Babies and Bodybuilding

[Csims22]

My girl is having our first child in 4.5 weeks. She's due October 13th. I am wondering how this is going to affect my time at the gym. I have already made some changes. I do cardio in the am early, then I lift at lunch (I own my own business so I'm lucky that I'm able to take more than a standard one hour lunch break), so I can have nights and weekends with the family. I'd like to hear about everyone else's trials and tribulations when they had a child, so I can make additional changes if need be.

Thanks.

 

[d matt]

It changes everything!! Now that don't mean you won't have time to work out just means you and your wife will have to adjust your schedule's around the baby. Some babies require a lot of attention, others not so much. My daughter was sick for most of her first 3 years , and it was a struggle to work, sleep and keep balance. Fortunatly we finnally found a good doctor that properly diagnosed her condition and with proper medication she was able to live a normal childhood life after that. And grew up a very responsible woman who now is going for DR. degree in bio chemistry, and polimer science. And teaches at local university. When she is born love her, and always put her needs before yours. hope she is born healthy, happy .

 

[mikelee12790]

Congratulations and good luck your Schdule sounds good to me I'm sure you'll be fine

 

[PitbullTank]

it changes a lot...

first off, you will usually get sick much more often aroud a kid bc they are alwaysssss sick... they put everything in their mouth from the ground , and everywhere else.. and when they are all runny nosed and cold, u have 2be in direct contact w them 24/7... i got a few more colds and shit after i had him then ever before...

2- sleep... depends on your kid.... sum kids love sleeping, sum dont... when u put them to sleep at say 10pm... then they wake up for change/bottle at lets say 2am, 430am, then they are up at 7.... tell me how great your training sessions r when you do this not just once or twice, but a few months in a row...you will be exhaustedddd...lol

3- You will rethink using lots of gear, usually bc deep down we all know it fucks us up...

4- you may have your training schedule all planned out for the day, then your kid tries to climb up on the couch and falls and klonks ther head and is screaming crying...u aint goin nowhere hahaha

5- You wont care about any of these sacrifices bc you'll love ur child, and shit dont seem to matter as much as soon as they touchdown on the earth...

4. congradulations brotha... having kid with a great partner is best thing ever... i had to go thru custody battles for control of my son, and it makes things 100x more difficult doing it all by urself, then when u have sum1 you love splitting duties...

 

[Johnny Smiles]

i threw it out the window

Number one thing I take pride in is being a dad. when my wife and I had our first baby I just forgot about the gym almost completely for few months and dedicated myself and extra time to serving her. it was a great time in my life. you can always get back to bodybuilding.
-JS

 

[PitbullTank]

i forgot to add.... not for infant really, but when a few months and on...remember these words- BABY FIRST/Sprout TV , trust me on this 1 man... that shit is a LYFESAVERRRR hahahahahaha

 

[lucky1]

Congrats on the baby, I have my second coming in april. A lot of the things that you thought were important before you had the baby will take the backseat. First thing for me to go was training and any down time I use to have, after you make the adjustment it will be a lot easier. I work out at home so I can put the baby to sleep and train with the monitor on.

Advise: Encourage your wife to breast feed, it should take you off the hook for waking up at all hours of the night and its better for the baby. At 2am when the baby wakes up they want the nipple, not you.

 

[jer]

i forgot to add.... not for infant really, but when a few months and on...remember these words- BABY FIRST/Sprout TV , trust me on this 1 man... that shit is a LYFESAVERRRR hahahahahaha

Hahahah.......I can just put Caliou on and have 30min to do whatever I need to. My daughter just zones out.

 

[Chode Logan]

My son is 1.5 years old now, but I went through this when he was born. First things first...The second your wife shows signs of going into labor, FORGET bodybuilding for 1-2 weeks. Don't be worried about your food, dont even bother with the gym, etc. Just enjoy the experience (or try) and be prepared for exhaustion. This is the craziest time you have in your life. Embrace the madness haha.


You are going to have to slow back on your training a bit for the first months, to avoid sickness. Unless your wife is going to do all the work and you get to sleep 8 hours with no disturbances, you are going to be sleeping like shit for awhile. So don't push yourself too hard in the gym, factor in the limited recovery.


That being said, I made some of the best gains of my life during the first year of my sons life...I was a stay at home dad for the first chunk, and I would be sure to nap whenever he did to help catch up. When my wife got home from work, I went off and worked. Looking back I'm not sure how I squeezed it all in, but if you can do it, you can do anything. I actually enjoyed training a lot in this time (after about 3 months), as it was really my only "alone" time (which you'll need), and also I was much less stressed about it. It was not a priority to me, so I actually enjoyed training.



At the end of the day, give yourself a few weeks to not think bout it, then just focus on pretty much maintenance for awhile. After the first few months, everything balances out and you'll be fine. One benefit to being so damn busy and focused on other things, is if you can stay dedicated, you actually don't even really realize how much progress you are making cause you aren't sitting around obsessing over it. Every few weeks you stop and really analyze and are nicely surprised haha.


Put the focus on your family at this time and just get in what you can!

 

[Chode Logan]

Hahahah.......I can just put Caliou on and have 30min to do whatever I need to. My daughter just zones out.

Sponge Bob was the first show to hypnotize my son...now it's pretty much anything with music.

 

[rradam]

Anything with music and motion together really gets ours. I find that pretty much my life consists of gym, family time/caring for son, work, sleep. Not really any free time at all, but I kinda consider weight room free time.

 

[PitbullTank]

mine is a alll about Disney Juniors- Mickey Mouse Clubhouse... Sprout TV- Bob the builder... and baby first- Peek-a-boo...MAN, do you guys sometimes feel like your going pschotic bc you have these dam baby tv songs going thru ur head all day!??!?! lmaooo, it killsss me sometimes... ****bobbbb tha builderrr... CAN WE FIXX ITT...bobb the builderrr.. YES WE CANN!!!**** omfgggg... this shit is non stop in my head for like 4 months now!!! GRRRR ahhahahahaha

 

[E.J.]

With one child it's prolly not gonna change too much for u. ESP if ur wife is as awesome as mine. But the more u have the harder it gets. I have three girls two of which are deaf and have been going to a special school four days a week since they were 6 months old. Alot of traveling and money. In home private speech therapists. Etc. alot of time and money. My wife is supermom/superwife and makes my life easy and supports my training. Communication is key and keep her happy. Spoil her when u can and she's likely to make ur training less of an issue. Hope u guys do well.

 

[j4ever]

nice thread,wish I had some adice for ya bro but im about to be a dad for the first time and im an older guy,so im excited but scared as well,good luck to ya

 

[gogotren]

after my first kid, I stopped going to the gym for a few months. Just always tired, routine all messed up. A lot depends on if you gotta get up at night or your girl will do all that. If I`m tired, I aint working out while I`m yawning. The other thing is, you get a routine, nap time, feeding time... it changes after a few months, they don`t sleep as long for nap, go down later, etc. Mine go to "kids club" at the gym with me every day now and love it.

 

[SIR-LOIN]

My daughter is 15 now, but the first years I had to adjust, and get it in when I could; lunch, am if sleep pattern permitted, etc. I have a 24'x20' garage, so I put all the basic stuff in there, so when she was down for a nap, I could run out there and do some stuff, really makes a difference if you only have like 30 minutes, do one quick bodypart at home, if you dont have time to get all your crap together and drive to the gym. Did a lot of make-up work outs on the weekends too.

As its been said by other guys, all this will become secondary anyway, the kids gotta come first.

 

[SacrificeFitness]

WOW. I have a daughter coming in february and I have to say this thread kind of scared the shit out of me. Basically what I took from this is enjoy the experience and invest in a garage gym. Thanks for the wake up call guys

 

[Little BamBam]

at first the baby may take up alot more time because its in constant need of care feeding ect. but a couple months things will normal out and you will be able to get a schedule worked out again but when its a new born youre on its schedule unless you have an extraordinary woman by your side then you are one of the lucky ones. but you may also get attached to your baby and hesitate to leave it you will find out my boy just turned 7 months so i just went through this. goodluck on the new addition congrats

 

[PitbullTank]

WOW. I have a daughter coming in february and I have to say this thread kind of scared the shit out of me. Basically what I took from this is enjoy the experience and invest in a garage gym. Thanks for the wake up call guys

when u first have a newborn, u wont even think about the gym really.... you are sooo mesmerized by this lil bundle of amazingness that nuthin else seems to really matter..... the first few months its harder bc they are just kinda wrapped in a blanket in need you for every little thing possible.... after that stage, u can find a gym with a good kids club like LA fitness or sumthin and get it in.... their are also a lot of little pay by hour daycares that are good...may be $9-$11 an hour but atleast u can roll out to the gym if no kids club....I may not be able to go 6 days like I want, but I still got time for 4x a week...

 

[PitbullTank]

With one child it's prolly not gonna change too much for u. ESP if ur wife is as awesome as mine. But the more u have the harder it gets. I have three girls two of which are deaf and have been going to a special school four days a week since they were 6 months old. Alot of traveling and money. In home private speech therapists. Etc. alot of time and money. My wife is supermom/superwife and makes my life easy and supports my training. Communication is key and keep her happy. Spoil her when u can and she's likely to make ur training less of an issue. Hope u guys do well.

MAJOR PROPS for what your doing EJ... huge commitments... just wanted tell ya great job... dads never b getting no props...