Sleep is the new yoga

One more week into the pregnancy. I’m at 10.2 weeks now… Getting closer and closer to the “safe” milestone of 12 weeks — the end of the first trimester and less chances for a miscarriage. Still touching wood: everything is going perfectly well so far.

We had our first doctor’s appointment this week. Spent about 20 minutes with the nurse, then 1 hour with the resident, who was nice enough to do this whole thing in English so Dutchboy could follow and answer every single one of our questions. Medical exam. Hmm. She inserted the speculum and opened it very wide. The first thought that crossed my mind was the delivery, and I really thought “Oh. My. God. What did I get myself into???” Let’s not think about this for now!

Everything is going well. I may have a cyst on my left ovary, but that apparently happens a lot in pregnancy, and it already has started to shrink. She didn’t try listening to the baby’s heart. I have my echo to detect Down’s Syndrome and other anomalies (“clarté nucale” in French) on March 15, so we’ll get to see and hear the baby soon enough. I already felt very reassured after this week’s appointment.

Our calculations for the due date were correct: September 22. One day before Dutchboy, two days before our anniversary. Busy month!

Yoga-wise, well… there isn’t much going on. Actually, I spent all day yesterday writing my first essay for the teacher’s training. So I did some yoga-related work. However, no practice. I have absolutely no energy for that. I mean, today, I took not one, but TWO naps! I’m so frickin’ exhausted, it’s unbelievable. On Friday morning, at work, I almost had to lean against the walls… I had never felt so tired in my life, I think. I know it’s normal, I know my body is working extremely hard, but it’s very difficult to manage. Besides having been able to leave at 3 o’clock on Friday afternoon, I don’t have the possibility to leave work early, I don’t have anywhere to lie down and close my eyes at lunch time… It’s a bit difficult. But I gladly endure all of this, because in seven months we’ll have a little baby and that in itself is the greatest thing that could ever happen in our lives.

I am looking forward to the moment when I’ll have the energy to get back on the mat. I’ll try to get at least my morning meditation practice back; that might give me a bit more energy. I know the second trimester is supposed to be easier. I’ll be into it soon, so we might see some changes shortly. In the meantime, sleep is my new yoga.

Back on track

Teacher training this week-end, so my interest in yoga has definitely been revived (I won’t even blame myself for eclipsing everything from my life for the past month but the baby) and I’m back on track. It was very interesting. We studied twists and lateral extensions, restorative sessions, and focused a lot on anatomy. I love anatomy. Always have. One of my two favorite teachers ever used to often take the anatomy book out in the middle of a class to show us how everything works, how it’s all related, and how you need to work each pose. For me, who’s always felt alienated from her body and for this specific reason needed to learn more about it, those were the best moments.

I discovered a beautiful anatamy book this week-end: The Key Muscles of Hatha Yoga

As you can already see just by the cover, it’s a book that illustrates the body’s bone and muscle action in the main hatha yoga poses. Extremely interesting for me — sheds a totally new light on my practice. So after the training today, I went to Boule de Neige (a store I can’t believe I had no idea existed until this week-end: it’s 5 minutes from where I live, and they sell all those yoga books you think you can only find online… the first thing you notice when you come in is the incense smell — if bookstores don’t already feel welcoming to you, this will!) and bought it.

Also went to Lululemon to spend that gift certificate Dutchboy gave me at Christmas (we had said no presents!). I hesitated a lot — those clothes are so fitted and I’m already expanding. I went for the Athletica vest, in a size 8 (larger than what I would normally go for — damn those sizes are small, I’m normally a 0!). It’ll fit me for a few more months, but there was nothing I could have bought there that could fit me both now and in 6 months.

Then spent the rest of the day grocery shopping and cooking. Made a fantastic tomato and pasta soup with sweet potatoes, red kidney beans and a bit of carrots, brocoli and cauliflower — but I ended up with way too much stuff in the soup and not enough liquid. Also made my mom’s oatmeal chocolate chip muffins… Yummy!

Back to work tomorrow. It’ll be a very busy week, and I’m not really looking forward to it. I’m always tired lately, but I don’t get the chance to slow down because things are too busy. At least the pregnancy is going well. The digestive troubles are much lighter already, and I haven’t had real nausea. First appointment with the doctor on Thursday morning. If we’re lucky, we’ll hear the heartbeat. Should be a very emotional moment. Today, I was hanging up my coat after coming home, and realized that in one year from now, there’ll be a tiny little baby coat on the hook next to it. Those are silly little details that make me (and Dutchboy, too!) go gaga at times.

Off to read a bit. I have an essay on ahimsa due next week-end for the teacher training.

NaNoYoPracMo

So, I haven’t done any yoga at all for the past 4 weeks. The teacher training is coming up again, and I haven’t done one practice since the last training week-end! But honestly, I don’t feel that bad about it. My body’s been going through a lot of changes in the past few weeks. I’m very tired, I had awful digestive problems (which are getting better now), and I’m hungry all the time but I never know what I feel like eating. Very complicated!

Even my meditation practice has completely disappeared. Every minute of sleep I can get, I do get. I can’t wake up early anymore to meditate, I need my sleep. I’ll be at 9 weeks on Saturday, which marks the second month of pregnancy, and apparently from then on, the fatigue starts to resorb, so we’ll see, maybe it’ll get better!

I think I’m still doing yoga in other parts of my life. Practicing letting go, acceptance, contentment, etc. Hopefully this week-end will give me a little push in the back and motivate me again. I haven’t even been thinking about yoga much lately, my interests are in a completely different place. And I think it’s normal. I’m not worried about my yoga practice as such; I know it’ll come back.

 But yeah, all in all, this month has been NaNoYoPracMo!