Mom and Baby Yoga – Episode 3: Return of the Yogi

Mom and Baby Yoga – Episode 3: Return of the Yogi

Week 3 of Mom and Baby Yoga went phenomenally well. My sister was in town, so my little yoga partner was on his best behavior. While Dad, daughter, and my sister went to yet another early morning hockey practice; baby and I slept in until about an hour before yoga. We woke up, did our usual routine and then were on our way. He was happy, but not much more than usual.

We arrived at the hospital later than I would have preferred and the doors leading to the hallway where the class is held were all closed, but we actually were one of the first people there. I know how hard it is to keep on schedule with a newborn (and honestly, it doesn’t get much easier as they get older!), so it’s not surprising that not everyone gets to class on time.

I rolled out my mat and got ready for him to start crying – which he did. So our instructor came over and started talking to him. Immediately, he started smiling. “Yay!”, I thought to myself, but I didn’t really think it would last. I made sure I had his nuk, since I had just given him a bottle right before we left and I assumed that he would be sleepy since he was last time we did mom and baby yoga. I was fully prepared to have another week of floppy, sleepy baby yoga.

We started with sitting hip circles (I assume that is how every class is going to start) and he started whimpering. So, I grabbed the nuk and put it in his mouth. Instead of taking it and falling asleep, he started wiggling around, trying to see what else was going on in the room. I turned him around so he could see and he was happy as a bee (are bees happy? Ah, well, he was happy nonetheless).

Next up was some core work and we laid on our backs and placed our babies on our raised legs. This wasn’t too hard, physically, but it is pretty difficult to keep a squirmy baby on your legs while trying to properly work your abs! Then we did Womb Wings. Basically, you take your baby facing you, hold him/her like they are in a swing, and in a semi-squat position, swing them back and forth between your legs while saying “Womb Wings, Womb Wings…”. After that was a move that I call “Woosh”. It’s very similar to Womb Wings, but instead of just swinging the baby, you do squats while swinging and say, “Woosh”.

That was the extent of the “difficult” moves for the day and we then focused on baby moves. First was some tummy time and we did Kicky Kick. This involves putting the baby on his tummy and kicking his legs on his butt. He actually really liked it today. Usually he cries during tummy time, but he was super cool today. I’m pretty sure it was because of his awesome shirt (one of the ladies in the class is a huge Star Wars fan, so she got a kick out of it too). Even the teacher commented on how happy he was in class. We flipped the babies over and did some baby arm and leg stretches, then picked them up to do “Hop Along Yogi” and “Lumpa“. Apparently Lumpa means jump in Sanskrit. My little guy really enjoyed both of these and looked very surprised as we were doing them. I had to remind him that he was being uncooperative the first week we did them and sleeping last week!

So, class ended and I rewarded my happy little yogi buddy with a bottle and some snuggles. I tried to end it with both of us laying down and meditating, but that lasted all of about 5 seconds before he told me, “Mom, I was the best baby ever for that entire class. If you don’t give me a bottle and tell me how wonderful I am, I am going to make you regret it!” Of course, I complied and when he was finished, we got all packed up and headed back home to hang out with his aunt, since it was the last full day she was spending with us.

This was by far the best week we’ve had at mom and baby yoga. I definitely walked out of there with a smile. Class even seemed shorter than usual – it was great! I can only hope that the next one will go just as smoothly. Check back to see!!!!

Check out last week’s post!