Postpartum life and a shout-out to my husband

I am a simple girl. I’ve figured out I have a short list of things that need to happen consistently to keep me feeling sane and healthy…

Time in the morning to read the Bible

The opportunity to work out 3-4 times a week

A relatively clean house {bathrooms cleaned weekly, bedding changed bi-weekly, kitchen clean, caught up on laundry, house picked up at nap time and bed time… and who really cares about the floors?}

A social event with a girl friend at least once a week

A date night with the husband once a month

That’s about it… anything else is extra. Everyone’s list looks different. Some people need time to be creative or need to decompress by watching TV or movies… if those things happen once or twice a year for me, I’m fine with it. Some people love to bake or cook, but don’t care at all about having a tidy house. Some people love to read or seek out alone time. I really think everyone should make a list of approximately five daily or weekly activities that are essential to their well-being.

Here’s the thing… postpartum life messes up all these rhythms that keep me sane. I am way too exhausted to get up before my kids, so my Bible reading happens as quickly as possible with Talitha draped across my lap nursing while Zianne watches Sesame Street in other room. My house is relatively clean but all the baby stuff increases my blood pressure just a tiny bit. My social calendar is a little more sparse, although I’m getting better about leaving the house with both kids.

And working out? This is probably the game changer for me. If I am exercising, I feel so much better physically, mentally, and emotionally. I reactivated my gym membership a couple of weeks ago {I froze it for a month around my due date to save money}, and I’m hoping to maintain some kind of light work out schedule for the rest of the summer. I plan to increase my exercise in the fall when I’m back to teaching and done with the feeding-every-3-hours infant nursing schedule. However, my mom is my go-to babysitter and she’s gone on a month-long trip. Talitha is too young for gym childcare and it’s way too hot to consider exercising outside, especially if I have kids in tow. I was feeling stuck. I want to get back to the gym on a regular basis so badly but couldn’t figure out a way to make it work. I was expressing my frustration to Micah one day and he came up with the sweetest solution. He offered to meet me at the gym on his lunch break and hold Talitha while I work out. Zianne would go to child care, which she loves, I would get on the treadmill, and Micah would hold Talitha in the gym cafe and feed her a bottle. I was hesitant at first. “You would really do that for me?” Micah shrugged it off. “I’ve been wanting more bonding time with Talitha anyway…” 

So the whole Russum family had our first gym date last week. Zianne played, Micah and Talitha bonded, and I ran my heart out for 14 minutes and did a quick abs and legs workout… bless my husband!

We are figuring out how to juggle two kids under two. Some days feel like we are in survival mode, but when I’m running at the gym and see my husband across the room snuggling our infant, I am tempted to think we are actually thriving!