Finding time to workout with 5 month old

[PockerMaus]

Any mums who enjoy fitness... How do you find the time with a baby?

Prior to pregnancy I would go to the gym 5 x a week. Since having my boy I'm struggling to find the time to get to the gym as my partner gets home from work around 6 and by the time we've had dinner/bathed the babe and put him to bed (he has to be fed to sleep at the moment and is EBF) I am too tired to go to the gym.

I do two mum and baby classes in the week but find I am often distracted and don't feel like I've done a proper workout.

My son sleeps from 7:30 - 7ish every night with around 2/3 wake ups. He will only fall back asleep on the boob (have tried lots of different ways to get him to sleep with no luck but it works for us so I don't really mind).

My partner leaves for work around half 7 and gets home at 6. He doesn't do any of the night wake ups (again I am ok with this due to him being BF). My son usually wakes up around 1am and 5am. I was going to suggest to my partner that I go to the gym between 6am and 7am in the morning and if our son wakes up during that time, he'll just have to deal with him even though he has to leave for work. Would you say that's reasonable?

How do you make time to work out?

I think your plan is reasonable but extremely exhausting. Every minute of sleep counts at that age. I don't think most mums of 5 month old babies go to the gym much.

I just did workouts at home during naptimes and when dd was asleep for the night. Seemed easier than going out to a gym.

I think it’s a reasonable plan but honestly think you should go easy on yourself. Your baby is very tiny & you should be resting & good nutrition. Look after yourself.

[but if you’re desperate for the gym, your plan isn’t an unreasonable ask of your DH but there are loads of home workouts you can do that don’t require equipment & can be done whilst your baby sleeps]

Wow you’re making me speechless! Good for you if you enjoy it but I could t think of anything worse haha.

I actually think your plan is good - although you’ll be tired a morning work out does wake you up and improve your mood! Plus you’ll never be motivated in the evening with a young baby

Haha thank you all for your understanding responses! Maybe I am crazy I'm not sure 😂 I just find exercise a great boost for my MH but really struggle to motivate myself once my boy has gone to sleep for the night! I'll try out the plan and see how I get on 🤞🏼

Can you go at weekends if your partner isn’t working then? Appreciate it’s not 5x a week but a lot better than nothing.

I could never have dragged myself out of bed at 6am to work out after a broken night. But hats off to you if you can.

Other than exercising in the mornings or evenings when DH is at home, my thoughts are - have you got any space to work out at home, either with baby watching (or used as a weight) or when they nap? Or any gyms nearby with a crèche? Or a mum friend/group of mums you can team up with eg. Half go for a swim or whatever and other half mind babies, then swap over?

My children are 4, 2 and 7m and I need to stay active so I’ve done a combo of the above. Favourite was the reciprocal childcare swimming mums thing. Peloton is a blessing with a baby, although is trickier now the littlest is crawling. I tended to run in the evenings in spring/summer but now mainly go out on weekend mornings. I will often run to wherever we are going with the kids that morning, and meet the rest of the family there so that I don’t eat up the whole morning and ruin plans/naps/meals.

Its sounds reasonable to me, the mother shouldnt have to bear all the burden by herself. The man needs to step up.

I hired a treadmill when my twins were little, it was impossible to get to the gym in the evening and I felt I needed to be at home, I have five kids, at other times I ran at 6am before their dad started work. Now have a peloton bike and tread at home and that would have been perfect back then. Can you do some classes in front of the tv while baby naps?

It's really hard whilst breastfeeding. This is not a case really where the man can step up. Given the circumstances, it does sound like a plan worth trying. If they nap long enough, I'd personally try to do a weekend nap session too. It is good for dad to be home alone with baby, even if they're asleep.

I did that with our first one. Got up at 530 and took the dog a run at a park. We ended up agreeing weekly our workout times as it was important to us both.

You're not wrong 😂 I generally go to bed around half 10/11 so I'm thinking I could shift this earlier.

But yeah I might realise it doesn't work! Just got to try and see I suppose :)

I could do :).although weekends tend to be when I can catch up on sleep! & When we get to do things as a family. But I do try and do the park run on a Saturday.

Oh yes it's so hard! We've just come out of the 4 month regression and there's no way I could have hauled myself out. But now we're down to 2 wake ups I feel a lot better, probably cause I was used to 5 or 6!

I think it’s hard with a baby to keep up your hobbies until they’re a little older. It’s not unreasonable to want to go to the gym but regular trips just may not fit in to life at the moment. If can make it work then great, but if it doesn’t work then try again when baby is older.

Also you could go as soon as he walks thru the door?
this is what we do.
Do that once or twice a week, plus your weekend and it’s not bad. Im also a regular gym person with 3 kids. But they are older!

I did also do really long brisk walks with the babies in a front carrier when little then a backpack one when older.

Love that! I never thought of running to places we go to but could certainly be an option on some days.

I do mum&baby classes as unfortunately no gym nearby with a crèche but that would be awesome if there was!

We actually have fitness stuff in the garage, I just find it harder to motivate myself at home & it's freezing/dark so I get a bit spooked on my own in there. I might revisit the idea of a peleton though! That's not a bad shout.

From when DD2 was about 8 weeks, 4 nights a week my partner & I used to take it in turns to do whatever we wanted after baby was in bed (mostly we both went to our gym to workout or use the sauna but sometimes I just went to the supermarket & enjoyed being by myself lol).

The thought is tiring but it makes you feel so much better physically & mentally. I did end up later in MAT leave putting DD into the crèche at the gym if you are in a position to go to a gym with a crèche. Appreciate this isn’t an option to everyone though. I also BF and used to leave a bottle of expressed just in case so I wasn’t on edge or rushing back.

sorry OP, cross post & just seen no gym with a creche near you.

Originally this was my plan! But as he gets back around 6, it got tricky with cooking dinner/bath time etc. we sort of realised we needed 2 pairs of hands on an evening otherwise we wouldn't end up eating or going to bed until late!

Ah yes we have a Vizsla so I do get a lot of steps in :) I wish my baby enjoyed being in a carrier, he hates ours!

Does your partner get any free time to himself? If so he needs to split it so you have equal free time.

Just keeping on top of parkrun is will keep you ticking over. 10 minute work outs at home will help.

This is true and my partner was happy with the plan :) it does make it harder whilst I'm EBF and I think I find it hard to just let go and go out/do things for myself at the moment! Mum guilt & all that. But that's more of a me problem as opposed to him not doing his part I suppose.

It is isn't it! But thank you for your response :) yes it definitely is good for them both. It was hard at the start as my son would literally just wake up screaming until I was there. But he's a lot more 'awake' to the world now and is able to be kept entertained for a few hours etc. so hopefully things are getting easier :)

Yes I'm trying not to be so hard on myself! It's hard isn't it, when your body has changed and being so used to being physically fit and in a fitness routine. But yes, I do know it is only temporary and my son is my priority :)

I guess we both have the evenings as my son goes to sleep around half 7. But then that is the only few hours we have with eachother through the week so it's hard to then get up and get to the gym! But it wouldn't be an issue if I wanted to pop to the gym in the evening.

He doesn't work weekends so I try to fit in a session then but that's also the only time we really get to spend all together so I end up sacking off a work out to hang out with them :)

I love exercise, things I did when DS was little:

• running pram to go for runs with him (from 6 months onwards)
• go for walks, take resistance bands and do exercises in the park, either short set while DS watches me, or I wait for him to fall asleep in the pram and do a longer set
• Mum&Baby classes, both indoors with DS on the mat next to me and outdoors with the babies staying in their prams (I found outdoors works better, DS was interested enough in what’s going on around him to let me do my exercises).

I also considered PT with a trainer who is used to clients with babies and works around this, and even is happy to hold/entertain the babies while I do the exercises, but I found that I got enough out of her group classes in the end and didn’t pursue it.

I used to just do lots of walking with my girls. One of them never slept well during the day at home but would sleep well in the pram. I’d take them out for an hours walk for morning nap and again in the afternoon. I found it so relaxing, I’d pop my headphones on and power walk. I came home feeling energised and the girls woke up happy from having a decent nap. We didn’t stop until they were in school, although obviously as they got
older they wanted to walk and play on our walks. Great exercise for everyone and lots of fresh air. I had a brilliant all terrain 3 wheeler. My friend had the same and would go running every day with hers.