Dad Life Pt. 2
The Dad Life, Operation Lifting
by D.J. Shuttleworth
July 13, 2018 Henley was born. The perfect little girl, mine and Lauren’s child, our little miracle. I lifted July 12 because I knew I did not know when I would be able to get a full lift in again. Fast forward to September, and I finally touched a weight again. So it begins.
After Henley was born Lauren and I decided it would be best if I took 20 hours off for the next 2 weeks to help out with our child. We figured it wouldn’t make much sense for me to take 40 hours off right away and then her not have help especially when babies sleep a ton the first week. So the way my schedule was is I would work 8-12 in the morning or 2-7 at night for the next 2 weeks. I thought maybe I could get a quick workout in before or after work, but when that time came around, all I could think about was getting home to see Henley and Lauren.
That brings us to August, the first 2 weeks I was working 8-12, 2- 6 or 2-7. During the 2 hours in between I could workout or I could drive home and be with the family, I chose family. So that brings us to the third week of August, at this point it was about 1 month I had not lifted. The hours changed so then I would be working 8-10, 2-7 or 2-8. Nice, I have about a 4 hours window in there to get a lift in and then go home and see them. So finally the last week in August I started lifting 2 times a week and now am on a 3 day per week regimen.
Now I’m not saying I should have taken that much time off lifting. I chose that because I wanted to help Lauren and her stress and also to try and figure this whole being a dad thing myself. Being new to being responsible for a life is a blessing, but also a huge challenge. I just felt it was more important to be there with Lauren and help her and grow as parents together than me lifting at the time. Parenting becomes more of making choices and sacrifices than anything. Once Lauren was cleared to lift, we lifted the first week together with Henley and now have taken turns. Next week Lauren returns to work and Henley goes to a babysitter, now the true comeback begins.