When you get pregnant, you struggle to find workouts that work for your lagging energy levels and increasing girth. You often tell yourself: “I’m getting back in shape after I pop this thing out!” Then you bring home the little bundle of joy and hit the ground running on parenting. After a week or two, you’ll start thinking: “How am I going to get back in shape, I have no time and I’m so tired!”

Here are some tips that I found that helped me:

Include the baby in the workout! This is the best way to do it because then you don’t have to wait until nap time and then sacrifice your only free time for the day (which can be tough when the dishes are overflowing in the sink and the laundry pile is reaching Mt. Everest levels)

• Your stroller is your best friend for fitness with the baby. Even before you’re officially allowed to workout, take some easy strolls with your new baby (but try to get your husband to push the stroller so you don’t do too much!)
• As you heal, you can go further and faster with the stroller. You can even put some heavy books on the bottom of the stroller for added resistance if you’re feeling ambitious. Also, walking lunges with a stroller is a great workout, but your neighbors might think you’re nuts.
• Do ab workouts with the baby. If you make funny faces and noises, the baby will love helping you with your core work!
• Lay the baby on their back and do push-ups or planks over them. Again, funny faces and noises are your friend.

Let your husband help you! If you have a great husband like I do, he probably wants to help.  On the weekends, let him take over baby duty and go get a good workout! He may be a little uncomfortable at first being alone with the baby (especially if you’re home with the baby and he/she is used to things being done in a certain way), but it gets better. It may be hard to leave the baby at first, but that also gets better. Just make sure to thank your husband a lot when you get back, especially if the baby was super fussy while you were gone!

Be flexible! Some days you get your full workout, and other days you have to be creative. I have a treadmill and if the baby wakes up from her nap early, I have a baby swing next the treadmill so she can hang out while I finish up. She’s not always in the mood for that, but it usually works! Here are some non-traditional ways to get a little workout in:

• Squats with the baby in a carrier (like a Bjorn)
• Crunches while the baby has tummy time
• Dance with your baby (but only after they have good head control)
• If your baby is young, they’ll really like helping you vacuum. Put them in a carrier and go for it!

I have had a lot of success with using a jogging stroller. My baby likes the stroller and usually falls asleep during our runs. If you like running as your cardio, a jogging stroller is a great investment and perfect for days when the baby won’t take more than a 20 minute nap!

Remember that it took 9 months for your body to make a baby and your body needs some time to recover and bounce back. Don’t get discouraged if you miss a few days of working out for teething or another baby issue, you can always get back to it!

I talk a lot about working out while having a baby on my blog (itsadoglickbabylife.blogspot.com) so you can check that out for more tips and real life examples of making fitness work with a baby in the house!