Photo Friday on Saturday: Yoga at 15 Weeks Pregnant

This week's poses are brought to you from Jacksonville Beach. My biological mom is the photographer and my other mom is my assistant on the crappy walless inversions.

Daily Life at 15 Weeks: Today is the first time a stranger recognized that I am pregnant. Okay, so I was buying yarn for baby booties and blankets, but I could have been knitting them for anyone, right? After I checked out, the cashier smiled at me and said, "Congratulations!"

Practice at 15 Weeks: An old friend let me into her prenatal yoga class this week since I'm in town. Unlike my usual class, the lights were low, candles lit, and music played in the background. It was nice to catch up with old friends and experience a bit of variety. Oh yes, and my mom came with me to class! At the end we put one hand on our heart and one hand on our bellies to bond with our babies. I had my mom put her hand on her heart and her other hand on my belly. It was a pretty special moment.

Photo Friday: Yoga at 14 Weeks Pregnant

I'm traveling to Florida today for a 10-day visit with friends and family. In addition to the growing baby bump, you may notice stray hairs and baggy eyes in this week's video. It was done at 6:45am—way too early for me!

Daily Life at 14 Weeks: My body image is going through growing pains this week. Maternity pants are a must, and I'm anxiously waiting for my belly to grow even more. At the same time, I almost look like I just ate a big lunch or stopped exercising for a month. I'm at the tween stage and am ready to look pregnant for real.

Practice at 14 Weeks: Last night I noticed that even my stretchy yoga pants are too tight when I bend forward. It's also a new sensation to feel my belly touch my thighs in poses like paschimottanasana (forward bend). Soon I'm actually going to have to start doing these prenatal modifications I've been learning about in class.

The Missing Ingredient to Yoga as a Spiritual Practice

For those of us who embrace yoga as our spiritual practice, a weekly class and home practice doesn’t always cut it. I freely admit that this routine has left me with periods of dedication sprinkled with episodes of malaise.

Lately I’ve been going to an extremely liberal Baptist church to support my husband’s efforts at finding his spiritual home. Yoga is still my spiritual home base, and I’m not getting much fulfillment out of weekly church services. But there is one part of it I am enjoying, which I think may hold the key to more fulfillment in my yoga practice—Bible study, aka small group.

Small group is where community comes alive. We delve into the religious text of Christianity and apply it to contemporary life. I would say my teacher training program was sort of a small group for yogis. Wouldn’t it be awesome to form an impromptu group of yogis to meet weekly, study yoga texts, and share experiences from our practices and daily lives?

With that being said, I don’t have the gusto to organize it right this instant. But I’m going to stick the idea in my back pocket. Meanwhile, I’m trying to convince my husband to go to weekly “services” and “small groups” at the Insight Meditation Community of Washington.

Photo Friday on Saturday: Yoga at 13 Weeks Pregnant

Daily Life at 13 Weeks: Tonight I had a breakdown over Kung Pao chicken. I was starving and nauseous all at the same time, and I couldn't get the man on the other end of the phone to understand that I want stir fry chicken, not fried chicken, in my order. The whole thing became way too much, and my husband had to sort out the matter. I now have a full belly, and all is well again. I'd say pregnancy hormones are in full swing.

Practice at 13 Weeks: This is the first week I've had to stop doing a pose. Headstand started feeling not good. Pregnancy increases your blood volume significantly, so standing on my head has become too much of a rush and was leaving me with gnarly headaches. My yoga teacher also pointed out that as I get bigger, headstand would be more pressure on my neck than I'm used to. Handstand and Forearm Stand are still on the menu, and are feeling good.

Photo Friday on Saturday: Yoga at 12 Weeks Pregnant

After weeks of same old, same old snail's-pace pregnancy, I've reached two significant milestones this week. It's the end of my first trimester (hallelujah!), and I had my first sonogram. The tech had problems completing her goal of measuring the back of the neck because my baby wouldn't stop standing on its head and looking at us. I finally jostled him into a more advantageous position by doing a Down Dog.

Daily Life at 12 Weeks: Hello, energy. Hello, appetite. I missed you! I'm thrilled to be beyond that first-trimester nonsense. After seeing the sonogram and hearing the heart beat, my baby is becoming a concrete reality. Now that I'm past the timeframe when most miscarriages occur, it feels safe to let myself get ridiculously excited about having this baby.

Practice at 12 Weeks: This week I discovered that I have lot of work to do in the hip opening department, specifically Pigeon Pose and Fire Log Pose. I tend to flop into these poses for a nice little rest, but I'm not doing them correctly. In pigeon pose, I have to engage my thighs, keep my ankles active and straight, and stop falling down into my hip. In fire log pose, I need an upright block plus a blanket. My yoga teacher says hip opening is related to nurturing. It makes sense that I would have work to do in that department as I enter a phase of heightened nurturing—both for myself and my baby-to-be.

Photo Friday on Saturday: Yoga at 11 Weeks Pregnant

I may be starting a new trend with this Photo Friday on Saturday streak. After working all day and topping it off with asana or a trip to the gym, I can't manage to photograph my poses on week nights lately.

Daily Life at 11 Weeks: Again, I'm feeling better every day. I'm days away from completing the first trimester. Woo-hoo! For two weeks in a row now, I've exercised every day after work. Even though my activity is increasing, I'm beginning to gain weight. You probably still can't tell from the videos, but I have a little pot belly.

Practice at 11 Weeks: My yoga teacher focused on creative ways to approach asana this week. She encouraged us to experiment with props and presented lots of choices for each pose. She didn't come out and say it, but she was having us practice creative ways to accommodate our growing bodies in hopes of us having the courage to be creative during labor and birth. She wants us to stand, squat, swing, sing—whatever we want. We don't have to take pregnancy and birth lying down.