A "day in the life" of our homeschool

This year I have had quite a few friends and friends-of-friends reach out to me about homeschooling.  Some of them have kids who are just getting to be school-aged and they are interested in starting homeschooling.  Others have kids currently in public/charter schools and they are looking at pulling them out and homeschooling instead.  I have had phone conversations, email threads, FB messages, coffee dates, etc, to talk about the "how" we homeschool, more so than the "why" we homeschool.  This post is about the "how," as opposed to our "why" :)  I do not consider myself  very experienced yet in this area, since my oldest (of 4) is only in first grade, but despite my lack of experience I hope to be helpful in offering a glimpse into a typical day of school at our house.  I am blessed to have a number of people in my life who are veteran homeschoolers.  I know that many friends of mine are not so fortunate.  So even though I don't feel I have a lot of wisdom to offer yet, I am happy to offer whatever I have if I am the only one who can bring encouragement for someone considering the idea! 

I've had soooo many people tell me this year that they desire to homeschool, but can't picture what that might look like and how they can keep up with the rest of "life" (laundry, cooking, exercise, etc) if they add teaching children into the mix.  So here I am, as a non-expert, just to show you how WE did things this year.  Some things we have found worked well for our family, when I find time to exercise, what the littler ones do during school hours, and any other questions that I remember being asked over the last year.  This is NOT a post where I will spend a lot of time talking about the failures in our days, parenting struggles, etc.  There may be time for that later.  But this post is specifically about our routines and we find to be working.  Thanks for joining me!  (At the time I wrote this post my kids are 7 in first grade, 5 in preschool, 4 and 2...well anyone below first grade is in "preschool" at our house, lol!)

** DISCLAIMER **  NO TWO FAMILIES HOMESCHOOL IN EXACTLY THE SAME WAY!  In fact, that is the BEAUTY of homeschooling, right there.  Please do not think that we have the perfect methods, or that my way is the only right way.  We are only are the very beginning stages of figuring out what works best for our own family.  My hope is that this gives you ideas that may or may not work for your family, but at the very least encourages you that this homeschooling thing is not only possible, but also so enjoyable and SO worth it!

DAILY SCHEDULES

First, my lovely sister Erika Shupe (www.largefamiliesonpurpose.blogspot.com), is the master designer of these schedule spreadsheets.  I couldn't have come up with this template on my own - not a chance!  She is one of the homeschooling mamas that I am SO thankful to have going before me.  Second, a word about schedules...  Before you look at these and think our house is perfect and organized and peaceful all the time, let me just tell you that it is NOT, lol.  These schedules are my "goal" for our day, but of course anyone who has even spent significant time with small children knows that nothing ever works out exactly as you planned!  We never even tried to do math for an hour, however, if I give it an hour in our routine it allows for the baby to need a dirty diaper change EVERY day during that time.  It allows for me to help another kid with a random bloody nose.  It allows me time to get the little ones situated in their activity to occupy them during math time with my oldest.  Otherwise math looks like this...your sisters playing with your math manipulatives and distracting you from doing your work. 


Not-so-successful math time...

When I'm not paying attention and haven't set him up with a structured activity...he's the cutest little troublemaker I've ever seen.

Things run a bit more smoothly when I stick to the schedule and have something for the littles to be doing while Tyson does his math work...


Successful math time!  Toddler having structured  floor play, preschool sister wearing headphones and using www.starfall.com for her computer time, oldest working independently on his math.

Other preschooler having "table time" in the adjacent kitchen during Tyson's math time.  Staying seated at the table with an activity only allowed during table time (in this case, craft sticks being used to make stables for her animals), with a timer set for however long table time lasts (usually around 30 minutes).

And you get the picture.  We maybe did 30 minutes of real math in the 60 minutes scheduled, but that is because I purposefully build in those cushions in our routine because without them we would never stay with it!  I have time to move a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer, or load a few dirty dishes into the dishwasher when I have a second.  The spreadsheet might look strict, but it doesn't include the hundreds of little things that have to fit somewhere into our day, so we leave lots of extra time for those things.

Our schedule also fluctuates at different times of the year because of weather!  We live in beautiful, sunny Colorado, where the weather changes are a bit more extreme than I am used to, having grown up in the Pacific Northwest.  Here in Colorado we spend more time outside because it is so dry and sunny much of the year.  There are also stretches when we have a lot of snow.  Many of the beginning and ending "school months" are filled with free time outside to enjoy the warm sunny weather.  During the winter if we have to be inside much of the day, we might move things around so we can do snow play during the middle (warmer) hours of the day.  When we hit 70 degree days in March...you better believe we're going to the park that day, which motivates the kids to work through their school quickly in the morning!  There is still plenty of flexibility, even in routine :)

  At the beginning of this school year (2015) I had a first grader, a 4 year old, a 3 year old, and a 1 year old (who was still taking 2 naps...bless him).  Last year (2014), doing kindergarten, I was also nursing the baby.  Nursing and naps require a much more detailed school schedule, in my opinion, in order to keep things organized, and make sure the baby gets fed without the rest of the crew destroying the house.  This is a picture of our daily routine LAST year (kindergarten), and we stuck to it pretty closely:

Fall 2014 (CLICK THE SPREADSHEET TO ENLARGE)

Here is an example of our schedule at the beginning of this (2015).  The "baby taking two naps" thing made life soooo much easier, ha!

Fall 2015 (CLICK THE SPREADSHEET TO ENLARGE)

Our current schedule has not been typed up yet.  We still do the same things in the same general order, but it's been a little more lax the last few months.  Plus we added "Morning Time" (see below) which has changed our day for the better.  The "baby" (aka 2-year-old!) is older and able to play independently for longer periods of time (and no longer takes 2 naps).  My oldest is reading which makes it possible for him to do more things on his own (read his own math word problems, read his music homework sheet and practice on his own, etc).  So instead of showing you a current spreadsheet, I thought it might be helpful if I described our typical day and included some pictures.

OUR DAYS, DESCRIBED

Early Morning

I get up around 5:45 AM to exercise at home, 5-6 days a week, (usually) before my kids wake up.  I try to fit in one more work out sometime over the weekend, but it might be something outside like the 200 stair incline near our house, playing co-ed soccer with my husband on Friday nights, or heading to our local rec center to use the gym.  I love to exercise and I love to feel fit.  At this point in my life it is unrealistic for me to spend hours a week at a gym.  It is too disruptive for our day for me to haul 4 kids somewhere multiple days a week so I can exercise.  Time consuming, expensive, and waaaay too much work to make it worth it, lol.  I have also come to the realization that it's okay to do lighter workouts than I have done in the past. I am not planning on doing an Ironman anytime soon....so I don't' need to work out like I'm training for one!  I workout for about 45 minutes, and get my shower in, before the kids get up (they are required to stay quietly in their beds until their clocks "turn yellow" between 7 and 7:15 - magical - and then they are allowed to get up and start their morning jobs.  If I stay up too late the night before and start my workout later than planned, it inevitably takes more time since I will have...."distractions"....throughout the workout ;-)


The distractions sure are cute laying on my yoga mat with me!  But I still try to finish my workout/shower before they get up so we can move quickly into our school morning!

Around 7:00 - 7:15 the 3 biggest kids' clocks "turn yellow" which is their cue that they are allowed to get out of bed.  Those clocks changed my life...ahhh.  I struggled for a while to find a good way to get them to do their own personal "jobs" in the mornings without me prodding and reminding and generally holding their hands through it.  Finally I figured out how to make a simple little chart (thank you, Pinterest) that I printed on card stock and laminated with my home laminator.  I hole punched them and put them on a necklace length piece of ribbon that they could easily fit over their heads.  Then they use a little clothes pin to remind them where they're at in their list of jobs!  They slide the clothes pin down each time they finish something.  It's awesome!  I no longer have to babysit their job time, and they can be working on those things while I'm finishing up my shower or making breakfast.  They love it, and I love it!  They don't even use the cards most of the time now because their jobs have become habit.  If they start to forget or skip things, I require that they use the card again for a while.

Tyson (age 7) wearing his job card.  His jobs include: put pajamas away, get dressed, put any dirty clothes in the hamper, pick up room, make bed, put away any folded/clean laundry that I left for him, and unload the dishwasher. 

If the kids finish their job cards by 8:00 (easily done if they're not too distracted) then they get a sticker for their sticker chart.  Tyson generally finishes his jobs and starts his piano practice by the time I make breakfast.  A few days a week my awesome hubby makes green smoothies for the family before he leaves for work.  That is a HUGE help for me!  I make (ahead of time) some kind of breakfast bread, healthy muffins, etc, to eat with our smoothies.  I don't bake in the morning since I'm working out and showering, so that's something I do the night before, or on the weekend and freeze for later use.  Keeps breakfast pretty simple at least for a few days!

After breakfast Tyson gets started working on his MATH  while I clean up breakfast.  The other 3 kids have some free play time.  Our formal dining room was turned into our school room, which I love, because the kids are right next to the kitchen when they're doing school work so I can multi task (cleaning, food prep, MAKE COFFEE, etc).  If the other 3 kids are being rowdy or distracting Tyson too much then I have one do educational computer time (wearing headphones) for 20-30 minutes, and another one do "table time" in the other room at our kitchen table.  Those are activities we reserve for kids who are seated at the table doing an activity alone (not joint playtime). 

Late Morning

After I've cleaned up the kitchen (at least a little bit - not the whole thing spick and span!  Rinsed out smoothie glasses and breakfast dishes, cleared the table, etc) I have Tyson finish up with his math lesson, I might do a little food prep or start the crockpot for dinner (if it requires more prep time I often start the night before by chopping veggies, browning the meat, etc), and then we do "morning time."  I have LOVED this new addition to our school day!  I will have to do a separate post about the concept, or you can Google "homeschool 'morning time'" and you'll find plenty of resources.  Basically there were smaller things I kept trying to fit somewhere into our day, and those things often slipped through the cracks.  I also wanted a time in our day when we ALL sit together (usually in the living room), no matter how young some members of the family might be.  I don't want the littlest ones to get the feeling that they're "in the way" or just a "project" I'm trying to manage.  They are just as important in our family and in our homeschool!  For us, morning time includes prayer (we take turns - nice and short) to start our day, singing a song (working on learning a few verses of Amazing Grace), catechism (memorizing the most basic and important questions/answers for our faith - later we'll add in the Bible verse references), poetry memorization (this has been so FUN and the kids are amazing at it - much better than I am!), our Classical Conversations weekly memory work review (no matter what grade/age the kids are this is something we can always do together which saves so much TIME!), and a little bit of read aloud time. 
 

This may sound like a lot, but it only takes us 30-45 minutes, and I fit in all of those important but small things I hadn't been able to organize every day.  The 2-year-old usually makes it through the prayer and song...and then he wanders off to play.  The 4-year-old is required to be with us for about half of the time, but she usually sticks around longer.  The 5 and 7-year-old sit with me for all of those things.  I made a little 3-ring binder for keep our list in front of me so I don't leave anything out, and it makes our resources more organized.  If we have time (probably once a week) then I make hot chocolate as a special treat.

Our Morning Time list.  I have dropped off with the character curriculum and plan to use a different one next year.
 

After Morning Time I let Tyson have a break to play for a few minutes while I take the littlest 3 kids upstairs for "Play Alone Time."  Once I've set up their activity (large "Loving Family" fisher price dollhouse, baby dolls and clothes, Duplo Legos, Mr. Potato Head collections, My Little Ponies, large magnetic dress up dolls, Little People house/farm, Lil' Woodzeez treehouse collections from Target, etc) they each play in separate bedrooms for about an hour.  It's glorious.  They enjoy (even though they don't always know it!) a little break from each other, and it gives me time to focus on Tyson for 1-on-1 time doing his LANGUAGE ARTS curriculum.  We have been doing Play Alone Time since they were all babies (always including an audiobook or kids CD playing quietly in the background), so it's something everyone is used to in our family.  The 2-year-old plays in a bedroom, while he is contained inside a folding gate play yard.  That way he can play alone without me worrying about him getting into things he's not supposed to in the bedrooms.  Usually from about 10:30 - 11:30ish I have this hour of (semi) uninterrupted time with Tyson to do his LA lesson, and start making lunch!  The little kids clean up their Play Alone Times and then have some free play time together while I make lunch.

This jokester getting ready for Language Arts time with mom.

Jersey (age 5) having Play Alone Time in the boys' bedroom: using the Tag Jr. reader to do "school" with her dolls.

Mid-Day



Lunch time is always...an adventure.  I am pretty worn out from the morning of school, setting up and putting away activities, changing diapers, etc.  The more kids I had at home the louder lunch time became, and I grew pretty tired of phrases like "don't talk with food in your mouth," and "stop distracting your sister," and "hurry up and finish your lunch."  That's when we started listening to audiobooks during lunch time! (See my post about that, HERE).  We also listen to our Classical Conversations memory work CD's during lunch to review.  It's quick, the kids love the songs, and it's one more way to reinforce the new grammar during our week.  After any meal the kids are required to clear their places and put their dishes next to the sink.  (My weak spot...little meal time chores.  My goal is to have chairs pushed in, table wiped off, and dishes loaded, but I haven't found the time to train AND require those things of specific children.  Will be working on those and other new chores during the summer.)
If we stay home after lunch then it's free play time for a while.  Often including...


Outside play time in beautiful Colorado weather!

Inside playtime...usually resulting in dress up clothes and some kind of adventure that I can hardly keep up with.  Some days, there are just no words...

Other days when we need to head out for a bit after lunch and before naps, it might look like this...


Trips to the park

Quick errands before naps

Doctor appointments...Double Trouble in the waiting room ;-)

Afternoon

And then...it's NAPTIME!!!!  Woo hoo!  I can't wait for miss my cute kids while they nap.  In our house the kids usually nap until age 5-ish.  Depending on their individual sleep needs, of course.  At this point in time my oldest is the only one who doesn't nap.  The 5, 4, and 2 year old still nap every day (unless I intentionally keep them up for some fun outside play or something).  I only let the 4 and 5 year old sleep for about an hour (usually 2:00 - 3:00ish) and then I have to wake them up so that they will still go to sleep well at nighttime.  Tyson (age 7) has quiet time every day.  He either plays outside by himself, or listens to an audiobook while he does Legos, Magnatiles, Zoobs, Thinking Putty, a puzzle, or whatever other activity he might request to work on at our school table.  He knows that he is supposed to be quiet and not bother me because mamma needs a break by that point in the day!  I am always around if he really needs something, but ever since I started incorporating audiobooks into this time of day he rarely interrupts me as he's engrossed in his story :)

 

What do I do during nap time?  Well it varies depending on the day and the week!  I try to do my quiet time with my Bible and sometimes a Bible study book for part of the time.  The rest of the hour I often spend prepping dinner food, cleaning the kitchen, changing out laundry, picking up around the house, working on the computer, making any necessary phone calls, and probably about 200 hundred other small, random tasks that have to fit in to the day somewhere!  For a time I tried exercising in the afternoon (when I was still nursing the baby early in the morning) but it just doesn't happen consistently.  I'm too tired by then!  It works much better if I listen to podcast or an audiobook of my own while I get some things done.  If we were out for the whole first half of the day at the zoo or something, I usually come home and crash for my own hour nap because I'm physically and mentally exhausted and my introverted-self needs to hibernate in order to function in the afternoon (#keepingitreal).  Next year I plan to have 2 hours of quiet time for everyone (2 nappers and 2 non-nappers) so I can have a longer stretch of time to rest and also be productive.  The non-nappers will probably have required reading time for part of that, and the rest of the time they can listen to their own audiobook while doing a quiet activity, or play outside.

 

Around 3 - 3:30 I wake the 4 and 5 year old up from their naps and bring them down for snack time.  The 3 big kids sit at the kitchen table and eat their snack while I read aloud from our current chapter book.  This has been so nice!  Their mouths and hands are busy which means there are far fewer interruptions while I'm reading.  And snack time happens EVERY day, which ensures that read aloud time happens almost every day.  Win!  (Sometime this spring I will do a post on all of the read aloud books we have enjoyed this year.)

 

After snacks there is more free play time.  If it's snowy, they often head outside.  If it's sunny, they often head outside.  See the theme?  This is just the truth about Colorado living, ya'll!  If it's too cold, snowing too hard, or raining (yes that happens...twice a year) so they have to be inside, then these are typical scenarios:

"Book Time": each child on their own couch or chair with a snack of books.  Not allowed to talk to each other ;-)  I usually put on some Pandora with piano music or something in the background

Puzzles while listening to an audiobook



Free-for-all dress up play...you never know what chaos will ensue! (Can you tell we do a lot of dress up at our house!?)

Group "Table Time": kinetic sand is a new favorite!  Usually with our current family audiobook playing



Library book feasting in the living room

Of course it's not always smooth and peachy and pleasant and quiet.  As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, this is not the time where I will delve into our shortcomings, major cracks in our day, mommy meltdowns (say whaaaat?!), and other mishaps.  But at least this gives you some ideas as to what our successful afternoons look like, and things you might try at your house!  If we stay home I use this time to keep working on dinner, and the rest of the things I mentioned that I do during nap time.  I try to pick up the house some more every day so that it looks somewhat put-back-together before my wonderful husband gets home from work and wonders why a bomb went off in the house...  If I happened to have finished dinner earlier in the day in the crockpot and we've had time to pick up the house a little bit, then I will spend a little time baking ahead (muffins, granola bars, etc) or we will sometimes sneak in a little more read aloud time with picture books, or our chapter book if they're antsy to hear the next chapter.  Some afternoons the kids spend all together, and other afternoons they divide and concur.  My 5-year-old is a definite introvert so she will often ask to have more play alone time in her room, or do some kind of art at the kitchen table, or some computer time by herself.  My 7 and 4 year old could party with people all day long, so they can often be found having some adventure together outside.  And the 2 year old naps later in the afternoon than the other kids, so he's not a part of the equation right away.

 

Evening

I won't spend a lot of time talking about this part of our day, since it's probably not much different than all of yours' ;-)  Dinner is ...fairly chaotic.  Meals as a family are a big priority for us.  It's loud.  Kids vying for daddy's attention and trying to talk over each other.  If it's not their favorite meal on the menu then there is a lot of coaxing and prodding people to finish eating.  I barely sit down since someone always needs their water bottle filled up, a second serving of something, a paper towel because something spilled, mid-meal diaper change, yadda yadda yadda.  It's wonderful noise in the grand scheme of things, and I wouldn't change it for anything.  But it's definitely not a quiet, calm time of the day, lol!  After dinner my rock star husband usually helps do the dishes and clean the kitchen.  We attempt to have our own conversations while the hooligans children are excused to play a little bit (or finish picking up the house if the toy tornado didn't get sorted out before dinner).  Then it's pajamas, potty, and tooth-brushing.  This takes approximately 3.5 hours.  (30 minutes if we're working at light speed).  Our goal is to have time for a little bit more read aloud from a chapter book that only daddy reads from.  Doesn't happen every night, but that's the goal!  We were just talking about maybe moving this to be right before dinner while I finish cooking, or right after dinner before the bedtime routine.  This would ensure that it happens before both parents are feeling "done," fried, burned-out, and just pure exhausted from the day-to-day...  We'll see.

 

MISCELANEOUS EXTRAS:

 

I realize that this may now be the longest blog post in the history of...blogging.  But I wanted to try to cover as many questions as I could think of, that people have asked me this year!  Hopefully it wasn't too much or too little information, for those of you who were looking for a post like this.  I can't describe every possible minute so please remember that there are times for a 30 minute educational TV show, interruptions for diaper emergencies (once in a while resulting in emergency BATHS - TMI), sick kids, sick moms, bad attitudes which make school take longer, last minute trips to the grocery store if I forgot to buy something over the weekend that I needed for my meal plan, etc.

Speaking of meal planning...  I usually plan my meals for the week on Saturday, then grocery shop locally on Saturday or Sunday.  Plus a mid-week trip to Costco on Thursdays since I'm out that direction when I take the kids to their music classes.  I don't have any desire time to shop with 4 little kids during the week, so I try to do the bulk of it on the weekend. 

 

Also, some other time I will post about Classical Conversations , but for now just know that this is our second year being a part of one of these communities, and it simplifies our school and my life SO SO SO MUCH!  For now it covers our history, science, geography, art, and other small things.  I don't have 7 separate curriculums to touch on all of these "subjects."  They are combined through Classical Conversations in the most wonderful way: classical education!  Bonus: the kids get to experience bigger art and science projects than I particularly want to take on at home.  It makes our days so much simpler, and I am forever grateful that we were encouraged to join a community.  We go to "CC" one day a week and then are home doing the work ourselves the rest of the week!


Dissecting!!!



Painting

One of my favorite things about homeschooling is the time it frees up for our family, and the flexibility it allows for.  Sometimes we ditch the normal school routine and do something different.  All of these things we get to do during the week, during the day, so that we can still have family time on weekends without trying to cram in a bunch of educational activities. 

Have other homeschooling friends over in the middle of the day!

Head to the Children's Museum
 

Story Hour at the library

Afternoon tea parties

Nature field trips with our CC community!

Zoo adventures

Helping mom cook

Go to plays

Week day (no traffic - can I get an AMEN!?) ski days as a family

Well I think it's time to wrap this post up since it's taken me weeks to write it in small snippets, and I'm sure it's taken you hours to actually read it.  Please leave a comment if you're one of those friends who has had questions for me this year and I left any of those questions out of this post!  I am always happy to talk about what's working or not working for our family - I love to get ideas and feedback from my friends who homeschool.  Community is an invaluable resource!  Thanks for taking a peek at our days.  Blessings!





Discovering my diastasis recti, and how I am healing it, Part 2

A couple of weeks late, but I am finally back for my 6 week update on my diastasis recti and how I am using the Tupler Technique to heal it.  If you read Part 1 of my journey you might be curious about my experience over the last 6 weeks.  If you haven't read it, please do, as it explains WHAT diastasis recti is, why it is important to check for it, how I discovered I had it, why I chose the Tupler Technique to attempt to heal myself, etc. 

Doing the Exercises
As I mentioned in Part 1, the Tupler Technique is no small commitment.  That became more and more true the further I went with the program.  You are expected to complete the specified exercises 3 times a day.  The number of "reps" and sets of exercises gradually increase (as your transverse muscles get stronger and can handle more challenge) and therefore take a little bit more time to complete as time goes on.  I would say that at first it took me 5-7 minutes to do the exercises (3 times a day).  By week 6 I would say it usually took me more like 15-18 minutes to do them.  That is no small thing when you're home with 4 small kids, homeschooling, and barely have enough time to take a bathroom break during the day as it is!  Making time for the exercises required planning ahead and prioritizing them over other things some days.  I found that I just HAD to do the morning ones before my kids got up and we started our day.  Otherwise I would never pause long enough to do them.  I tried to do the mid-day exercises as soon as I put the kids down for afternoon naps.  Defintely NOT what I wanted to do as soon as I finally had a few quiet minutes to myself, but I did it anyway.  Healing the diastasis was just that important to me.  I knew that I was committing to the program, wanted to do it the right way, all the way, and have no excuses to not see results. I did the evening exercises after the kids went to bed while I watched part of a show or something (little reward for myself, if I had to sit there and do them, I might as well be pleasantly distracted ;-).  Of course there were days here and there where I didn't fit all of the exercises in!!  That usually happened with the middle of the day sets if we were out and about or just too busy.  But I very rarely (as in, almost never) just let myself be lazy if I was at home and just didn't "feel like" doing them.  That's where my competitive nature comes in handy for once, ha!  I wouldn't let myself just not do them without a good reason.

Splinting
The splint is annoying.  It just is.  However, it definitely loosens up after the first week or two and you just get a lot more used to it!  At first I couldn't imagine how I would wear the thing for months on end, but it really wasn't that bad after the first week or two.  I started in summertime in Colorado.  It's hot here, man!  I had envisioned trying to wear a thin, tight-fitting tank top, then the splint, then another loose-fitting tank top or t-shirt over to "hide" the splint.  But after the first day I realized that I actually didn't care at all what it looked like.  I probably only covered it up with another layer a couple of times in 6 weeks!  I bought the tan color and the black color (not necessary to buy 2, but I wanted to be able to wear both colors and work out in them so I needed to be able to wash them easily without worrying about not having one be dry, etc).  I bought a few tight-fitting tank tops from Target.  Just basic, black, wife-beater style (what an aweful description!) and one with prettier lacy straps.  I wanted them to be fitted so that I could wrap the splint over them and not make them bunch up and look weird.  A lot of the time people didn't even notice I was wearing the splint when I wore the black one over a fitted black tank top!  And if someone asked, it was just a good opportunity to share about an issue that people need to be more aware of anyway.  I don't worry about covering it up or hiding it.  I just don't care that much what it looks like....and it's hot in Colorado!  I really did wear the splint around the clock (except for showering) for the whole 6 weeks.  Like I've said, if I was going to go to all this effort, I wanted to do it right!  Do the exercises diligently, and wear the splint as directed.  Here is a picture of how I wore it just around the house every day.  If I went out I usually wore the black one with a black tank, but I never took a picture wearing that one, apparently.

The Ups and Downs
The ups...  As the weeks went on I definitely felt my TA (transverse abdominals) getting increasingly stronger.  I got into more of a habit of engaging my core constantly during all of my daily activities.  My bellybutton went back in after being "out" post babies.  My low back stopped bothering me.  And honestly I was finally more than just "hopeful" about having a fairly flat stomach after 4 kids.  My abs looked BETTER in the mirror, even though I had completely stopped exercising for the time being.  (It's always nice to exercise less and look better...ha!  If only that worked all the time...)  I could definitely tell it was working and as I checked myself (at the bellybutton, and about 3 inches above and 3 inches below) I saw the finger width begin to close.
   
The downs...  As the reps/sets increased each week it was harder to make time for them.  Still doable!  But challenging.  I also found that it is extremely important to keep your neck and shoulders relaxed while doing the exercises.  It is easy to tense up and hunch your shoulders as you're concentrating on counting and thinking about which core muscles you're using, etc.  I make a very conscious effort every time I do them to keep my shoulders down and relaxed.  Otherwise you run the risk of building up too much tension in your upper back and neck which can cause problems.  I was aware of this all along so tried to prevent that from happening.  I could tell that I was still getting really tight in my neck about weeks 4/5 and I was about due for a trip to my chiropractor.  It depends on how you feel about "alternative" treatments, but I think chiropractic and massage are important, or at the very list beneficial, while doing this program. The human head is heavy!  When you add in a lot of "head lifts" 3 times a day it's bound to put stress on the neck and shoulders from dead lifting that weight (even if you're using correct form).  Having your spouse do a few minutes of deep massage on your neck and shoulders helps a ton!  And if you're feeling that it's still tightening despite that, a chiropractic adjustment and some of their pressure point work to release tension is key!  I learned my lesson the hard way.  I felt my neck and shoulders getting more and more stressed and I kept putting off a visit to my chiropractor because we were busy starting the school year and I put myself on the back burner.  Then during week 6 I tilted my head back in the shower to rinse my shampoo and totally tweaked my neck!  It was under a lot of strain already and I hadn't been good about loosening it up with massage.  That little movement in the shower was just the last straw and I heard a few little pops and knew what I had done (been down that road before).  Couldn't turn my head without pain!  Anyway, went to my chiro that afternoon and took and few days off of doing the head lifts (kept up the seated contracting exercises) to let things settle down in my upper spine.  Just something to be aware of!  The exercises work, but they do put consistent stress on your neck and shoulders 3 times a day!

My 6-week check in
When I started the Tupler Technique I asked Brooke (the licensed Tupler Technique gal I saw in Denver - check www.diastasisrehab.com for someone local to you!) if it usually takes the whole 18 weeks to heal it, or if it really varies between clients.  She thought I could potentially heal mine closer to 6-10 weeks with the program.  That is because I already had some core strength built up (not great transverse, but not starting from zero, either), I have been a life-long athlete, familiar with how to isolate and use particular muscles, wanted to be disciplined following the program, etc.  I also exercised throughout a couple of pregnancies, and in between pregnancies when I had time (not too long because my kids are all fewer than 2 year apart!).  I had also been working out hard for 6 months or so prior to discovering that I had diastasis recti, so I wasn't concerned about losing weight or changing my diet.  I really just needed to heal the diastasis and that was the only issue. Brooke does a great thing with her practice in that she does free "belly checks" for anyone who wants to come by.  Fabulous way to know for sure if you have diastasis, how bad it is, and what your personal plan could look like to fix it (group class, DVD's on your own, 1 or 2 private sessions with her, etc).  I paid for a 1-hour consultation with her to begin the program, but then went back to see her at 6 weeks for a free "belly check" so she could check my diastasis progress, write down my updated measurements, and take a second set of pictures.  I was nervous to go because it was kind of my "moment of truth" for someone to officially tell me if my work was paying off, and how much further I needed to go for complete healing. 

Well, let me tell you, that was a shocking appointment!  First she looked at my guide book where you log all of your check marks each day for the exercises.  She said I had been extremely consistent (I missed some here and there, but I guess she could tell that I was very intentionally about sticking to the program).  She checked my abs (as you are supposed to do while lying down on the floor) and hesitantly, but excitedly, pronounced me "healed" from the diastasis!!!!  After only 6 weeks!  I was stunned!  If you remember from Part 1, I started with a 4 finger gap at all 3 spots (bellybutton and 3 inches above and below) and my connective tissue between the gap was considered "deep" (as in you can press deep in between your abdominals when you're checking for diastasis) on bottom and middle and "medium/deep" at the top (out of shallow, medium, and deep options).  After 6 weeks my measurements (top to bottom) were now 2 fingers wide and "shallow" depth, 2.5 fingers and medium/shallow, and 2 fingers and shallow.  If you've been pregnant then anything approximately 2 fingers wide or less is considered normal.  Some separation occurs naturally during pregnancy and no one ever has zero gap between their abdominals.  That's why the connective tissue functions to keep them together and strong.  So even though there is still a slight gap, it is considered healed and normal.  The connective tissue is a major factor so going from deep to shallow is a big improvement!  The middle place you measure, right at your bellybutton, is always going to be a little different than above and below it because the bellybutton is there and is always going to make the connective tissue  slightly weaker there, so a shallow/medium depth in the very middle is "normal" for me after 4 pregnancies!

The proof is in the pictures...
Well, I kept debating whether or not I really felt like posting a picture of my stomach online for who knows how many people to see.  Not exactly something I was looking forward to.  However, when I began researching diastasis recti I had a really hard time finding any articles or blogs that showed before and after pictures of people who stuck with the program.  A number of them posted pictures and measurements when they started out, but usually they dropped off and didn't continue with the splint and exercises.  So, in the spirit of hopefully helping someone else on a similar journey, here are the pictures for you.  The first two are the day I started.  Herniated bellybutton and it's pretty obvious that I have diastasis recti!  These pictures show what I looked like being back down to my pre-pregnancy weight, working out hard for 6 months, and my stomach looking WORSE the more crunches I did.  This is as bad as it's ever looked after losing baby weight.  That's how I knew something was wrong: exercise was only exacerbating the problem.

Day 1 of the Tupler Technique

 The second set of pictures were taken at my 6 week check in with Brooke.  Same camera, same lighting, same room as the first set of pictures.  And these were after NOT working out at all for 6 weeks.  Obviously all those crunches I was doing were making the situation a lot worse!!! (If only I had known about this before and saved myself a lot of time and head ache!).  These pictures are after 6 weeks of doing the Tupler Technique exercises, but no exercise beyond that.  In fact, I think I even gained a pound since I stopped working out during the program.  My bellybutton went back in after only a couple of weeks.  (SIDE NOTE: in the second set of pictures I still think my bellybutton looks a little jacked up at the top even though it's back "in."  That's because during college I made the very wise decision to pierce my bellybutton.  Not that uncommon, right?  But when you're a college soccer player...not so smart.  Even with it all taped up it got ripped out during one of my soccer games, which left a nice little scar, which then stretched during 4 pregnancies.  Live and learn....Dad, be proud that I'm finally admitting it was stupid - and thanks for not disowning me at the time).

Week 6 of the Tupler Technique

 Here is a side-by-side of just the front shots so you can see the difference.  Of course it doesn't always look exactly like this and may look different depending on the time of day, if I've been doing the exercises, etc.  It is normal for your muscles to stretch out as the day goes on and your stomach to bloat a little bit by later in the day.  So even though it won't always look exactly like this, I am looking forward to learning more core exercises that are not crunching, in order to continue to improve my core strength and keep definition consistently.  There are plenty of ways to work your core with stabilizing exercises, planks/push ups, standing and side lying exercises, etc.  I am just now on a mission to learn as many of those as I can to replace traditional ab workouts!

Day 1 vs. Week 6

Where I'm at now...
Honestly?  I'm totally paranoid that the diastasis is going to open back up again now that I'm not splinting.  Brooke assured me that all I need to know is that I have a great measurement for what to do and what not to do in order to make sure it doesn't separate again: as long as you can keep your transverse at 5th floor when exercising, that exercise is fine!  If you can't keep it at 5th, then don't do it.  Those terms make sense once you start the program ;-)  I am doing the TT exercises 2-3 times a day, and also starting to add in total body workouts again (slowly!).  I have never had to exercise with modifications in mind or really having to think that hard about what I'm doing.  It's a whole new world now!  My brain hurts just thinking about holding my TA correctly during each repetition of every exercise, making sure I'm doing "belly breaths" (so as not to add extra strain on the connective tissue), etc.  But it's inevitable that I need to learn to work out with these muscles in mind, so I might as well get used to it.  I am attempting to return to the Bikini Body Guide (aka My Favorite Workout).  However, it does incorporate quite a bit of core work on the floor (crunches, jackknifes, leg lifts, etc) which I will need to swap out for "diastasis friendly" core work.  If I go along and decide it's just too much work to change so many things in the routine, then I will try a different work out program which uses primarily standing/stabilizing/side-lying core exercises.

Now you know one of my biggest fears: that the DR will return and go back to the way it looked before.  I guess actually writing that out is a form of accountability for me.  I will post pictures in 2 or 3 months once I've settled into a consistent workout routine, without splinting (except for during exercise, at first), and see how things are looking.  I'm curious, myself!  And a bit nervous.

Important Thought: 
You CANNOT heal the diastasis, then quit the program and not incorporate exercise into your daily life, if you expect it to stay healed.  Think about it.  You'll spend weeks and weeks building that transverse muscle and doing exercises 3 times a day.  If you just quit everything all together and return to life as you lived it before, of course the diastasis will re-open!  Any muscles that you build will not keep their strength without continued exercise.  Now I begin the journey of learning to modify every exercise I do.  Bicep curl include a TA squeeze from 5th to 6th (as they say with the TT).  A push-up includes a core tightening squeeze at the right point.  Everything from now on should incorporate a transverse muscle work out.  It's a bit overwhelming, but I am determined to keep the diastasis closed AND be in good shape!

Thanks for sharing in my journey.  I really hope that my story and the pictures are helpful for someone out there, since I myself had a hard time finding the type of step by step blog post that I was looking for.  Please feel free to share on Facebook, or leave a comment if you're in the same boat!  It always nice to know we're not alone in something new, and potentially discouraging at first :)  Blessings!

Heidi