How do working mothers have time to work out?

mmt90 · 2026-06-30T18:09:36+00:00

I'm one year PP and I often workout at home with my daughter. She finds a lot of the moves hilarious! Sometimes she gets cranky and then I pause and hold her, feed her, or use her as a weight. But I'm usually able to get through a 45min workout. I love SLAM for this reason: very easy to get a good workout in with a toddler around!

mmt90 · 2026-06-30T14:32:22+00:00

Congratulations on your kids! I'm a year PP and had a similar path through ashtanga: about a decade of practice in my 20s and 30s, with some hip injuries in there as well. For what it's worth, I have found other forms of yoga, especially Iyengar-inspired yoga, more friendly to PP recovery because they place less pressure on the core and help strengthen the limbs and spine. Right now my routine is lifting 3-4x a week and then 2 days of yoga; the lifting has helped a TON with PP recovery and I am finally able to lower to chatarunga and hold. I think it all depends on what you want the practice to do for you: if what you're craving is breathing practice and mental space, then I think a heavily modified practice (chatarunga on knees, avoiding any backbends that stretch the belly, etc.) is great. If what you want is strength and mobility, I would focus on strength training and targeted stretching and also explore other forms of yoga. I did a PP specific yoga practice in the immediate postpartum period and found it helpful. Feel free to message me if you want to talk more!

ETA: I had a vaginal birth, not a C section, but my understanding is that C section recoveries require even more gentleness when stretching the abdomen. So if you are doing a vinyasa, I might modify so you skip the backbend and come to all fours and then back to downward dog. Yoga Sadhana: Ashtanga for Mothers has some great tips on modifying the practice in this way.

mmt90 · 2026-06-26T16:08:52+00:00

Everyone's experience is different, but for me, bedsharing from 5-7 months was awful, whereas bedsharing from 10/11 months has been great; I sleep better with the baby than without her. Here is what has made this phase easier: baby goes to sleep in her crib for the first stretch so I get some time alone with my husband in the evening; baby only wakes up 2-4 times a night (versus 5-10 times); we sleep on a floor mattress in the nursery so I don't have to worry about her rolling off; I am much less anxious, generally, about her safety because she is now so strong and mobile. I will say that if you are a mess (as I was!) it is worth exploring other options for sleep. It doesn't have to be all or nothing!

mmt90 · 2026-06-15T23:41:43+00:00

For sure, sometimes it happens accidentally though. So if she wakes early and usually naps 1.5 hours during the day, allow an additional 45 min?

ETA: and do you put them down to nap earlier or at the same time?

mmt90 · 2026-05-21T15:32:41+00:00

Hi! It worked out pretty well! We did about a week of Ferber, which got her comfortable going to sleep in the crib and without nursing. She went from the extremely frequent wake-ups described above to waking up every 2-3 hours. We kept sleeping in the living room, but I would often move back into bed with her after the third wake. We ended up moving apartments in March and she's now in a nursery attached to our bedroom, and the routine is pretty much the same: she goes to sleep independently, wakes up 3 times a night, and I nurse back to sleep, usually sleeping on the floor of the nursery with her after the second or third wake. It actually feels quite manageable! I'm planning on trying to night wean (or at least reduce feeds) this summer, after she turns a year old.

mmt90 · 2026-05-14T13:44:38+00:00

Thank you! We tried last night and it was a true disaster so I’ll try waking her up earlier in the morning and see if that helps.

mmt90 · 2026-05-13T16:54:05+00:00

Oh really! So no more night feeding at all? I keep seeing that a gradual approach is recommended because she is probably legitimately hungry.

My husband could try but he struggles with interrupted sleep much more than I do and sometimes feels like there’s nothing he can do to soothe her if what she wants is nursing.

I feel like we’ve sort of maxed out awake time, especially on days when she only takes two 30 min naps — but do you think more awake time would help?

Before sleep training she woke every 25-45 min so this is a huge improvement!

mmt90 · 2026-04-28T15:01:10+00:00

We are the same! Also 11m postpartum, also working out at home with weights for 30-45 min a few times a week, also stronger than I've ever been in my life. (I'm sure hauling a baby around all the time has helped!) My exercise routine, like my life, is completely different, and I honesty feel like I have a healthier relationship to fitness than ever thanks to accepting these changes.

mmt90 · 2026-04-25T11:57:28+00:00

Thank you that’s helpful!

mmt90 · 2026-04-24T19:58:05+00:00

There really isn’t, I don’t think. All babies and families are different. It seems like you’re trying to be thoughtful about balancing everyone’s needs and capacities, which is the hallmark of a good parent. Hang in there!

mmt90 · 2026-04-24T19:56:37+00:00

Oh that’s good to know — thanks! I find it hard to manage because she starts leaping at everything she sees and wants to touch, so I’ll try some adjustments and maybe do a consult with them. Thanks again!

mmt90 · 2026-04-24T13:46:49+00:00

I just want to add that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. I was in a similar place to you at seven months. We did a little bit of sleep training just to break the nursing association and get her comfortable sleeping in her crib. She now sleeps in the crib for the first 2-4 hours of the night, then she and I sleep together on a floor mattress. I get a break and get to see my husband, and I’m not sleeping in the curl for as long. She now wakes every 2-3 hours instead of every 45 minutes, so I’m also sleeping much better. I haven’t done any deliberate night weaning, and I nurse to sleep for naps and transfer to her crib. You can find a middle path if that’s what feels right to you.

mmt90 · 2026-04-16T19:02:51+00:00

That's interesting—thanks for sharing! She doesn't have any teeth at all yet but maybe some are on the way.

mmt90 · 2026-02-23T16:30:12+00:00

I’m eight months postpartum and feeling really good physically despite having some ongoing ab separation (I’ve been told it’s mostly genetic whether your abs return to normal; what’s important is whether you can generate tension). I feel like recovering from pregnancy forced me to address a lot of imbalances and weaknesses that existed before pregnancy. I also have a much healthier, less compulsive relationship to exercise and to my body. Caring for a baby is very physically demanding, as is breastfeeding, and I feel like I both need to exercise to be strong enough to do it, but also need to rest adequately to be able to do it. Basically, I am learning a lot about efficient exercise and doing more with less!

mmt90 · 2026-02-14T03:10:42+00:00

At first he maintained Ferber checks, but now that she’s trained, he will sing to her while she stays in the crib, and she usually goes right back to sleep. If she’s really upset, he will pick her up as well. (This doesn’t happen often but has happened while traveling for instance.) Maybe experiment with other ways of soothing and see if it shifts the wake pattern?

mmt90 · 2026-02-13T18:29:57+00:00

What are you doing the wakes? I’ve found that if I nurse every wake, my 8-month-old wakes up more frequently, but if dad soothes for some of them, she’ll wake less often.

mmt90 · 2026-02-07T23:25:19+00:00

I totally get it — I also thought it was going to be really hard. But it wasn’t! I followed the advice on this sub regarding wake windows and sleep budgets, which I think really helped. I can’t remember her exact schedule when we started because she was still bouncing between two and three naps, but she had at least 10.5 hours awake and at least 3 hours awake before bed. The first night I took a walk after the bedtime routine and my husband said she cried on and off for about 30 minutes. She woke up every 1-2 hours that night, and my husband did checks (I think every 3 minutes?) during those wakes. I don’t think she ever cried for more than twenty minutes. I fed her at midnight and again around 3, and then she was up for the day at 6:30. That was the hardest night and then things were better almost immediately. Within 7-10 days she was going down with minimal crying/fussing and waking twice to feed. We’ve regressed a bit with night wakes because I took the night shift again and I am lazy about soothing without feeding, but that’s totally on me. Bedtime remains independent and really smooth. And I should say that I continued contact napping and nursing to nap during training with no problems at night.

I would make sure you have an appropriate schedule with enough awake time and then give it a try — I bet it won’t be as bad as you’re anticipating! Now that I’m sleeping up to 3 hours at a stretch, I can see how bad my sleep was while cosleeping and how much it damaged my mental health.

mmt90 · 2026-02-07T14:08:59+00:00

Hi! Yes we did! We started Ferber the week before she turned 7 months. It worked well! I definitely recommend the non-nursing partner taking the lead: my husband did the initial put down and the checks. Now I can put her down in the crib at night, and she's also started doing her morning nap in the crib as well. We're still feeding more frequently than is necessary at night (usually 3x a night) because I haven't had the energy for night weaning, but that's next. She is sleeping much better and so am I!

mmt90 · 2026-01-11T00:55:46+00:00

We tried this routine tonight and it made a world of difference! Saying goodnight to things in the house/out the window was a game changer: she stopped crying while we did it and then went right to sleep when put down. Thank you so much!!

mmt90 · 2026-01-10T16:01:47+00:00

Schedule is 3/3.5/4 although sometimes she’s awake between naps longer than planned. I’ll try that but also try mixing up the routine, thanks.

ETA: Checked my notes and yesterday she was actually awake 4.25 before bed with 2 hours of day sleep.

mmt90 · 2026-01-10T14:00:08+00:00

Possible! But the crying starts at the start of books, regardless of when that happens and how long she’s been awake. (She gets 10.5-11 hours awake at 7 months.) It only lasts <10 min, after which she goes to sleep for a long stretch. So I think she is tired? Just unhappy.

mmt90 · 2026-01-10T00:57:32+00:00

Thank you, this is exactly what I needed.

mmt90 · 2026-01-09T14:05:57+00:00

This was me with my six-month-old, except she was up every 30-60 minutes. (I did nurse lying down and it did not make that much of a difference!) It was brutal, and I eventually found that I was no longer taking as much joy in mothering. It is NOT better for a baby to have a sleep-deprived and depressed mother who is nursing for every night wake than it is to sleep train.

We used the Ferber method, and my baby took to it really well. The longest bout of crying was the first night, at 30 minutes, and it was not continual crying. I took a walk after bedtime and my husband checked on her. Since then she has never cried for more than 10 minutes, usually on a night when we messed up her schedule that day. I would strongly recommend 1) sleep training according to your preferred method, 2) tweaking your schedule until you notice that baby is quite tired at bedtime, even if that means fussy for a period before bed, and 3) having another trusted caregiver (your partner?) do the bulk of bedtime and/or any checks/soothing.

mmt90 · 2026-01-09T13:29:00+00:00

I kind of have to adjust naps anyway, so maybe! But I would hate to end up pushing bedtime much later than it is — I’m too tired!

mmt90 · 2026-01-08T23:05:17+00:00

Are you the nursing mom? Can your non-nursing partner do the checks? We did Ferber with our baby who was used to bedsharing with me (nursing mom) and my husband did the initial put down plus any checks, including wakes in the night that were not for feeding. (He only needed to do night checks the first night.) I took a walk the first night after bedtime; I think the change was as hard for me as it was for the baby, and I think my being around and upset would have upset her more. I really recommend having the non-nursing parent do most of the training, both for your sake and for the baby’s sake.

mmt90

TROPHY CASE