At eight months pregnant, it's slow goin'

I like being active. It makes me feel good and reduces stress. Since I had my son, two and a half years ago, it has been a challenge to fit in both my daily power walks and yoga. So, I had to scale back and usually did one or the other. Not ideal for me, but I did what I could and mostly was happy with it.

Once I was pregnant with my second, I knew I had to stay active. I gain a lot (a lot!) of weight while I'm pregnant and the two things that ease the aches and pains that go along with that are power walking and yoga. So, when I'm pregnant, walking and yoga are no longer merely nice activities that I would like to fit it; they become absolute necessities.

My family moved back to the city from the suburbs this year and that created the perfect opportunity for me to get my walk in, regularly. Everyday, I walk 2.5 miles to work.

This week I am eight months pregnant and as I made my way to work, I realized that I was walking much more slowly than usual. On Monday, I thought it was just because I was having one of those VERY pregnant days. On Tuesday, I had to take stock and realize that as I become more and more pregnant, I am going to have to make accommodations for the baby growing within. 

So, by Wednesday, I had to adjust my plans a bit. My body and my baby are telling me that things are changing.  It's time to slow down and focus on what baby needs to feel good inside my body. At this point, baby is pretty much the boss. What he says goes.

I'm still walking to work, and I am still in powerful exercise mode, it's just slower. I need to leave the house a bit earlier and I need to be flexible. If, halfway through my walk, it doesn't feel good anymore, I may need to slow it down to a crawl. I may even need to stop and take a rest on a bench, something I wouldn't normally consider.

How long will I keep walking to work? With my last pregnancy, I was able to exercise right up until the night before Josias' birth. Since I know it keeps me healthy and feeling good, I hope that can happen with this baby. If, for some reason, it doesn't, though, we'll figure something else out. And then, before I know it, I won't be pregnant anymore and I'll be looking for ways to fit in exercise and yoga with two kids!

How have you had to change your exercise schedule to accommodate life changes?

A pain in the neck

Over the past few months, I've started having neck, shoulder and back pain. It's not constant, it's more of an on and off kinda deal, but it sure gets in the way. I don't need to see the doctor to know the cause: a 25+ pound human that likes to be picked up, carried, worn on my back and breastfed. Josias actually isn't very clingy, unless he's sick, but he is a toddler and does need to be picked up and held frequently. Sometimes it's not for his comfort, but to prevent mayhem from ensuing.

My husband suffers from chronic shoulder pain, so once I started feeling poorly, I was terrified that it was the same thing. Is shoulder pain contagious? I was so sure that my posterior parts were doomed that initially I didn't even attempt yoga as a way to deal with it. After a few days, though, I decided to give it a try. 

My first ailment was my upper back and shoulders. I tried several poses, including cat-cow, cobra pose and my favorite standing poses. That felt pretty good, but I wasn't out of the woods yet. Then it came to me. Dolphin pose!  It worked like a charm. After about three days of incorporating the above-mentioned poses into my practice, I was good as new. Or, as a good as an almost-forty, mother of a toddler, can reasonably expect to be.

This week a new ache arrived. Neck pain. In addition to the mama duties that brought on the shoulder and back problems, I think sitting at a computer for endless hours a day contributed to the latest discomfort. Fortunately I have a private office as well as yoga-friendly (or at least tolerant) office mates, so I could practice a few poses. But, neither my body nor my intuition was giving me clues as to how to deal with this one, so I consulted the Yoga Journal website, where you are able to find poses that will help with specific problems - both physical and emotional. In addition to the usual suspects, it suggested puppy pose for neck pain. I would have tried this pose for its cute name alone, but the fact that it promised relief from neck pain had me sold. After practicing the poses recommended by Yoga Journal, I was still feeling a bit stiff, but went back to work.

It wasn't until I arrived home a few hours later that I realized the pain was totally gone! Yoga to the rescue once again! Now, if I could only get my husband into puppy pose, maybe he would feel better.