New baby - will we ever be normal again?

Read this close-to-home blog post for any new parents: We Have a New Baby! Will Our Lives and Our Relationship Ever Get Back to Normal?

Better take a nap while the little booger is sleeping.

BTW, she's starting to smile at me, and no it wasn't gas! I kind of captured a few photos of the Kodak moment.

Try this Postnatal yoga DVD

I wasn't aware of the DVD Postnatal yoga by Shiva Rea until a week or two after Brijin was born. Added it to my Netflix queue soon after and practiced the first two segments of it about four times now in the past week. It's very easy going, which is just what a woman needs after giving birth. Plus it's targeting the abs and the back - key areas postpartum. It's been four weeks since I gave birth to my baby so I'm feeling more able to get back into exercise, but I still need to take it easy. (My doctor told me to wait six weeks until I get back fully into exercising, although she said four weeks might be doable, as long as I listen to my body.) I think this workout is a great way to segue back into fitness and into my yoga practice.

I'm a big fan of Shiva as well. She is a wonderful instructor; I really enjoyed her prenatal yoga DVD too. In fact, I rented it for a while through Netflix and eventually bought it since my husband was annoyed it was tying up one of our three Netflix DVDs. Her low-key and specific instruction are always helpful and calming. I highly recommend anything with her name on it.

Postnatal yoga - tips for teachers and postpartum women

Here's another great article by Brenda Plakans, one of my favorite yoga bloggers, (Grounding Thru the Sit Bones) about yoga for postnatal women called "Tools for Teaching Postnatal Yoga" on YogaJournal.com. It's written for yoga teachers on how to guide postnatal students, however if you've just given birth, it has great tips for your own, personal yoga practice.

A postpartum woman should not exercise for the first four to six weeks after giving birth (make sure to ask your doctor!). I haven't done any yoga myself, although I have thought about doing a few stretches but lack of sleep seems to derail those plans.

Once able to do asanas or the postures of yoga, the article recommends the following:

• Focusing on the abdominals with belly backbends like cobra and locust, which can't be done during pregnancy so I'm very excited to do those again!
  
• Do "poses that help bring awareness to the torso and engage the muscles include a variety of seated twists" like easy sitting pose with a twist.
  
• Extended Side Angle and Warrior I Pose are also recommended.
  
• Once you feel comfortable with the abs, practicing Navasana or boat and plank should be doable and beneficial, according to the article.

I can't wait to feel good enough and be able to get back to my practice. I'm supposed to begin teaching at the end of July so I will need to get started as soon as my midwife allows.

Preeclampsia - who me?

Yoga Mama and baby Brijin visited our respective doctors on Wednesday. Since going to the hospital to deliver, I had been having high blood pressure readings. After she arrived, I noticed tightness in my chest and a decent amount of pain when I was still in the hospital up until a few days later. My mom didn't remember having such a rough recovery after her deliveries, but I just figured it had been 30 years since she had been through it so she must have forgotten. Due to my high blood pressure readings, the nurse who released me said I needed to make an appointment with my doctor within a week. I ended up calling in to be seen even earlier due to tightness in my chest and swelling in my feet that felt bad enough where I couldn't stand.

My lab work ended up coming back with elevated levels of liver functioning; coupled with high blood pressure, signaled I had become preeclampsic. I still don't really understand it, but worst case scenario it could lead to seizures and poor organ function of both mother and baby (if she hasn't been delivered yet.)

So I'm taking it easy, at least as easy as Brijin Joy will allow!

UPDATE (6/6): By the way, Brijin did gain weight at her doctor's visit on 6/4. Went from 6.5 to 6.13 in 48 hours. Guess you shouldn't let sleeping babies lie! ;)

Postpartum symptoms to be aware of

Thought this was interesting for new moms to read: 5 Unexpected Postpartum Symptoms.

Back to Brijin!