fitness...fail?

I saw my midwife on Tuesday for my 6-week post-partum check-up. (Daniel weighed in at 10lbs 10oz. He is growing so fast!) Catherine asked a bunch of questions and checked me over, and cleared me for any and all physical activity. My diastasis recti (abdominal muscle separation) is healing well on its own, and she encouraged me to help it along with some crunches. The only thing that's still hurting all the time is my tailbone, and I continue to feel discouraged at that slow healing process. I promised my chiropractor when I went in on Tuesday afternoon that I was going to get back to exercising the next day.

Well so far, I haven't done a whole lot in the way of fitness activities. I haven't been able to go to Mama/Baby yoga yet because of my tailbone injury, and it really is hard to find the time to exercise when caring for an infant. I spend my "free time" catching up on household chores, napping with Daniel, or eating a much-needed meal. I've also been going to the breastfeeding groups (Mom's Group) at New Seasons the past two weeks, and I plan on keeping up with that.

I'm grateful that I'm breastfeeding for its effect on my body's recovery from pregnancy: I weighed myself for the first time since a couple days after I have birth and I've lost over 20lbs so far. Hopefully in the next few weeks I can figure out some kind of fitness routine that will work into my days at home with Daniel, and will help my body to re-gain some of its former level of fitness (or improve upon it!).

Until then, I'm trying to be very gentle with myself and my body. I'm not going to worry about fitting into pre-pregnancy clothes for a while, and I'm not going to make a habit of weighing myself, because that number doesn't really matter. I'm just going to work on being active and enjoying this precious time with my baby, and I think the rest of it will fall into place eventually.

What do you think? How long should a woman give herself post-baby to get back into shape? Should she even try? =)