Pregnant ladies Everywhere!

While walking to lunch yesterday during work, a coworker and I saw not one, not two, not three, but four very pregnant women on our short jaunt to the cafe. We both thought it was so odd because neither one of us had seen a pregnant person in our workplace let alone four VERY expectant mothers-to-be. Seemed very auspicious but had no idea what I was supposed to learn.

The pregnant-woman ambush continued on today at the YMCA. I taught my Saturday morning hatha yoga class, and a woman arrived in the middle of savasana, where we began the class. Once she popped up, I thought she was pregnant, but I wondered how to broach this subject with her. Since I didn't have a chance to speak with her before it began, I didn't want to assume (which spells ass out of you and me!) she was pregnant and hurt her feelings if she wasn't. So I took the safe route and just said what I was doing and told them "not" to do it... in a way telling her to do it.

Luckily after class she asked me when I was due so I knew we were both in "the club," and I admitted wondering about her status but didn't want to risk inquiring and being incorrect. We had a nice chat afterwards about our pregnancies and prenatal yoga, when another woman walked by and asked if we were talking about prenatal classes and if we had any at the Y. I said no I don't know of any, but perhaps if there's enough interest we can get one started. I'm excited to talk to my YMCA manager and see what he thinks. Maybe even have a "special" class to weigh interest and go from there.

So God, is that what you're trying to tell me with all these pregnant people surrounding me?

PregTASTIC podcast about prenatal yoga

Listened to PregTASTIC’s podcast #22 title “Prenatal Yoga” with guest Sara Holliday, which is a little over 40 minutes long. Holliday is a prenatal fitness expert and yoga instructor and has prenatal yoga DVDs for each trimester that follows her own pregnancy. She also has an outdoor stroller workout DVD for indoors and a CD to workout outside.

Some of things Holliday says to avoid when you’re pregnant and doing yoga:

• Laying on your back
• Twisting – torks spine and baby
• Over stretching – as you are further along in your pregnancy, your body is more open to prepare for birth so you may overstretch.

Yoga for your back
During your morning shower, let the water hit your low back and do modified cat and cow (tilt pelvis up and down with hands on knees). With the warm water pounding on your back, this feels SOOOOO good. My new favorite yoga pose to do! Definitely try this out, pregnant or not!

Yoga for sciatica
Move into butterfly –soles of feet together with knees out. Hold your feet and inhale knees up and exhale knees down. Continue to do this with the breath for five to 10 breaths. This will open up inner thighs and glutes.

Relaxation
Lay on your left side. Inhale and exhale breath into each part of body from toes to head and relax entire body.

Bring your right hand to your heart and the left to your baby. Inhale and focus on your love and absorb the feelings into your heart and exhale put into baby.

Don't try so hard

"Perfection in an asana is achieved when the effort to perform it becomes effortless and the infinite being within is reached."
~ Yoga Sutra 2.47

This sutra or thread is one of only three out of the 196 sutras Patanjali wrote thousands of years ago pertaining to the postures or asanas of yoga.

Since I'm past the halfway mark of my pregnancy, my body is noticeably changing. I'm not sure some days what yoga poses I'll be able to do or how I'll have to modify them. At first it bothered me I wasn't able to do some poses "perfectly" - darn foot will not go all the way up to my inner thigh in tree pose anymore. My inner nature is to be competitive and to be the best (that's a Virgo for you!). However doing yoga while being pregnant really illustrates to me what this sutra is saying.

Perfectionism isn't trying so hard - according to this sutra, it's the exact opposite. To me it's saying perfection is when you're able to be in the moment and be peaceful and satisfied with the present. This works for yoga poses and for life in general. Off the mat, I try to remain calm when preparing for our new baby to arrive. It can be effortless to find a good, affordable daycare. It doesn't have to be hard not knowing the sex of the baby until it's born. It is easy to choose our child's name.

Try and make effortlessness your aim today, on and off the mat.

Celeb & US baby boom

Did you know the U.S. birth rate recently hit a 35-year high, almost as high as the baby boom? Seems celebrities are keeping pace with this trend and a ton of them are pregnant these days. (FYI... I may be a yogini, but I must admit to having a celebrity gossip addiction.)

From Jessica Alba to Nicole Kidman to Jennifer Lopez to Halle Barry (let alone Christina and Nicole who just gave birth to Max and Harlow respectively), it seems all the Hollywood “It” ladies are preggers. Now I hear Matthew McConaughey is going to be a dad with his new girlfriend, and Britney Spears was seen shopping for a pregnancy test today... ok, let's not go there.

Seems the famous either love talking all about their nine months or don't want to discuss it at all. Or perhaps it's that WE love talking about them and their babies and this focus and fascination we have with them makes it appear more abundant. The proof? Well, I'm guilty with this post, and there's also a fairly popular blog out there in cyberspace called Celebrity Baby Blog, completely dedicated to this topic.

Celebrities are also always so sickeningly happy and perfect during their pregnancy - don't any of them get sciatica like me? Barry is on the cover of this month’s In Style magazine, and there's a video of her on CNN.com talking about how great she’s feeling during her pregnancy. Angelina Jolie actually became happy during her pregnancy, shock of shocks. Now she's back to brooding again and drinking vials of blood... (joke - can you tell I'm Team Aniston, even now after Shiloh has turned one years old!)

Cause you gotta have faith

In the words of George Michael, "you gotta have faith." This morning while reading my daily excerpt of Meditations on the Mat, which I highly recommend, I was reminded of this line. The book begins each day or chapter with some kind of quote. Today's was this:

"The ego asks a thousand questions for which there are no answers."
~ A Course in Miracles

It goes on to say that "we fear everything: success, failure, love, loss, child rearing, (etc.) ... The list is endless." Basically it is natural to fear the unknown. The author goes onto say that we have a choice. We can allow ourselves to be "drained and distracted by a plague of doubts and questions or we can simply choose to apply ourselves to the task at hand."

You must have faith to believe everything will work out. Right now I catch myself worrying I won't be a good enough mother or that my husband won't keep his spirits up during his job search. However when I have these doubts, I try to turn them around quickly and focus on my faith and gratitude in all that we have right now.

"Today, see what happens when you keep it simple: let go of the questions, set aside the fears and remember that things will work out. Now breathe, smile, and put one foot in front of the other."

I'm not sure if it's all the yoga I've been doing, the new meditation time in the morning, or just being pregnant. However, I'm exhausted by 10 p.m. at night (really even by 9 p.m. but I fight it!)

Didn't help that a work project I was supposed to complete by close of business today couldn't get done because the tool I was using wasn't working correctly. I LOVE technology! And of course I had to leave work so I could teach my 6 p.m. yoga class. Once I arrived back home I had to fire up the old laptop, like I never left work!

Two and a half hours later the tool finally does what it's supposed to do, and now it's time for bed - joy!

Ok, enough of my griping. If you haven't checked out Fit Pregnancy magazine or its Web site, I suggest you do if you're expecting. I found an interesting article about the benefits of yoga and a great series of asanas or postures for during pregnancy that takes about 20 minutes.

Top secret baby name

If you're pregnant, I have one piece of advice for you... listen closely.

I implore you NOT to share your baby names, whatever you do. Even if you preface beforehand you don't want their feedback prior to telling them your names, especially if negative, they STILL will criticize them. Trust me, you can't even trust your best friend on this one. You will just get ticked off and may lose a friend - I'm SERIOUS.

So don't share. If people ask, tell them it's confidential or better yet, you can say "I'll tell you but then I'll have to kill you." Not very "yoga-esque" of me, is it?

You'll thank me for this wisdom - trust me.