In July, we joined the new Lifetime Fitness that was in the process of being built. We've been anxiously waiting and it finally opened up this weekend. The place is HUGE!!! Indoor swimming, rock climbing, basketball, volleyball, a spa, a cafe, and more cardio machines and weights than you can possibly imagine. It also has a child care center that is part of our membership where our little princess can play while we work out.
As you can see we had this all planned out and we just assumed that Riley would love playing with all the little kiddies in the child care area. With high hopes we made a reservation for her and packed up the car after her nap and headed over to test it out. We checked her in and dropped her off and all seemed well. She was happily banging on a little piano when we left her. I headed upstairs to the elliptical and Matt went to play basketball. I'm just finishing up on the machine and heading over to the weights when I hear a beep on the all call, followed by....
"Attention all Lifetime patrons, will Riley's Daddy please report to the child care center." Of course, Riley's Mommy also takes off at breakneck speed and nearly twists her ankle running back down to the center herself. Secretly we both feared this might happen and sure enough the poor princess was a complete wreck. She was sobbing, and by sobbing I mean her eyes were bright red, her nose was running, and she was hyperventilating. She was MISERABLE and it took us an hour to get her completely calmed down.
We tried again today with a plan for me to run on the treadmill for 20 minutes and then rescue her and take her swimming with me. I thought she might do a little better and decided that smaller increments of time to start off might help. Sadly, today was about as bad as yesterday and Daddy showed up and rescued her after 15 minutes. Upside is that she seemed to enjoy our time in the pool and I'm planning on making that a weekly activity.
I'm really struggling and I have such mixed feelings on this whole thing. It is very important to me that I get into a work out routine again. I used to be quite the athlete. Although those of you who have met me post swimming years might not believe it, I was a 3x a day work out machine. It is something that I really want to do for myself and her too. However, this whole child care thing is causing me great anxiety and I can't really enjoy the work out because I'm worrying about her the whole time. I know she's not dying down there, but I don't want her to be that upset either. We're taking a break tomorrow to enjoy our weekly playdate and we'll try again on Thursday. If you're thinking of it on that day say a prayer that we'll both enjoy the trip this time!
I say hang in there with it, and try to go at the same time every day...even if it's just for 20 mins so she can get used to the people that are there....she's easy once she knows someone! She does fine here...but we have known her since before she was born!
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