Prego bellies in downward dog

I was lucky enough to become pregnant when I was in the best shape of my life. In fact I ran a 5K (which is a challenge for me) when I was 5 weeks pregnant. I didn't know I was pregnant at the time, so I'm even more amazed that I was able to achieve that goal.

For the last nine months, I've worked to stay healthy while eating for two. One of my saving graces has been prenatal yoga.

At first I laughed at the idea of prenatal yoga because I thought pre-natal meant wimpy. Not the type of workout that I wanted during my lunch hour. But after fighting off the world's worst cold in December and sick of not being able to do all the cool stuff in my power yoga class due to my growing belly, I decided to give prenatal yoga a shot.

I remember the conversation Benny and I had the night before my first class. "If it's a bunch of ladies laying there rubbing their bellies and talking about eating ice cream, you aren't going back," Benny said. Even though belly rubbing while talking about 31 flavors sounded like the best thing for me at the time, I had to agree.

I remember my apprehension for the first class. And then getting my butt kicked by a lady with a belly twice as large as mine. This class wasn't exactly what power yoga was, but it was challenging in its own right. It wasn't a joke. The yoga poses focus on the parts of the woman's body that need to "open" and be strong for labor and delivery. I liked focusing on these body parts and developing the mental and breathing techniques for the delivery.

Since then I've attended nearly every prenatal yoga. And today was my last class. I started as one of the women who you couldn't even tell was pregnant (the instructor first told me I was in the wrong class) to being the yogi regular. I have the biggest belly and the fact that I'm 41 weeks pregnant, I'm the "oldest" belly in the room.

But besides being a physical class, prenatal yoga is also a support group for pregnant women. We share our stories. We laugh at ourselves when we can't find our balance. And we compliment each other on getting the energy to come to class each week. For the last two weeks, these ladies have given me all kinds of advice on natural methods to trigger delivery. Without prenatal yoga during my baby-free maternity leave, I don't think I would have been able to stay calm.

I love the women in that class. I adore the instructor. I'm sad that once Baby V exits my body, I'll say farewell to my specialized yoga instruction.

I'm just hoping I can start attending the baby yoga class offered on island. I think Baby V will be a natural. Afterall he/she has been doing yoga since before his/her birth.