Yoga

Thursday is prenatal yoga night! The 'Doula' says it is never too early to get the mama's muscles stretched and ready. We meet at a church in Shorewood from 5:30-7pm and it has been the highlight of the last two weeks. I'm trying to figure out how I can do this every night and still have money left over! We stretch and breath and stretch and hold positions for a little more than an hour. Then comes the relaxation time--- yeah--- and I thought jagerbombs were the only ticket to relaxation! She turns off all of the lights and leads us through a series of breathing and focusing exercises. We follow her instructions and slowly let all of the tension go in our bodies-- starting with our toes--then to our ankles--- it's amazing--- I highly recommend it!

I also learned what a 'kegel' exercise is this week! We did them last week, I guess, but I spent most of the time looking around trying to figure out what everyone else was doing. This week I discovered why I wasn't able to 'see' what anyone was doing. For those 'in the dark' folks like myself (I'm hoping at least Tony is with me here:)--- yeah, it's the mysterious muscle located somewhere between the butt hole and the pee hole (yeah--- like my P.C. terminology) and supposedly you're supposed to be able to contract and release this muscle regularly. She said that when I contract-- it should feel like 'holding it' when I really have to go pee or pass gas. She also said that I should be doing this regularly throughout the day-- does everyone else do this? Sick! Then she went on to say that it will help during labor and even afterwards-- to keep my uterus in??? Yeah, it didn't make sense to me either--- so anyway-- last time I'll ask about an exercise at yoga with 15 other women (who just laughed at me)-- I'll just assume it's time to squeeze down there.