15 Things I Do During Baby Naps Instead Of Exercising

Before I had a baby, I had all sorts of ideas for what I would do with my free time. Baby’s sleep all the time, right? I was set to get my home in order, start a side business, and finally finish my wedding album during my maternity leave. Ha!None of that happened. But my baby is now 7 months, and I thought I would for sure be back in the swing of exercising by now.BTB (before the baby?), I had hacked an exercise routine that worked perfectly for me. I had a series of workout DVDs that I played a few times a week before work. Sometimes I wouldn’t get through a whole workout, but by skipping the packing/commuting/showering hell of a trip to the gym meant I actually worked out in my 30s way more than ever before in my life.

Since having the baby, this routine has fallen by the wayside. Getting up before my 7 month old is a dream that has yet to come to fruition. And since I live in a tiny NYC apartment, there’s nowhere to watch a workout video without him watching along with me. And medical studies warning against TV for babies aside, I’m pretty sure Tracy Anderson videos at this young age will do irreparable harm to his baby brain/subconscious.

While the whole “sleep when the baby sleeps” myth was easy to debunk, I’ve been spending the last 7 months thinking that EVENTUALLY my son would sleep regularly enough for me to get in a good workout almost daily. The thing is, my son DOES sleep pretty regularly. Logically, there is plenty of time for me to make this nap/workout thing come to fruition. But in reality, there are so many things that I would rather do than workout while my baby snoozes.