How To Mix Motherhood With Your Exercise Schedule

When Beth was born, Jason and I were elated. Beth was our first girl born after three boys. In my 6th month of pregnancy we started to prepare for our “Little Princess” Beth’s room was painted pink; we bought frilly dresses and socks and replaced all our “used” baby items such as the highchair and crib.

After Beth was born, I was in heaven dressing up my “Little Princess” and taking her out to show her off. But all that lasted for two months. Then the depression set in…

Everything stopped being fun. I started to worry excessively about Beth. Beth’s three brothers were jealous of all her special attention and started acting up. Beth was a fussy baby and didn’t sleep well at night. And I hadn’t lost even one pound since Beth was born (I actually gained).

I was becoming a real wreck! I guess it was a mixture of the lack of sleep and the hormones that were acting up. Luckily, my husband is a real angel and picked up a lot of the slack on what I wasn’t doing. Jason did all the laundry. He managed to throw together meals (lucky my boys all like peanut butter sandwiches.) We lined up a babysitter to come stay with the boys between school and Jason’s return from work, but I wouldn’t let her ever change or hold Beth.

Jason knew that I needed professional help but I wouldn’t agree to leave Beth in order to meet with a therapist. So Jason went to meet with the therapist. Through Dr. Moore, Jason quickly understood what my problem was. The build up to Beth, our “Princess”, had been too great and when everything didn’t work out perfect (the boys reactions, Beth’s all night crying and my excessive weight), I couldn’t handle the situation.

Jason and Dr. Moore decided that I needed to start exercising, but how? I wouldn’t leave Beth with anyone so when would I have time to myself for myself to exercise? I had always like jogging. I had to stop when I was 4 months pregnant.

He understood that the important thing was to give me back my feeling of my worth. I had always been a very active person and now Beth was my whole life now. I needed my identity back.

Then Jason had a great idea. Without even consulting with me, Jason went out and bought a jogging carriage (he bought a Joovy Zoom 360 – I think he just “grabbed” the first carriage he saw, but it turned out to be perfect). At first I refused to look at it but Jason was determined and sneaky. First he dressed up Beth, sat her in the carriage and started taking pictures. I couldn’t resist. I just had to go out with her and show her and her carriage off. Then he started sending me on errands with Beth in her new carriage. Each day the errands got further and further until I found myself trotting with Beth in her carriage.

The story has a very happy ending. Slowly our daily “trots” turned into “daily jogs.” I started to shed those extra pounds and feel better about myself. Beth started to sleep through the night – Maybe that’s just because she was getting older but I think it was all that fresh air. The daily exercise gave me more energy. I even started to have more energy and patience for our boys so they no longer felt neglected and they returned to their sweet selves.

I am forever grateful to that jogging carriage and how it saved our family from a possible disastrous post partum depression, but most of all I am grateful to Jason who identified the problem and didn’t give up till he had a solution that worked.

See the “Wonder Carriage” that helped me “Beat the Baby Blues” by clicking on Joovy Zoom 360.