Ohhh YEAH!! Yoga baby!

I have just returned from my first prenatal yoga class... actually, it was the first time I have ever set foot in a proper yoga school. I LOVED the class and am already eager to get back there next Tuesday night.

Oh boy was it different to yoga in a gym!! I wrote on my registration form that I had a little experience doing yoga (thinking that I had a bit more than that), however when I walked in and all the other students started loading their arms with prop after prop after prop, I started wishing I'd written "Absolute beginner, please explain slowly".

I was lucky to lay my mat next to a very helpful and friendly woman who has obviously been attending the class for some time and she told me which props to get and what is usually done to begin the class. After my initial semi-panic, I settled into the first relaxing, opening pose and waited for the instructor to begin.

What I noticed about this class was the very gentle, slow pace. The whole thing was 1.5 hours so there was no rushing through anything. The second, and very much welcomed, thing I noticed was that there was no mirrors! So I spent exactly zero time worrying about whether I was looking fat, wearing the right clothes etc and could just try and feel the positions and trust that the instructor would tell me if I was doing anything incorrectly. She had corrected a few other people and was walking around whenever she wasn't demonstrating a pose so I felt confident that she would notice me if I was doing something drastically wrong. I LOVE having no mirrors!

It was nice to be with a whole bunch of fit and healthy pregnant women and I look forward to seeing them each week and staying fit and healthy myself.

I have been following (somewhat loosely with intent to become stricter) Dr. Gowri Motha's nutrition guidelines from "The Gentle Birth Method" and I am already feeling much better. There are a couple of basic principals to follow and then variations based on your metabolic/ayurvedic type. The two key things to remember are to avoid wheat and refined sugar. The reason is to ward off swelling and fluid retention to create an open and clear pelvic area for the baby to pass through and to limit the amount of sugar both mother and baby has access to to prevent gestational diabetes. The book is great and I am really enjoying looking at a different way to prepare for the birth of our baby. It is basic clean eating really. Pretty much what I was doing before I got pregnant however a larger volume of food to meet the daily caloric requirements.

The exercise recommendations in the book are brisk walking every day (30 mins minimum) which I am already doing most days, swimming and yoga. I will also add in some other resistance work also pretty much because I love it..

At 18 weeks I am feeling little movements every day but they are irregular and I can't make out a pattern yet. It is so nice to feel the movements and I am pretty sure I felt a kick with my hand on the outside of my belly last night. That was pretty cool. I can still hide my belly but can dress to flaunt it too and have had people comment and say that I'm "showing". I think I am carrying a bit neater than my last pregnancy. I am pretty sure I had put on 10kgs at least by this stage last time- in total last time I gained something like 40kg. I am really being more careful this time so hopefully I can contain my weight gain a little (lot!!) better. The nutrition and exercise plan should really help! The problem with trying to gain weight slowly after being obese then healthy, then bigger, then healthy etc. is that you never lose your fat cells. They just flatten down and can fill up again very easily if you allow yourself to be too lax with nutrition. Anyhow, I am hoping for the best...

I have moved my old blog (the one that followed my first pregnancy) from Vox to type pad as Vox is closing down on thursday. If anyone is interested in visiting the address is www.gomumma.typepad.com  and I started writing at 24 weeks. I wish I'd have posted more belly pics to be able to compare to this pregnancy but I didn't. I'm going to have to troll through our old lappy to find them. Hope it doesn't crash in the process.

Hope you are all having a nice day! Please say hi in the comments if you pop in!!

:)