This baby girl and I have made it to 6 months postpartum, and I think we’ve kinda sorta found a groove that has been working for us most days. Which is pretty remarkable in my opinion. She’s growing and changing, and I’m finding time to work and work out somewhat consistently. Some weeks have been way different, but for the most part, day to day life is pretty steady. I had a couple of “firsts” this week in my postpartum journey, and I figured now would be a good time to catch up and share our 5 months postpartum update.
5 Months PostPartum Update
- I think we have successfully moved past the 4 month sleep regression territory (we didn’t have much of a regression outside of some short and inconsistent naps). Lila still sleeps about 12 hours at night, and her naps have become a lot more consistent. She takes one morning nap that is about 90 minutes long, one lunchtime nap that is *usually* about 90 minutes long, and one late afternoon cat nap that is 30ish minutes. She occasionally has a rough day where her lunch nap is somewhere around 45-60 minutes, but this is happening a lot less frequently. I love the somewhat predictability.
- We’ve started some baby-led weaning, which is how we approached learning to eat with our son. So far Lila only eats once per day, and she’s tried out bananas, avocados, pear, steamed apples, steamed carrots, and steamed sweet potatoes. We haven’t gotten too adventurous with foods yet, and honestly I’ve been somewhat lazy about it. She eats in the mornings, and having to steam food that isn’t already soft hasn’t been ideal for mornings when daddy isn’t here, so we’ve done a lot of bananas and avocados (which also happen to be her favorite). She’s definitely getting the hang of holding food and feeding herself, and it’s pretty damn cute.
- We’re still doing 100% breastmilk, but I have gone from a major overproducer to producing just a tiny bit over what she needs on a daily basis. My pumping schedule hasn’t changed (I pump twice in the morning and once at night), and I’m nursing her just as regularly. But as she’s started having longer wake windows, I give her a four ounce bottle to make sure she doesn’t wake up from her nap early out of hunger, and that combined with my regular cycle returning has meant that I’m not really freezing much these days. Thankfully, I have about 250 ounces frozen (after donating some), and I’m pretty confident that we’ll make it to at least 6 months, which was my first goal. I would be surprised if we didn’t make it to 9 months without supplementing, honestly, but it’s a possibility.
- She’s slowly outgrowing some of her 3-6 month sized clothes, but I hesitate to buy too much yet in the 6-9 month range since it seems like the weather can’t make up it’s mind. What we have for now works, but we do have to do laundry every couple of days
- Lila is rolling both ways, can sit fairly well without much of my assistance (though she does have to use her hands), and can scootch herself around her playmat on her tummy. I can tell that she is dying to crawl and sit up better, but I’m really not ready for a mobile baby. Guess it’s not really my decision, though.
- I’ve finally gotten a handful of double digit runs in the books, and I think that’s probably as far as I will go for a little while. I don’t really like being out for longer than about 90 minutes, it’s hard to fit in long runs with nursing and pumping, and I’ve noticed that I have a hard time staying as hydrated as I need to when I go too far beyond 10 miles. So for now, I think the 10-12 mile range is where I’ll stay until Lila is eating more solids and relying a little less on me for food.
- We haven’t gone on any runs with her forward facing just yet (I want to wait until she can sit unassisted), but we get out for about a mile walk on most afternoons together, and she seems to really love it. As long as it’s not super windy. Her last stretch of awake time is about 2.5 hours now, and it’s really nice being able to get outside with her for about 30 minutes. Sometimes the boys join us on their bikes, and it’s been pretty great.
- I don’t feel like my strength has made much improvement this past month, but I also haven’t been super consistent with my workouts either, if I’m being completely honest. We had one week of illness and one week of post-vaccine rest. I did finally get my toes to bar back this week without any real struggle, which was amazing. I’m still scaling most jumping movements like box jumps and double unders, though.
- I love having the nanny here during the day with Lila, and she has been a HUGE help in allowing me to workout and stay on top of laundry and dishes during Lila’s naps. Lila has a lot of fun playing with her, and it’s the only way I get work done during the day now that she’s more active and wants more attention.
- We’ve started introducing some Montessori based activities, and she’s seemed to like them so far. She loves treasure baskets with crinkle books and crinkle paper, she likes swiping at objects that have a bell sound, and she likes looking at pictures of other children. We’re definitely not strictly Montessori (we love the exersaucer for when I’m working and need Lila to play independently for more than 5 minutes), but I appreciate the focus on independence and focus.
I had another successful week of balancing work obligations, family life, and my workouts. Lila and I started getting up a little earlier this week to help adjust slowly for daylight savings time. Neither of us were big fans. I was pretty tired by Thursday and Lila had two days where her lunch naps were short. I think it’s going to take a few more days for our internal clocks to adjust. Our nanny had asked to swap her “off” day, which is usually Tuesday for Friday, which meant I moved my full rest day from Tuesday to Friday.
By Friday, my body was definitely needing some extra recovery time. I did run my first four mile weekday run without any walking this week, and I was really excited about it. It was a pretty big mental challenge on the treadmill, but I got it done, and I’m hoping that I might be able to start transitioning some of my weekday runs outdoors in the next few months. I didn’t get in the last Open workout, since I used Friday as my rest day, but I wasn’t too bummed about it. I know last year and this year have looked so different with my pregnancy and postpartum recovery, and maybe next year I’ll be back to taking workouts a little more seriously. Maybe not. Who knows.
I cut my long run back to 10 miles this week after last weeks 11 mile struggle, and I felt really good the whole run. The weather was nice and cold again, so I’m sure that had something to do with it, but we’ll see how the 10+ miles feel again next month. Next week is a cutback week, and I’m really looking forward to maybe getting a 7 mile run on the trails! When I got back from my long run on Saturday, I spent most of the day hanging out with the family and baking blueberry muffins. I think Saturday post-long run baking is my new favorite tradition. Nothing too exciting this week, but I’m enjoying the consistency.
This Weeks Workouts
Total Miles: 22.84 Miles
Total Workouts: 4
How the Run Felt
I was really, really proud of myself for getting 4 miles without any walking on the treadmill this week. It honestly was challenging mentally, and I had to play some games with the speed to make the time go by. During my cutback week next week, I’m planning on straight running 3 milers for all of my weekday runs, and I’m pretty psyched about it, to be honest. I watched Making and Murderer and Worst Roommate Ever during most of my runs, and man, people can be real assholes. Entertaining assholes, but assholes none the less.
My long run this week felt really good, which I needed after last weeks struggle. The weather was sunny and cold, which is always my favorite. It wasn’t too windy, and I felt like the miles kinda flew by to be completely honest. I didn’t have any issues with my energy, form, or breathing, and I didn’t feel wrecked for the rest of the day. I might be able to build a little more slowly up to the half-marathon distance, but I may also just kinda hang out at the 10-12 mark for long runs until I’m done nursing. We’ll see how the next couple of months treat me.
How the WODs Felt
I am pretty freaking sick of building up to 10 rep maxes after the last couple of weeks. I’m sure there’s a method to the madness, but I don’t really feel like it’s been super useful for me as I’m trying to rebuild some lost strength. I did get my toes to bar back this week on Monday, which was kind of amazing. I started out the workout doing my usual toes to knees, but noticed I was getting a really good rythmn and kip, so I decided to try to string together some toes to bar, and I got in sets of 3-5 without too much effort. Toes to bar have never been a strength of mine, mostly because my grip and lats give out way before my core, but I’m really happy to not have to keep scaling them!
What I’ve Been Listening To
It’s been another week of been all Shadow Girls and Trapped in Treatment, but I did get in a few good episodes of Trust Me and Was I In a Cult. I’ve gotten a few notifications of new shows that I’m dying to check out, but since I’m not running outside quite as much these days, I really want to finish Shadow Girls before I start a new series.
What Went Well
Realizing I could start doing toes to bar again felt amazing.
What Went Shitty
Waking up earlier this week SUCKED.
Plans to Improve Next Week
Take a cutback week and enjoy a little extra sleep (and hopefully a trail run).