What was I thinking?

I hadn't seen Elizabeth in what felt like ages. We both had babies now. And they needed to meet.

We met for lunch a few weeks ago and made up for lost time. I brought her her baby shower gift I had bought forever ago--a baby wrap--And we caught up over tacos.

Our conversation spanned from postnatal yoga, to careers, husbands, and of course our babies. When it was time to go we promised each other we wouldn't go this long without meeting up again, and tentatively planned play dates for the near future. So when I got a text from her about getting together for anti-gravity yoga I knew it just had to involve babies. To be sure, I texted her.

"Let's do it. Sounds awesome, what is it?"

She texted me back saying it's yoga in sling-like hammock things. In my head I read "wraps" and "sling" and was like "woah, yoga with babies, score!"

She signed us up for a month of free classes every Monday at 6:30.

"PM right?" I asked her.

No. AM. Yikes!

When I got home to search for anti-gravity yoga and find out exactly what I had signed myself up for my jaw hit the floor. This is what we were going to do...

There are no babies in this picture. ADULTS in sling-like hammock things. OH!

Normally I don't like to do things on my day off without my daughter but I thought this experience would be good for me to have a bit of alone leisure time, and get a real workout. Plus it would be early and she wouldn't be awake yet.

The night before our class I slept in my yoga clothes and pre-programed my GPS to take me straight there in the morning. The less thinking I'd have to do when my alarm went off at that crazy hour, the better. I had worked until 11 that night, and watched an amazing episode of Big Love, so I was going to sleep late. And I knew I'd be hurting in the morning.

When my alarm went off I texted my friend to make sure she was still going. I didn't want to show up with four complete strangers if she decided to sleep in. She told me she was still game, so I slipped my shoes on and headed out the door.

When I got there the scene was as scary as I imagined. Silk cloth hanging from the ceiling in a small room with hard floors. There were six small hammocks. One for the instructor and one for each of the students.

We introduced ourselves. Four of the five of us were either my friend or a friend of my friend. I was glad she had recruited others to go in case I decided to bail out early, faking an injury.

Our instructor told us if we were pregnant, had high or low blood pressure, we shouldn't do the upside down exercises until we got a doctor's note. None of us were pregnant--or knew it, so we were all in the clear.

"Grab your sheet by the end and swing it back and forth," our instructor told us all. We watched as she wrapped her hands around the end of the sheet and jumped in. Then we each took turns doing it ourselves.

The first few poses involved wrapping the sheet around us and sitting or laying comfortably in the hammock. "This is nice!" I thought to myself. What a relaxing way to spend my morning. We went through the motions of getting used to moving the fabric, and it sliding beneath us, how to grasp it in our arms to move and stretch certain ways.

"Now grab your fabric and place it behind you at your hips," she said. Cool, I had that. "Now trust the fabric, you're going to flip over like this." I watched as she did a Lady Gaga move and once again my jaw dropped. I couldn't hold in my laughter. She wants me to do what? This is me we're talking about. The one who broke the floor during an attempt at chair dancing. I knew if I were to try this my face would wind up in pieces.

I watched as everyone else did it first. They looked graceful and natural. I thought for a moment. Did I really want to attempt this? Why did I sign that waiver saying I wouldn't sue if I died? I contemplated excuses, a bathroom break... Announcing indeed I am pregnant... then I thought how easy it is in postnatal yoga to sit out an exercise because "Oh, baby's gotta eat!"

All of this went through my head in a matter of seconds, when I decided I'd just do it. I closed my eyes, grabbed onto the fabric for dear life and flipped over.

Hanging upside down wasn't comfortable. Our instructor told us to breath and gave us all sorts of directions of things to do with our legs and hands but all I could think of was how my head was sure to explode at any moment... What if blood starts coming out of my ears?... Crap, I've gotta fart... My daughter is so weird for enjoying hanging upside down. And kids like to hang from the monkey bars? Why do they do it?

"Yea yea yea, breath, extend, blah blah blah, can I sit up yet?" I couldn't be the only one so uncomfortable hanging upside down.

After that I knew I could handle any part of this workout. But would you believe it got harder?

We did push ups with our legs extended--feet swinging (not intentionally) in the hammock with our arms on the ground. I realized I don't have any upper body strength when my arms gave way and I face planted into the cement floor. I couldn't help but laugh. I was falling apart. I wanted to say that I had just had a baby eight months ago--The reason for my inadequacy--but my friend had had her baby months after me and she was doing just fine.

I survived the rest of the class by the skin of my teeth. But really, I was just the comedic relief. I couldn't hold my laughter in as I watched everyone balance perfectly on one leg from my wobbly and stumbly point of view.

The woman next to me kept laughing at me too as I nearly grabbed her a few times to break my fall.

When it was finally over we laid straight back in our hammocks for a restoration pose--My favorite part of yoga. I thought to myself if I'd ever come back.

I didn't go a second time today. I'm far too sleep deprived this week, but I'm still registered for next week. Now that I'm mentally prepared for what's coming I may be able to try it again and not be such a whimp. Lawd knows I need some kind of workout to get fit again, and by golly I'm gonna do it. Even if that means impersonating Lady Gaga every now and then.

Here's an example of what we did. I did everything in this video minus a pose or two. NO LIE!

If you're brave enough (or stupid enough--I'm not sure which I am yet) to try it you can look here to see if there's a place near you that offers it! All I can say is good luck!

Just a wee bit excited

You know how it’s fun to add things to your to-do list after you’ve already done it, just so you can cross it off? It’s just as fun—if not more so—to do that with a bucket list. I’m transforming my old “baby bucket list” into a “before I die bucket list” and adding “Flash Mob” to my group of must dos.

Funny thing is, we’re going to be in one today.

“We? Who’s going to be in one with you,” you ask. “Surely not your husband.”

Heck no, Lil’ J and I are going to be flash mobbing it up doing chants and dancing with other moms and their babies at Whole Foods.

I hardly ever step foot in that place. It’s too expensive. But I along with a dozen or so other moms are going to pretend like we’re shopping and join in on the dancing and singing with our babies when we hear the cue. My yoga instructor organized this, and we’re expecting a pretty good turnout.

I’m working all day but I’m planning my lunch break around this so I’ll grab a meal at the salad bar right before the routine kicks off, or right after, and have some fun in between. My husband is meeting me there with Lil’ J and hopefully a video camera (he promised) so I’ll be sure to YouTube and post the success (of failure) after.

Wish us luck!

*Update!!* It SNOWED! So the flashmob is getting rescheduled. Now I can officially add this to my list cause we MUST be in one!

If you haven’t seen a flashmob before here’s an example. Though don’t expect ours to look like this, this is the funniest one I’ve ever seen.

Mommy and Me Yoga

Sometimes I feel like I'm loosing my mojo.

I used to be the girl who wanted more than anything, to be extremely successful in my career. Now more than anything I want to schedule play dates and plan little activities for Lil' J and myself.

Instead of scheduling after work meetings I'm scouring for emerging teeth. Instead of shopping for suits I'm on the hunt for the coolest new infant toy. 

I think it's important to have something as an escape. Especially being a woman, and a mom, and having so many duties to fulfill.

Funny enough, my ideal "getaways" tend to include my daughter instead of exclude her. What can I say, she's kinda a cool kid. Plus I already feel guilty for missing so much when I'm away from her at work.

I distinctly remember my mom waking up early to exercise when I was younger. My sister and I would put on our bathing suits (because they were our version of workout clothes, hello!) and exercise to a Mickey Mouse workout show while our mom walked on the treadmill.

I think that was my inspiration for wanting to experience something similar with my daughter.

When I was on maternity leave I researched things I could do with my baby. Lil' J loves to get out of the house. Having gone on seven flights in her first eight weeks of life, she was used to getting out, and I think she still craves it now because of that.

I don't really like being confined to my house for more than a couple of days either so I made a list of things in my community that we could go and do together. One of the things I didn't get to do during maternity leave was postnatal yoga. You bring your baby to class with you and exercise with them.

I was bummed we didn't get to do it during my leave, but luckily there's a class Tuesday mornings, on my day off, so we can still go.

We were running late our first week, but made it in time for introductions. Lil' J was the only baby with a bow and leg warmers--We were a little overdressed. But we still fit in. I think.

I was amazed at how full the class was. There was a mom with twins, and 15 other moms in the class!

Our yoga class on Halloween week

The first good half hour is dedicated to exercises just for mom, and your baby is below you watching you on their blanket. The second half is doing singing and exercises using them, then the last twenty minutes or so is for baby yoga, where you do stretches for them, and where you do a restoration walk, and pose with them.

There's some time to socialize at the beginning, middle, and end of class. I at first sometimes felt a twinge of jealousy while the stay at home moms planned a play group meet up during the time I'd be at work. But who knows, maybe one day I'll be able to join in.

I loved it so much my first week I bought an 8 week pass that same day. I'm surprised at how much of a workout I get, and how much of a bonding experience it is for my daughter and I. It's makes me a little sad at the same time though, because I doubt I'll get this experience with baby number two. ... Which isn't on the way, or anything, but you know how I plan ahead.

The place we go for yoga has a special class for moms with their new babies, then a class for moms with crawlers, and one with toddlers. If we can budget for it I hope to keep going. It's $17 a class, which is kinda steep, especially since we go once a week. But with the pass it goes down to about $13 a class. Which is still a lot when you consider my husband's gym pass is something like $25 a month. I tell myself I deserve it though, and take joy in the splurge.

So here I am. Gone are the days of using my Carmen Electric Striptease Workout DVDs, and welcome to the days of mommy & me fitness.

I'm not sure if my mojo is going, or coming. Or maybe it's just transforming. Either way, I think I like the way it's moving.

If you have a baby I'd highly recommend looking into postnatal or mommy and me yoga it's SO FUN! So fun in fact, that I just bought a mommy and me workout DVD called Infantastic Baby Reps, and I love it too! I also rented Infantastic's Dance Baby Dance from the library after reading the glowing reviews! It was $25 so I passed on buying it at the time.

I want to share my postnatal workout with you so I'm going to send an Infantastic Baby Reps DVD to a blog follower who comments on this post before next Thursday night! You've gotta be a follower cause I'm buying is for you! Somewhere with your comment, just let me know you'd like to be entered!