Restorative yoga might not be for pregnant yoginis

Just tried restorative yoga for the first time at Darling Yoga. I thought it might help me open up my back and the extreme leg cramp in my left calf - woke up Saturday morning with a leg cramp or charlie horse that made me scream and now my calf is still as hard as a rock. (BTW my sciatica is feeling much better! Guess I traded one for the other!)

Before the start of class, I reminded the instructor of my pregnancy since I'm new to the studio. She remembered me, which was nice, and said that I may become nauseous since we will be laying down a lot. Well, boy was she right. I've heard and read so many different things about lying down in pregnancy, and I figured being propped up on bolsters would keep me from being flat on my back, but I definitely felt a little sick in the stomach after being in some positions for 10 minutes or so. I ended up propping myself up with a block under my bolster in a diagonal or laying to my side. The cool thing was I felt the baby moving a lot, probably to say, "get off your back MAMA!"

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.

Savasana with props

Man, this sciatica thing is really ticking me off. After I woke up this morning and did my meditation, I did the yoga postures I posted about yesterday to relieve my sciatica and seemed to feel better. Then I went to an 11 a.m. hatha yoga flow class back at Darling Yoga to take full advantage of my two weeks of unlimited classes. I told the teacher beforehand I'm pregnant so that she could guide me in case I was doing something not good for my body or the baby. During class, I tried to be mindful not to go farther than I should in a pose so I wouldn't aggravate my sciatica. I really enjoyed the light feeling of the class and the openness I felt.

As I was settling into savasana at the end, the instructor came over and completely propped me up: an eye pillow under my neck, folded blankets under both arms, soles of my feet together and knees out in a diamond shape, blankets under both knees and sandbags across the top of each thigh by the groin. She then threw a blanket over me; I felt like a baby, all swaddled up and thoroughly enjoyed savasana.

As I walked out to my car, feeling lighthearted, I noticed the pain in my foot.... grrrrrrrr! When I arrived home and began to clean the house with the hubby, my back was completely bothered! GRRRRRRR! What am I doing wrong? I need to concentrate on the affirmations in yesterdays post to relieve the sciatica.

I've been trying to lay low, but my husband christened his newly finished basement with a poker party tonight and since it started over dinner time, I offered to make a sandwich ring to feed the brood. Just took a hot shower and am trying to relax before hitting the hay. Bad thing is I can hear EVERYTHING from the basement through this old house so I've developed quite a headache. We may have to plan these "boy's nights" when I'm out of town!

Sciatica is a pain in the ass

In one of my many bathroom trips during the night yesterday (Oh the joy of pregnancy!), I felt a shooting pain of sciatica on the right side of my sacrum shooting down my leg .... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, I thought! I really hoped I was going to avoid the dreaded sciatica that plagues so many expectant mothers. Yesterday I actually felt an odd pain in my left foot so I don't know if it's related. However, now I'm feeling both.

I looked up sciatica in the book You can Heal your Life by Louise L. Hay, which lists a variety of ailments, what is causing them and how to treat them with affirmations. Probable cause of sciatica is "being hypocritical. Fear of money and of the future." Whoa - that's crazy! With my husband's recent job loss, I'm sure fear of money and the future is creeping into my subconscious, although I know we'll be perfectly fine. My husband asked me what the "hypocritical" part is about. The only thing I could come up with is that I'm being hypocritical telling him to be positive and apparently my sciatica is telling me I'm not!

Anyhow, the books' recommended affirmations for sciatica:

"I move into my greater good. My good is everywhere, and I am secure and safe."

This morning I pulled out a Yoga Journal magazine workout for sciatica I clipped called "Easy rider" from Aug. 2006. The original article includes a a great workout for sciatica relief. I did it this morning, but the postures don't seem to be included in the online version. Doing it did seem to help a bit. Guess I'll just need to keep doing it for a while.

"Coping with Sciatica" had more suggestions for poses that can alleviate sciatica, and I also discovered another YJ practice for sciatica. However I'm not sure if all the postures are appropriate for pregnant women, such as the twists.

Besides yoga, herbs like St. John's wort may be helpful. Tumeric may be as well for "its anti-inflammatory effects are most likely due to its active ingredient, curcumin, which gives turmeric its yellow color and may be as effective as cortisone in fighting acute inflammation" according to "Sciatica Strategies" article on YJ.

If you have other suggestions for dealing with sciatica, please let me know. My ass will thank you! ;)