Pilates and Pregnancy: The First Month After Baby

Hello and welcome back to our Pilates and Pregnancy blog! I am happy to announce that I gave birth to a healthy baby boy on April 20, 2014. This post will chronicle his birth and my first month as a new mom, including adjusting to my new body, enduring the baby blues, and attempting to exercise!

Finn’s birth story

My water broke around 5 a.m. on Sunday, April 20th. We were admitted to the hospital by 6:45 a.m. and Finnegan James was delivered via C-Section at 9:08 a.m.

Toward the end of the pregnancy, my doctor and I discussed the probability of delivery via C-Section because Finn was measuring large (nearly 11 pounds). The C-Section was surreal and a little frightening. My husband and I had taken a class on Caesareans and I had also done some Pilates continuing education on recovery post-Caesarean, but nothing really prepares you for the cold sterility of the operating room. A kind nurse held my hands during the epidural. I was amazed at how quickly the epidural took effect. Within moments, several hands were guiding me to lie down on the table and securing my arms in place out at my sides. I remember being very cold and scared. My husband came into the room just before the procedure began.

I didn’t expect to feel anything, but did feel pressure when the doctor opened the incision to pull Finn out. Only a few minutes passed from the time my husband entered the room until I heard him say, “I can see his head,” and like that – Finn was born. He weighed 10 lbs. 5 oz, and was 21 ¾ inches long!

We spent three days in the hospital because of the C-Section. Our nurse the first night was amazed at how easily I was able to get out of bed and how eager I was to walk around. I walked slowly at first, but it felt good to get up and move. My family and another nurse commented the next day on how well I seemed to be doing. In particular my sister, who had a C-Section just over a year ago, noticed that I was up and moving around much sooner than she had been and attributed the difference to my Pilates practice.

Week 2

The second week was rough emotionally. I had read about the baby blues, but couldn’t believe that I could hold my perfect baby boy and be sad. My husband and family were all very supportive. Two of the big things that helped were going on walks and getting outside of the house.

Physically my body was still recovering. My incision was uncomfortable and I was only getting two or three hour stretches of sleep at night. On a happy note, by the end of the second week I had lost two-thirds of the pregnancy weight.

Weeks 3-4

The next two weeks were much better. Finn started sleeping for four hour stretches. I was getting out for walks and feeling good. I even tried some Pilates.

Pilates has always been my happy place and so I was curious about how much I’d be able to do. I started really slowly, lying on the floor for some arm circles and knee folds. I was amazed at how difficult knee folds were (where you keep your knees bent and lift one knee up over your hip and then slowly lower it back down). Between the stretching of my muscles during pregnancy and then physically cutting through some of them for the C-Section, I have a lot of ground to recover!

I tried a few other exercises on my own. Shoulder Bridge and Spine Stretch felt great. Upper Ab Curl and Swan didn’t feel awesome and so I decided to skip them until I was officially cleared to exercise and could get back into the studio with Carey.

Finn is now one month old and I am ready to start Pilates in ernest! Look for future blogs coming soon as Carey and I work together to help me safely tone and strengthen my body post-baby.

See you next week,

Cassie