Baby yoga

Eliza is so tantalisingly close to rolling over. She’s spent many recent hours on her play mat, flipping over to her side and back to her back, again and again, never quite finding her tipping point. Then a few weeks ago she discovered her feet and all focus on finding her front instantly took second place. Attempting to roll has now been replaced by flipping her legs up to her head, grabbing her ankles and the piece de resistance: placing her feet in her mouth (mmm, toes).

She seems a naturally bendy baby, so it was good timing that we started yoga recently. The sessions are split into half mum / half baby yoga, with lots of pelvic floor exercises for the mums – what else? – with gentle stretches and movement for the babies.

I’ve always found it really hard to switch-off during yoga; I can’t stop thinking about a million other things, forget to breathe in the right places, and then spend a lot of time watching the clock for when it’ll be over (tell me it’s not just me?). I didn’t do pregnancy yoga as I knew I was easily distracted enough at that time, and would probably have spent the whole course thinking about when I could go to bed.

However I’m really enjoying it this time round, especially as I do find it a lot more relaxing than I’d dared to hope. The baby exercises are cute and fun, and this week was monumental as it was the first session of a baby activity that Eliza hasn’t fed or cried during, or fallen asleep in (as happened during most of our previous baby massage sessions).

One thing I do find interesting though, is that during the mum yoga part we put the babies on the foot of our mats, while we’re supposed to concentrate on the exercises. Yet I’ve found that again, I can’t completely relax – but this time because I’m constantly on watch-out for Eliza. Rationally, I know nothing can happen to her – she’s there on my mat, and the teacher is watching, right? – yet my natural instinct is to check out what’s going on with her at all times. I guess this is the same mum-sense that makes me wake up at night when she stirs and that, as someone told me recently, means I’ll probably never have a proper deep sleep again while she’s in the room.

Anyway the yoga is good, so next up: back to the rolling.

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