Happy Mother's Day

Found a great overview article about prenatal yoga on YogaJournal.com called Yoga for Moms-to-be; thought it was fitting for Mother's Day.

(Photo of me today at 38 weeks!)

Not sure if this is technically my first Mother's Day or not, but I did receive some Mother's Day cards, which was nice. I also was able to check out the DVD Yoga for Your Pregnancy that I blogged about earlier this week. Received it from Netflix and practiced the energizing, 30-minute practice a few times along with the meditation, pranayama and birthing room section. There's also a 17-minute relaxation practice and a postnatal section.

If you're new to yoga and expecting, this is a good DVD to try. If you have Netflix, I strongly suggest renting it first to make sure you enjoy it. I'm not sure if I recommend buying it, especially if you're more versed in yoga because it's fairly basic. However, it's definitely a great practice to do later on in your pregnancy, and the birthing room and meditation section are unique to any prenatal yoga DVD I've found. The alternate nostril breathing demonstration within the pranayama or breath section was very good as well. In addition, there's three women representing each stage of pregnancy and doing the poses in various ways, which is always nice so you may use the practice throughout your entire pregnancy.

Meditation for pregnant mamas

I added the DVD Yoga for Your Pregnancy to my Netflix queue and hope it will arrive early this week - love me some Netflix. I should really try to get the company to sponsor my blog. HA!

Since it's meditation Monday, thought this was a good topic to post about because according to the DVD's Web site, it includes a segment specifically focused on medititation during pregnancy. It also contains three pranayama or breathing techniques for calming the nervous system and yoga postures to try during labor. I believe I saw this DVD before but didn't realize all the cool stuff it contained. Wish I would've read the review earlier, but better late than never, right?

If anyone has tried to this DVD before, let me know what you think. I'll definitely post more about it once I try it out.

Another yoga mama

Found a review for Crunch: Yoga Mama dvd - guess I'm not the only Yoga Mama out there! The review was a little iffy - rated a three out of five with the following comment. "Easy pace yoga routine for women in their third trimester."

If you have a Netflix subscription, you should try it because it's available as a play now option right on your computer so you don't have to wait for it to arrive in the mail. Netflix rocks my world!

Tried it this morning. As the review states, the practice does move slowly and is more focused on flexibility, so it's not my favorite. However, if you're pregnant and new to yoga or are in your third trimester, it's a good place to start. It's also a fairly short routine - about 40 minutes - which makes it easier to fit into your day.

New search tool

Notice anything new on the ol' blog???? Hmmmmmmmmmmm? Really, you give up already? Okay, fine don't play along! Check out the new search widget called Lijit I installed on the top left for your convenience.

I'm pumped about the search tool because it allows you to seek specific information on my blog plus related content on Web sites I've saved in del.icio.us (social bookmarking site, which is very cool itself) and various other Web sources (Facebook, YouTube and other blogs I like, etc.). Try it out.

Here's about a three-minute clip from Jennifer Wolfe's 15-minute prenatal yoga DVD I found on YouTube. I love her Prenatal Vinyasa DVD - my only pet peeve about it was that it was about 90 minutes without chapters so it looks like she's created another one with segments! Although this clip is short, it's a good way to start your morning and also give you a taste of the DVD.

Waking up early brings a hodge podge of info

When I first visited the doctor to confirm I was pregnant, I received a packet of information, including a card to subscribe to a magazine called American Baby. I received the "welcome" addition in the mail yesterday, and it has tons of great information for a newly expectant mother. I highly recommend it, especially considering the first six issues are free.

Also found a great Web site for finding a baby name called Nymbler. Basically it finds names based on ones you like and don't like. I was fairly amazed at some of the names that started popping up based on my selections because some were my favorites! Check it out.

As you can see from my time stamp, I'm up way too early this morning. This is the first time I've woken up and couldn't fall back asleep since my pregnancy began. Practicing yoga usually helps me get a good night's sleep, but I think I allowed my mind to get too riled up yesterday due to things at work and then at my yoga class. I actually received my first negative comment card at the Y about the music I had in class Monday. I played a sitar CD given by a "friend" over in India I had worked with during my day job. I knew it was a little risky but thought I'd give it a try. I think the negative comment resonated with me even more since I left my 9-to-5 job a little pissy. Here's a fine example of the law of attraction working - what we put out there, we attract. So I allowed negativity about something that doesn't even matter, and I received more of it. It's so hard to stay positive, but it is worth it in the long run.

I'm going to try and go back to sleep with some happy thoughts... wish me luck!

My fav - Prenatal Yoga DVD

Today I practiced Shiva Rea’s DVD Prenatal Yoga for the fourth or fifth time, and I think it’s my favorite yoga workout for pregnancy so far. It’s a little slow, but it really seems to center me and open up my hips and my back to prepare me for labor. In the video are three models representing each trimester of pregnancy (Shiva is in her first.), which makes the DVD usable throughout the entire nine months.

Another positive is that it’s broken down into sections, although she doesn’t have it broken down into chapters, but you could skip through until you found the four major sections:
* Meditation and Pranayama (Breathwork)
* Standing Poses
* Floorwork
* Relaxation

You could probably do each section as its own workout if you’re low on time (each section is about 15-20 minutes and the entire video is about an hour long depending on how long you stay in savasana), but I usually end up doing the entire workout.

The first section is much more than meditation and pranayama and includes various warm up asanas and hip openers. Keigel exercises are also done and a good reminder to do them (I always forget!)

The standing poses section is decent. Shiva recommends a lot of props throughout the practice, especially for second and third trimester. So you may want to have a block and a strap handy and also a blanket and chair (more common items laying around the house).

The floorwork is nice and relaxing and stretches those pesky hammies that cause my back to hurt (knock on wood, my back has been great so far during my 16 weeks of pregnancy).

Of course at the end is savasana, and she has very good instruction on how to be in the various trimesters and gives okay, guided relaxation.

After doing about three or four different yoga workouts on DVD for pregnancy, I'd say this one is my favorite so far.

A DVD for the pregger yogini

Have you ever tried Yoga Zone's DVD Postures for Pregnancy? The instructor says it's safe for all three trimesters of pregnancy, which is convenient. The pregnant lady performing the postures looks about ready to pop so it must be okay for me being only at the beginning of the second trimester. I just completed a few chapters of it - never seem to have enough time in the morning!

Checked it out at the local library (I LOVE the the library!) and have done it a few times. It's a little slower than what I'm used to and is more Iyengar (form-focused) versus Vinyasa-style yoga (linking the breath with the movement), which is my favorite type of yoga. However, I feel great after doing a few chapters of it this a.m.

The instructor is actually the husband of the pregnant lady showing the postures - Alan Finger and his wife Greta. He seems to know a lot about alignment, but he has a bit of an accent (British I think) and pronounces words differently than I'm used to, which distracts me a bit.

Overall, I recommend this DVD, which I think is overdue at the library, so I better return it! Maybe I'll buy it or just check it out again in a few months.

Sundays are so RAMA!

So I'm starting my blog, which I have been procrastinating for MONTHS! I never think I have enough to write about, but I guess one has to start somewhere ... so here it goes. I found this quote to illustrate what I mean (I love quotes and will probably share them a lot.)

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." --Lao Tzu

Sundays have such possibility to them, but then I always feel like I didn't accomplish enough and dread the coming Monday back to work. Although today I think I did do enough and my body is agreeing with me. First I walked Charlie (our lab/border collie), and then I did some yoga - since I just began my second trimester, I've been exploring various prenatal DVDs. I gave Penatal Vinyasa Yoga with Jennifer Wolfe to my sister-in-law when she was pregnant last year, and she gave it back to me. I wasn't sure how long the DVD ran because my first time I only did about 20 minutes of it... this time I did an hour and ended up fast forwarding the last 10-15 minutes to the guided relaxation so it must be about 75 minutes long. It's a good series of asanas or poses if you enjoy Vinyasa-style yoga where you're linking the breath with the movement, but I wish it was broken down into bite-size pieces, like 20-minute segments.

After cooking some sad looking hashbrowns for me and my husband, we ended up raking the yard together. Our street is beautifully lined with old Elm trees and I love looking at them every time I turn onto our street, except for this time of year. Neither of us enjoy doing yard work, but at least we got it done. My legs and arms are definitely feeling a little sore; hope I'm not stiff tomorrow. I should do a few poses before I go to bed - yoga is always the answer.

Let me know if you have any prental yoga DVDs, CDs and books you'd like to share. I'll keep sharing as well.