Week 18

Month 5

Week 18

18 weeks 4 days

Serenading baby with harmonium

Spiral Jetty with my friend Alyesha in background

 

Baby is the size of? Bell Pepper

This week’s major development? Head to rump, your baby is about 5 1/2 inches long, and he weighs almost 7 ounces (about the size of a bell pepper). He's busy flexing his arms and legs — movements that you'll start noticing more and more in the weeks ahead. His blood vessels are visible through his thin skin, and his ears are now in their final position, although they're still standing out from his head a bit. A protective covering of myelin is beginning to form around his nerves, a process that will continue for a year after he's born. If you're having a girl, her uterus and fallopian tubes are formed and in place. If you're having a boy, his genitals are noticeable now, but he may hide them from you during an ultrasound.

Gender? Boy

Sleep? Is getting more uncomfortable. I am also getting bigger and as a result the bed seems smaller

Food Cravings? Mexican food.

What I miss? Not being hormonal. I will get emotional or upset about the littlest thing (but at the time it doesn’t feel so little). After some space from the situation I think “that was probably my hormones… I should apologize”

What I love? I have been practicing yoga again. It is wonderful. I always learn so much about myself, my tendentious and about the Anusara when I have an injury and now when I am pregnant. It has been great to get back into the practice and experience my body with a little baby in int.

Movement? I don’t think so… Cannot wait to feel this life inside of me move.

Symptoms? Horrible back pain on right side, midwife thinks it might be hydronephrosis of pregnancy. Where the growing fetus compresses the ureters which block the urine from leaving the kidney and as a result the kidney gets swollen. Yoga has been helping. I have getting back pain less frequently but still very intense when it happens. Other symptoms: congestion, heartburn, nausea, and irritability.

Best moment of the week? I went on a mini road trip with my friend Alsea to the Spiral Jetty. IT was fun spending time with her we haven’t gotten to hang out very much. Tyler and I also went out to Ogden and visited my grandma and grandpa, it’s always nice to see them. Lastly, I found a new hiking trail to do with the dogs called Blood Lake, it was fun exploring a new area.

Maternity Clothes? Yup. This baby and this belly are growing.

Meditation? I have been meditating 20 mins a day in the morning and at night. I have also been trying to connect with the baby throughout the day, consciously sending the baby calmness, love and light. I heard that the baby experiences your mood so I have been trying to set some good ones for this little bambino.

Yoga? YES!!!!! I am so freaking happy that I have been practicing yoga and it has been feeling sooo good. I am practicing about 30 minutes every day. Like I said above it is really helping with my back pain and helps me feel like I am connecting with our baby. Pregnancy has definitely been a time for me to listen and be more receptive of my needs. The first trimester and these past few weeks yoga hasn’t sounded or felt very good to me. I am so happy that now it is. I have to remind myself that I will have my whole life to practice vinyasas, do deep back bends and deep forwards folds and be gentler with myself and my baby in my practice.

Exercise? Walking, gardening, and yoga. I have been meaning to lift weights but don’t think I did it once this week.

Appointments? We had a midwife appointment on Tuesday. We got to listen to the babies heart beat and learned that my uterus is the size of a cantaloupe now and goes up to my belly button. We talked about signing up for childbirth classes. We think we want to do hypnobabies and get a hypnobabies doula. She also old me that my back pain might be from a swollen kidney and that holding side stretches should help. Our ultra sound appointment is on the 24^th (1 week and 1 day away) cannot wait to see this little baby again and see how much he ha

Tara Sophia Mohr Poetry

Tara Mohr

My nose and mind has been wondering through the book Your Other Names, by Tara Sophia Mohr. Tara is a writer and a coach you can learn more about her and explore her work at her website (http://www.taramohr.com/) Here are some of the poems that I especially loved:

~The Pressure By Tara Sophia Mohr~

the pressure to have an arm that looks like that
and legs that look like that
and a belly like that

pressure to tone this to that
to be a size this
weigh that

How many days have you lost?
How many murders of yourself?

How many times have you
clamped down because of it,
quieted the moon because of it,
or didn’t ask the sun to dance?

She mourned this one morning,
and wondered,
what would it be like, without the pressure?

~Your Other Name By Tara Sophia Mohr~

If your life doesn’t often make you feel
like a cauldron of swirling light –

If you are not often enough a woman standing above a mysterious fire,
lifting her head to the sky –

You are doing too much, and listening too little.

Read poems. Walk in the woods. Make slow art.
Tie a rope around your heart, be led by it off the plank,
happy prisoner.

You are no animal. You are galaxy with skin.
Home to blue and yellow lightshots,
making speed-of-light curves and racecar turns,
bouncing in ricochet -

Don’t slow down the light and turn it into matter
with feeble preoccupations.

Don’t forget your true name:
Presiding one. Home for the gleaming. Strong cauldron for the feast of light.

Strong cauldron for the feast of light:
I am speaking to you.
I beg you not to forget.

 

~The Rhythm By Tara Sophia Mohr ~

In any creative feat
(by which I mean your work, your art, your life)
there will be downtimes.

Or so it seems.

Just as the earth is busy before the harvest

and a baby grows before its birth,

there is no silence in you.
There is no time of nothingness.

What if,
during the quiet times, when the idea flow is hushed and hard to find
you trusted (and yes I mean trusted)
that the well was filling, the waters moving?

What if you trusted

that for the rest of eternity,

without prodding, without self-discipline,

without getting over being yourself,

you would be gifted every ounce of productivity you need?

What would leave you? What would open?

And what if during the quiet times you ate great meals

and leaned back to smile at the stars,

and saw them there, as they always are,

nourishing you?

There are seasons and harvest is only a fraction of one of them.
We forget this.

There is the rhythm that made everything.

The next time you stand in the kitchen, leaning,the next time a moment of silence catches you there,

hear it, that rhythm, and let it place a stone in your spine.
Let it bring you some place beautiful.

 

~In the end By Tara Sophia Mohr~

In the end
you won’t be known
for the things you did,
or what you built,
or what you said.

You won’t even be known
for the love given
or the hearts saved,

because in the end you won’t be known.

You won’t be asked, by a vast creator full of light:
What did you do to be known?

You will be asked: Did you know it,
this place, this journey?

What there is to know can’t be written.
Something between the crispness of air
and the glint in her eye
and the texture of the orange peel.

What you’ll want a thousand years from now is this:
a memory that beats like a heart–
a travel memory, of what it was to walk here,
alive and warm and textured within.

Sweet brightness, aliveness, take-me-now-ness that is life.

You are here to pay attention. That is enough.

 

 

Poerty how I LOVE thee

I love using poems in my yoga class time to time.  In Anusara Yoga all classes have a theme, antidote, heart quality, and an alignment principle of emphasis. Brilliant poetry that speaks to my heart inspires me to weave all these elements together. I don’t use poems all the time, I think they can become over used and I try to use them sparingly so they stay extra delicious and not something that is expected.

Some of my favorite poetry books:

·         Your Other Names, by Tara Sophia Mohr

·         The Gift, Hafiz (I like the translation by Daniel Ladinsky)

·         The Essential Rumi, Rumi

·         The Prophet, Khalil Gibran

·         How We Became Human, Joy Hario

·         Why I Wake Early, Mary Oliver

·         The Leaf and the Cloud, Mary Oliver

·         Love Poems, Pablo Neruda

Adhikara + yoga sequence

Principle of emphasis: muscle energy, thigh loop

Heart Quality: Steadfastness, Enthusiasm

Theme: studentship (adhikara). Remaining teachable and staying receptive. When I think I know a pose and don’t have anything else to learn, I close myself off from expanding more in that moment and growing as an individual. When I approach a pose or life situation in a way that “I don’t know it all” + “what can this teach me?” not only am I more in the moment. But I also learn more about myself and about life. From practicing Anusara Yoga I now see life through new lens. I try to take every moment and situations (both good and hard) as opportunities that teach me how to love myself more, love those around me more and surrender to the flow of Grace. When I do this life is immensely better. I feel like I am going with the flow of life instead of feeling like I am in a fight with life.  

Quote: Paul Muller Ortega says (adhikara) "it's how you tend to the ground with in. So when the teachings come they can sprout and grow from the inside out

 

1.       Uttanasana - High runners lunge- parsvotanasana- high runners lunge one hand down twist

2.       Uttanasana- ardha uttanasana 3x

3.       Uttanasana clasp hands behind back- tadasana hands clasp behind back

4.       Tadasana half-moon side stretch

5.       Tadasana interlace hands above head palms face up toward sky (strong legs, inner thighs draw in back and wide, keeping thighs back root tailbone down, draw floating ribs in and arm bones back, from hips root down through floor and from hips extend up through arms)

6.       Handstands at wall

7.       Vinyasa- cobra prep (strong legs inner thighs broaden toward sky pinky toes spread toward ground, root tail bone down toward heels, draw floating ribs in shoulders back open heart toward sky)

8.       Vinyasa- instead of cobra do salabasana arms behind back

9.       Low lunge quad stretch (up right hips over back knee, front knee at 90 degree angle)

10.   Modified parsvakonasana – parsvakonasana

11.   Vira 2 – wide leg forward fold – scandasana bend back knee – ardha chandrasana

12.   Anjaniasana quad (deeper lunge low lunge with quad stretch be very diligent about keeping back thigh lifted, root tail bone down extending from hips through back knee and front heel)- ardha hanumanasana with manual ankle loop - Trikonasana

13.   Uttanasana – Utkatasana with twist

14.   Pigeon twist away from front knee, elbow on floor hands in Anjali mudra – twist toward knee opst. forearm on floor with quad stretch

15.   Supta parsva tadasana prep

16.   Parsva bakasana

17.   Setubandha

18.   Eka pada Setubandha

19.   Supta bend knees- one knee to chest, sole of foot to sky grab pinky side of foot mod. Supta padangustasana B

20.   Supta padangustasana B

21.   Supta root femur bones

22.   Shavasana

 

Nothing to do with this post. Just an adorable picture of my doggies

Week 17

Month 5! Week 17

Baby is the size of? Turnip
This week’s major developments? Your baby's skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord — her lifeline to the placenta — is growing stronger and thicker. Your baby weighs 5 ounces now (about as much as a turnip), and she's around 5 inches long from head to bottom. She can move her joints, and her sweat glands are starting to develop..(babycenter.com)
Gender? BOY!!
Sleep? OK I can no longer sleep on my back so I use all these pillows o keep me on my side. It is a little uncomfortable but totally worth it.
Food cravings? Mexican food, quesadillas and bean and cheese burritos specifically.  
What I miss? Being comfortable.

What I love? I have slowly been getting my energy back and have been attacking the jungle in the back yard and it’s starting to look more and more like a jungle and less like a mess of overgrown weeds.
Movement? For the past few weeks there has been a few times where I thought I could be feeling baby move but I’m not sure. I cannot wait to be sure what I am feeling is baby.
Symptoms? Congestion, heartburn, exhaustion, back pain
Best moment of the week? There have been a few. We have been starting to plan our shower which is really exciting + we started registering for the shower. So far we have registered an amazing, which has everything. We are also going to Target and register. We also went to the Zoo which was really fun. Tyler loves the zoo. When we starting talking about having kids he was most excited about t how often we will be able to go to the zoo with our kids. It was fun.  

 Maternity Clothes? Yes.
Meditation? I have been continuing to meditate a lot. 20 minutes in the morning and at night every day and normally once a day I sit can do japa meditation using a mantra and my mala beads. Meditating has given me a lot of clarity and a connection to something bigger and a feeling like whatever happens with this pregnancy it’s going to be okay. Which is huge for me.
Reading? I am starting to read my meditation teacher, Clinton Brock’s new book Born to Love.

Yoga? Exercise? My main exercise has been gardening, dog walking, some weight lifting, and light stretching. My back has been really hurting me. I have scheduled some massages but they keep getting canceled. I know if I wasn’t pregnant I could do a 90 minute yoga practice of deep bound twists and side openers and my back would be feeling delicious but since I am no supposed to be doing twist at all or big side openers I will have to play around and find something that works.  
Appointments? I have a midwife appointment on Tuesday and an ultra sound on June 24^th.

 

 

 

 

Hips and Hamstrings

Hip opening class for sugar space tomorrow. I have been focusing on leg alignment lately. In this class we will focus on:

1. Muscular Energy: Tricks I like to use to engage legs are spreading my toes, that will get the calf's, front of the shin, and the feet to engage. Drawing the knee caps up toward to the hips, this will engage the quadriceps, and pushing into the feet and isometrically drawing the feet toward the mid line, the will engage the adductors. Its important get have strong muscular energy in the legs for steadiness and when we start rotating the legs we want it to effect the bones and if the muscles are not engaged it wont translate and affect the other bones.
2. Expanding Spiral: pushing the feet into the floor draw your heels isometrically laterally and feel the spiral of energy that wraps around the legs and draws the inner heals, inner knees and inner thighs in back and wide.
3. Organic Energy: from you pelvis scope your tail bone and pull your floating ribs down as you extend from your hips down through your feet. If one foot is lifted like in tree pose or ardha chandrasana you extend from the hips FIRST down into the standing foot and then from your hips through the lifted foot. After extending out through the legs you extend the torso up toward the sky.

Table - AMS- eka pada AMS- high runners lunge - parsvotonasana
Uttanasana - clasp hands behind back uttanasana - utkatasana
1/2 moon side stretch in tadasana
Surya Namaskar B
Tree pose
Kneeling modified parsvakonasana - kneeling modified ardha chandrasana
Modified parsvakonasana
Humble warrior
L.L quad - parsvakonasana - ardha chandrasana
Utthita prasarita padottanasana (twist)- forehead on block arm pits lifted
Trikonasana - ardha chandrasana chapasanasa - urdhvasa prasarita eka padasana chapasana
High runners lunge on forearms (block) - parsvotonasana
L.L twist hands in anjali- L.L twist  one hand down quad stretch
Pigeon quad - deep pigeon
Hanumanasana
Bridge or urdhva danurasana 3x
Sukasana stretch arms up over head - sukasana twist
Baddha konasana
Upavista konasana
Shavasana

Week 16

Month 4

Week 16. This week I was in Playa De Carmen, Mexico with my husband, mom, sister and sister’s boyfriend.

Baby is the size of? Avocado
This week’s major developments? Get ready for a growth spurt. In the next few weeks, your baby will double his weight and add inches to his length. Right now, he's about the size of an avocado: 4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and 3 1/2 ounces. His legs are much more developed, his head is more erect than it has been, and his eyes have moved closer to the front of his head. His ears are close to their final position, too. The patterning of his scalp has begun, though his locks aren't recognizable yet. He's even started growing toenails. And there's a lot happening inside as well. For example, his heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day, and this amount will continue to increase as your baby continues to develop. (babycenter.com)
Gender? BOY!!
Sleep? I slept very well this week. I was so exhausted by the end of the night I was out.
Food cravings? I don’t think this has much to do with pregnancy. But since we were in Mexico I was wanting to eat Mexican food all the time however we were staying at an all-inclusive with different resturant with Japanese, Italian, and American but no Mexican food.
What I miss? Being comfortable. Traveling in the airplane and buses was incredibly uncomfortable.
What I love? It was so nice being in a beautiful place by the ocean with my family and day dream about the future. There were lots of little kids and babies at our resort so it was fun to watch them.  We also had monkeys right outside our door which I LOVED!
Movement? I have felt a few twinges but like last week I don’t know if it is movement or a muscle spasm. I cannot wait to be sure what I am feeling is baby.
Symptoms? Congestion, heartburn, exhaustion, back pain
Best moment of the week? There were so many. I really loved being able to spend so much time with Tyler. He has been working a lot so we haven’t been able to spend much time together. It was really nice that he got some rest and we got to have so many adventures together.
Exercise? I did lots of walking and I also swam laps at the pool almost every day.
Maternity Clothes? Yes. I think 90% of what I wore this week was maternity clothes. It was nice to feel so comfortable in my clothes.
Meditation? I have been meditating a lot .At least 20 minutes in the morning and at night. I have also been doing japa meditation which is the repetition of a mantra throughout the day when my mind is wandering and not being productive. Or when I wanted to connect with something bigger.
Reading? I re read Ram Dass’s book Be Love Now.  I love re reading books like this. It was great and I also listened to some of his podcasts online. He is a very inspiring teacher to me. I think I will write a blog about some things that stood out to me from his book.
Appointments? I have a midwife appointment next Tuesday and an ultra sound on June 24^th.