You know how it is as a mom. With each baby you add 5-10 pounds maybe more. You are so busy loving on the new beauty in your life that you don’t even notice or care that you haven’t gotten back down to your pre-pregnancy weight. It is just life and the pounds are adding up.

I didn’t care until my fourth pregnancy. When I went into labor early at 33 weeks and then on bedrest for 5 weeks that was when things really started going downhill for me. Confined to bed and trying to eat as much as possible to bulk that baby up should she still come early, things started going down hill fast. She didn’t come early, not until 42 weeks to be exact. She was a big baby and I lost a lot of blood and had to have a blood transfusion, but even with that I was very very weak after her birth. I had the extra weight from trying to bulk up and the weakness from bedrest an now even more weak after childbirth. I never lost any weight from that pregnancy and before I knew it was pregnant with my 5th.

After he was born I decided I was tired of feeling weak and tired all the time. Getting in shape was more about being healthy then loosing weight for me.

Here I am at Gooseberry Falls with my fourth baby on my back. I was looking for a picture of how big I had gotten but apparently censored many of them.

That was when I stumbled across Beth Learn at Fit 2 B Us–an online “gym” offering “tummy safe” exercise videos. As you can imagine after 5 pregnancies my tummy was feeling pretty weak, stretched out and flabby. I discovered that there are relatively simple and painless exercises to get those muscles back in shape. Actually I found out exercise could be painless. I was hooked.

Still a year later after loosing 35+ pounds and now feeling strong and capable I am using her videos a minimum of 3 times weekly (though I try for everyday but life happens you know). What I really love about her videos are they are painless and fun, I don’t have to get myself siked up for exercise, I look forward to it and how it makes me feel. During one yoga video, “Warrior I” my daughter Mavis said, “oh mommy you look so beautiful.” I don’t think I have to tell you how that made me feel.

She also has videos that focus on “little” muscles life the pelvic floor (mommas you need to work this out) and the neck. Overall I have just found her approach so different and refreshing. It is all about quality of life and health.

Me this morning

Beth Learn is also available for consultations, they have an active facebook page and is just and overall great resource and community.

It is also very affordable $10 a month with a discount if you purchase a year at a time. But another great thing about Fit 2 B is that you know you are supporting a great online family business (there are 2 families that work together to produce each video and run the web page) and if you sign up and use the code amydoeun you get a further discount and we get credit for referring you. Isn’t that great? You get healthy and support 3 families working for the same goals.

www.fit2b.us
discount code: amydoeun

Things were starting to get to a head as they sometimes do last week. I had a baby goat in my living room that wasn’t doing well (luckily she is thriving now), children going crazy from nearly 4 months indoors, a home to keep, the pending growing season, it all seemed like a lot, and “just do the next thing” wasn’t cutting it. I was feeling overwhelmed and crazy. Then one afternoon things changed.

The children were starting to act tired and in need of a rest. The baby was sleeping more and more, though still eating and with a mild fever he wanted to go back to bed after only 2 hours awake. I lay down with him and felt his fever rising fast. He was asleep, I didn’t want to wake him but knew I needed to get his temperature down. Then he had a seizure. We have experience febrile seizures. Though it was scary it wasn’t a panic situation. I had neighbors come a stay with the children until my parents could arrive and called an ambulance.

I was just a fever related seizure. We were home 4 hours later after numerous tests and we went into hibernation. For one week we didn’t leave the house as the sickness worked its way through. I had a mild case, moms don’t have time to get sick. I had children and animals to tend.

I have a new perspective now–saying yes. For the past couple of days I have tried to look at my days as not a list of tasks to finish, or something to get through, but an opportunity to connect. My oldest is 9, half way to 18 and things are flying too fast, “do the next thing,” doesn’t cut it when you have lots of loving and cuddling to do (I have been known to write those on my to-do list).