breastfeeding are daunting.  First, you have to teach the caregiver all your “systems”.  As in this is how you put together the bottle for the milk, warm up the milk, this is how she likes to go to sleep, etc.   Second, you have to plan how you are going to pump and store all the milk for the bambino.  This one sounds easy but its not.  For example, what about washing breast pump parts in between pumping?  Where/how will I wash them? Or have I brought enough bottles/bags to store the milk in?  Is my cooler cold enough? Is it big enough?  Do I have a secure place to pump?  Can I “exit” an all day meeting for 30 minutes (at least) at a time to pump and clean the pump parts?  Can I exit said meeting multiple times?  And finally, missing (and worrying about) the snuggling baby is hard even when you know she is happily cooing at her grandparents.

I survived the week in DC and now am back to work remotely.   It is SO much easier.  We have a nanny who comes to our house for 8 hours per day.  And since I can sneak in work in the morning and the evening as well, I don’t feel like I have to work the entire 8 hours that help is at the house. This allows time to feed and see Elle, which relieves so much pressure and logistics.  So I may be back at work full-time but thus far, my two days of remote work are head and shoulders better as a new mom then my first week back in the office.

Even though remote work seems to be working quite well (in the 2 days I have been doing it), I am still struggling to B.A.B.E. it up on the health and fitness aspect of things.   I am not exercising as much as I would like but I am doing something that I am very excited about – logging exercise with a friend.  For the past 20 or so days, my friend and I have been using google sheets to log our planking, runs, yogaing, rowing (a new sport for me), climbing (not doing this in the Bahamas), pull-ups, push-ups and squats.   This log has been incredibly motivating.  I love seeing her efforts and logging my own.

One aspect of the log that has been especially fulfilling is the fact that she and I have committed to doing planks twice a day every day.   We decided to do planks everyday because as new moms, it is so easy to injure yourself with a weak core.  I haven't followed through every single time but have gotten very close and that feels good both physically and emotionally.  Physically, it is tightening the still-dynamic (read-sagging) portion of my body.   And emotionally, doing the planks frees me up to not stress that some of my other exercise sometimes falls to the wayside.   Getting rid of some exercise anxiety is helpful as I deal with all the other stresses in “B.A.B.E.”dom.