Prenatal Yoga

Being a yogini who is health-conscious and who should do yoga MUCH more than I find myself doing, I strongly believe in yoga throughout pregnancy and afterward in order for a healthy pregnancy, labor, baby, and lifestyle. Since I have been finding my regular workouts challenging (my muscles are really not kicking butt like they used to, and I find myself only wanting to sleep during a workout) I decided to look for prenatal yoga opportunities. I plan to attend a series of pre- and post-natal class at Yoga Soleil in downtown Puyallup as time and money permits, but until then I looked at Netflix. I LOVE Netflix and I LOVE Crunch home workouts. This is the video I've done so far and it is great! As I find more books and videos I will share them. :)

Week Nine

Photo from BabyCorner.

Pregnancy is Beautiful

This is an excerpt from FitPregnancy written by Karen Rizzo.

"Pregnancy brings new meaning to the concept of beauty (just as children add entirely new meaning to the concepts of, say, unconditional love, eating out, sleeping in, stain-resistant anything and, yes, fortunately and unfortunately, sex). Beauty is the woman in her husband’s giant overalls at an outdoor cafe, absentmindedly patting her belly while doing double duty on a DoveBar and grilled cheese, savoring all the sweetness of her expanding girth, the chocolate, the breeze, the moment. Beauty is the pregnant woman patiently cooing into the ear of the tear- and dirt-streaked toddler on her hip as she convinces him to leave the playground. It is the sprite twenty-something yoga student and her almost middle-aged counterpart, both in full-body leotards, practicing their prenatal yoga asanas. It is the way a woman balances a body that, in accommodating a baby, has taken on enough water to sink a small rowboat, whose center of gravity is the center of a small universe unto itself. The beauty of pregnancy is aesthetic and spiritual as well as physical. It is in the instinctive resourcefulness of a woman’s body and soul, combining what seems to be magic with the mundane."

Read the full article here.

How it All Began...

I got married on August 6, 2010.

The week of my wedding was when I chose to no longer take my birth control pills, not because I felt it was time to prepare for a baby, but because I felt I needed more control over my body and its functions; so when the time was right to prepare for baby I knew my body and felt ready and in control. Birth control was too controlling for me, telling my body when to menstruate and preventing my monthly ovulation. ARTIFICAL HORMONES. They drove me nuts. Over the past year or so I have had in the back of my mind this feeling that birth control is screwing up my body somehow, but this "how" I was so unsure of. Throughout the year I have heard of accounts of people close to me struggling to concieve, getting frustrated because of the constant trying and failing. I wondered, "will I be one of those women who also struggles to get pregnant when I feel like it is my time?" Whether or not the Pill would screw up my body in any way, and even after numerous people who told me that it is rather harmless, I could not believe anyone and stuck to my senses. Throughout the humble jumble of wedding planning and finishing up summer grad school classes, I decided to start my research.

I ended up on thenest.com on a page where women spoke of their different birth control methods, side effects they felt (headaches were VERY common; something I have been trying to diagnose for myself for years), reasons for choosing a certain kind over another, and reasons for quitting whichever form. I sat there and continued reading, finding out that many women felt as I did, but still this got me nowhere, until someone mentioned FAM.

The Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) is an all-natural form of birth control and pregnancy planning; it is a way to take charge of your fertility. Upon stumbling upon this array of information I could not have been more happy. "Finally", I thought, "something that I actually want to try!" It really sounded perfect. After browsing around the FAM website I decided to order Toni Weschler's book to learn more about how I can begin to chart my cycles.

In the meantime, however, my newlywed husband and I embarked on a beautiful journey to Jamaica for our honeymoon!

Jamaica was amazing! We made some lifelong friends from different corners of the world, we fell in love with the island and its people (we plan to go back soon to do charity work) and we did what all newlyweds do, lost our virginity to one another (that's a big lie). But, being on a honeymoon and all, and after having read that most women do not ovulate again until about three months after getting off the Pill (for some women it takes a full year!) the thought of using protection did not cross our minds even once (we gave that up years ago, because, after all, I was on the Pill, which is 99.9% effective).

Upon arrival back in the States my book had also arrived! Since I had all the time in the world (I was still on summer vacation for another month) I read and read.

Right from the beginning I was sold by this book and by this method. I knew the method was for me when I read "...women from all over the world have been drawn to FAM simply because it is free of chemicals associated with hormonal methods such as the Pill... many of these people tend to be oriented toward leading a natural and health-conscious life in other ways besides taking control of their fertility and reproduction". Since high school when I originally became vegan I have been very health-conscious, which is a wonder why I got on the Pill in the first place (I guess I had no idea what else to use as birth control). Then I read on further and it said, "the type of people attracted to FAM tend to be quite educated... it often takes a very motivated individual to seek out information about a subject, which, unti now, has typically been reserved for the few who are resourceful enough to research the topic". After reading this I realized that it is no wonder I picked up this book; the women who tend to find it are women who seem a lot like me! Yep, I was sold. After all, "it is amazing to think that women who practice the Fertility Awareness Method are often more knowledgeable about their own fertility than gynecologists who are trained to be experts in female physiology!" (Weschler, 1995).

After finishing the book I was pumped and ready to chart my cycles! I was not completely stunned that my period was a little late because I figured this was just my body trying to regulate itself after having just gotten off the Pill. When my nipples starting getting sore (I actually first noticed this in Jamaica) and my boobs starting clearly growing in size (and hurting!) I figured this was just my body doing its thing. After all, in my mind the Pill has screwed up my body so of course I thought getting my cycle back on track would take awhile. When I became winded after only 20 minutes of pilates and found myself walking around town almost falling asleep while walking, I thought that all the drinking and sitting on my ass on my honeymoon really made me out of shape. I clearly noticed my body doing something funky, but I figured it was probably my body trying to become regular again after nearly five years of artificial hormones.

Then I thought again, especially after my husband noticed my rapidly growing boobs, if it was possible that I was pregnant. At that point my period had already been a few weeks late and all the symptoms I was feeling could very well be symptoms of early pregnancy. I got back on the web to do some more research. Of course before I stopped taking the Pill I read that it took women on average three months to start ovulating again or even to start their period again, but then this time I read numerous accounts of women finding out they were pregnant the month after quitting the Pill. The internet will always tell you what you want to hear; it never fails. Then on thebump.com I read an article where women told of all their early pregnancy symptoms and I thought, "Oh jeez, I think this is real". My next step, to take a pregnancy test!

If I had already been charting my cycles through FAM I would have known solely from my body temperature, my cervial fluids and the trends of my charts whether or not I was indeed pregnant. But since I did not even have one cycle start to even begin to chart, I found myself that little irresponsible girl who had to go to the drug store and sneak through the aisles to find that box of pregnancy tests.

I came home and peed on the stick (Monday night), and it looked pretty positive to me. I brought in Chad (my husband) and asked him what he saw and he said it was negative. I believed him that it was negative even though I saw a plus sign, and tried not to think about it. Before bed I looked up what it means if there is a faint line (which, in reality, the line really wasn't that faint) and it said it means I am pregnant because the test picked up the pregnancy hormone in my body, and it could be faint because my urine was diluted. So first thing the next morning, Tuesday, I took another test and it showed up the exact same as the night before, and Chad again said it was negative. He then looked up what to do if there is a faint line and he told me not to worry about it and to take a digital one to be sure, since those are as accurate as the tests the doctors use.

So for a few days we made jokes about me being pregnant; it was rather funny to both be in complete denial. Then on Thursday when I was out with a friend I told her about the two positive tests and about how I was feeling, and she came with me to get a digital test. I didn't even have to pee but two sprinkles was enough; less than a minute later the test said what I knew it was going to say: Pregnant. I took a picture on my phone and sent it to Chad, which of course for some reason he didn't receive. So when we were both home he asked what the picture was and I showed him. He looked at me and his eyes about popped out of his head. He shouted, "Holy shit, we're going to have a baby!" and then hurriedly searched for a cigar so he could celebrate.

Et voilà!

Welcome to my Blog

Pregnancy is a beautiful thing. With the many pregnant women in this world I know we all love to share information, stories, and adventures, and that is what I intend with this blog. Here I will share my love and experiences as a first-time pregnant mother. No matter if one person reads this or if several people find it fun and/or useful for them, for me it is a journal, a place where I can tell my stories. Enjoy!