Post Mommy-Baby Yoga Bliss

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Untitled: 6/19/2014

So, somehow things have just fallen into place so neatly.  AP and I are teaching, between the two of us, 6 classes a week (3 each) at Rail River Folk School – which is just an amazing space that will draw people to our classes that otherwise might not come to yoga.  I’m doing my karma yoga right now, and donating everything above the cost of rent to the Family Crisis Center in Bagley, MN.

It’s strange because a part of me wasn’t ready to actually do the things that I have talked about wanting to do for so long.  It was more comfortable to be “working towards doing” than actually “doing.”  The amount of support from the community here is pretty amazing, too.  It’s not something that I’m used to.  I guess that part of my idea of myself has always included the archetype of the nomad or the outcast.  I’ve never felt like I belonged to or was accepted by the community I lived in.  The flip side of that was that I always felt like I could leave – something I never really took advantage of in my 20’s.

It’s interesting to feel like I am putting down roots, like I am part of a community.  In a way, the growth is uncomfortable – the way extremities ache and burn when they recover from frostbite.

I picked up an extra shift at the Co-op last week and this week, and it’s really made me feel run-down and depleted.  2 days of customer service/cashiering is really all I can handle in a 7 day period.  I feel so fortunate to have my job, because I do enjoy working at the Co-op, most of my co-workers are great, and it’s a big part of my yoga practice off the mat – I try to be genuinely kind and loving to everyone who comes through my line, and just operate with an open heart.

It is, of course, an on-going PRACTICE and I totally fall short of that sometimes.

My 15 week old son, Jorah, went overnight from nursing at the breast once or twice a day and drinking mostly bottles of pumped milk to suddenly almost exclusively nursing at the breast.  It’s been maybe 2 weeks since he made the switch.

It is a pretty amazing experience for me – I had to pump and bottlefeed exclusively with Claire, and my milk supply dried up by the time she was 6 months old.  With my inverted nipples, I never really thought I’d be able to nurse my children on the breast, so I’m pretty thrilled.

And man, it is so much easier.  To only have to pump at work instead of at regular intervals.  To always have it there and ready.  I mean, it presents a different set of challenges, but I feel so blessed.  And it really did happen overnight – one day, bottle, next day, breast.  And now he even refuses the nipple shield, which I am also thrilled about.

I bought a Gaiam “Dandelion Days” yoga mat as a belated Mothers’ Day gift to myself.  I picked it because it was mostly pink, a happy colour, and the stylized dandelions make me think of being a kid and that kind of magical summer time type feeling I used to get.  And hope (not to be cheesy, but, well . . . ).