Thanks, Yoga District, for inexpensive and “gentle” yoga in our neighborhood.

I did it. After over a year, I returned to a yoga class. A “gentle” yoga class. Pregnant, I had tried following prenatal yoga DVDs, but I gave up after quickly feeling (even more) nauseous.

I had been taking yoga classes on and off for the last four years. The regular stretching and exercise helped to center me physically and mentally. Yoga helped me when I was grieving and trying to return to my body after witnessing death. I finally found the courage to attend a class hoping that the movements would connect me to this new body of mine.

Pregnant, miscarrying, pregnant again, giving birth and now nursing, my body has changed a lot these last two years. Sometimes my cesarean scar feels like a warrior’s mark. Often my stomach just feels flabby. I don’t exactly fit into my old clothes even if I’ve technically lost the pregnancy weight.

By starting to exercise again, I hope that I can both look even better than my old self, even if that’s vain and shouldn’t matter, and feel stronger. I don’t get as winded as I did when I was pregnant, but I haven’t  yet built up my muscles.

I love to take walks and carry the bambino in the carrier, but now that he’s grown so much, it is harder to keep up any kind of speed. His legs dangle down and he tends to push against my thighs as I walk, too. (I guess that’s a fun game for one of us.)

The “boys” in my life have been models on how to strengthen a body. After serious training, my husband ran the Chicago marathon. My son is now practicing holding his head up, sitting up and standing. I’m hoping to join my husband in modeling good, healthy behavior towards physical activity for our son as he learns to crawl, walk and then run. And he might even join me in doing a downward facing dog one day.

 

Re posted with permission from Chloe Yelena Miller. Miller writes and lives with her husband and infant son in Washington, D.C. She blogs about writing & parenthood here: http://womanmotherwriter.blogspot.com.