The journey back

I'm in the process of trying to put all of those weekly belly pictures together so I can watch the progression from this:

to this:

Good thing I kept the lighting consistent, huh?  whoops.  In the future I'll try not to be so lazy and actually edit photos instead of posting them sooc.  In the meantime feel free to appreciate the inconsistent, bit too dark, outlet in the corner of the picture fabulousness that rivals my finger over the camera photos.

Now that baby's here, I'm also in the process of trying to get back to where I started from.
That first picture is actually at 10wks pregnant, so I'd be thrilled to get back to 10wks past where I started from!
Oy.
I'm trying to pretend that knowing how much work it will take doesn't scare me.

I am pleasantly surprised at how well my abs held up through this one.  Not thrilled with the number on the scale-I am NOT one of those people who loses all the weight in the first month-but that's ok.  Once I can get back to running (less than a week!), I know I will start to see it budge a little.
I promised Aaron, just like last time, that I would wait three weeks before trying to run again.
You'd think this would be easier than it was last time because I got to run literally until the day I delivered this time around.  Last time I was done running 4weeks before baby arrived.  That means that last time around I was off for 7 weeks, whereas this time I only have 3 weeks of really being off.

Can someone explain how it is that I'm more antsy to get back out there this time?
But let's be honest, when that day of freedom to run again rolls around in a few days, it's going to kill me to be more than a few feet away from this little creature.

*sigh*

True to last time around, I'm mapping the journey back to abs.  Unlike last time I'm hoping to do better at taking pictures regularly.  Aiming for weekly like I did in the buildup to the big belly...we'll see how diligent I am.

So far?

One week:

 Two weeks:

After taking one full week to rest (as much as you can when you have 9 kids and a hubby with a demanding schedule), I started back with walks at one week.  I have been able to up my pace considerably, going from a 17min/mile 2 mile walk the first day back out to just over a 14min/mile 4 mile walk a week later.  Yesterday I attempted Pilates again (ab separation was minimal, just one finger width apart which means I'm good to go!), pleased with how my body responded, amazed at how much oblique strength is lost during pregnancy.  I also started venturing back toward the daily dose of pushups, and though I'm not up for the real thing yet I was able to knock out 5 sets of 20 "girl" pushups.  I'll take it.

Looking forward to a run this weekend, and hopefully a few good races by the end of the summer or early fall!