Birthing ball for pregnancy, labour and birth.

Birthing ball is just a simple excercise ball that comes in three different sizes most common being 65cm. In pregnancy sitting on the ball feels amazing as it relieves pressure in the pelvis, lower back and the cervix. It came very handy for me as I moved into my 36th week. My baby girl went through a growth spurt and dropped even lower into my pelvis in preparation for birth. I am constantly amazed with the wisdom and intelligence of the women's body. It is marvelous to see how the body changes and adapts to accommodate the growing baby! My little girl was already head down at 30 weeks but it felt nothing comparing to her position now. She is so low I sometimes think she's going to fall out. Her descend was marked with increased pressure on my pubic bone and cervix. Also she is still pressing on my bladder! The hormone relaxin has kicked in again making my hips and pubic bone quite achy for a while. What has helped me so much was getting and sitting on the birthing ball. I have it right in front of my computer and use it instead of the chair. I can sway my hips from side to side, which feels wonderful and the gravity takes a lot of pressure away. I can really see how the ball will come handy in labour. If you are pregnant or planning to get pregnant get your birthing ball-it will make you so much more comfortable and happy.

35 weeks and celebrating my journey so far.

Again it has taken me longer than I wanted to write here. The entire July has been so busy with subbing, teaching my own classes, being away for a few days in a wellness resort, and having a beautiful Baby Blessing Ceremony. The ceremony was magical and put together by my yoga sisters with the hostess being Shanine, Jennifer and Nathalie. This ceremony is a beautiful right of passage for mothers who are expecting and gives strength and deep spiritual connection to the baby and the birthing process. I loved the bead bracelet blessing the most. Everyone invited to the ceremony was asked to bring a bead and a blessing in the form of motherly advice and wishes for mother and baby. The beads were thread together into a necklace that I could have as a focal point and symbol of my support network during birth and into motherhood. As we sat in the circle each woman gave her blessing/good wish and we chanted OM to seal it. It was truly touching and brought tears to my eyes. I felt my baby girl move and respond to the beautiful chanting and energy that was being created. I feel so luck to be a part of such loving and wise circle of women. We also had a henna artist come and do some body art. I got my belly done again as a symbol of connection with all of the other women and the baby.

So a little update on my pregnancy. It's really bizarre because I can see how easy it is to give into a negative thinking at this point. I am 35 weeks pregnant and yes sure my belly feels a lot bigger, the baby is big, she really has no room to move so whenever she is active I really feel it a lot, the jabbing and poking is crazy but I still love it anyway, the pressure in the bladder and pelvic floor is pretty intense, braxton hicks are not bad and my yoga practice is obviously modified a lot. Non of these things are getting me down though. I am working around them. I am modifying my yoga poses, mostly to accomodate my belly as my stamina is still great. I hear that I am "tiny" all the time but my belly still feels big and heavy to me lol. I am not getting impatient nor anxious about wanting the baby out. I am thinking this is my pregnancy, I should enjoy these last few weeks because I will never be pregnant with this particular baby again. So I am keeping active by teaching over 7 classes a week, doing my own yoga practice, getting the house organized, going for walks and enjoying my social life. It's so great to have so many wonderful friends and students surrounding me on daily basis. I am also practicing my hypnobirthing and meditate daily to check in with myself, my body and my baby. I set intention every day and that helps me to stay grounded. Today it was gratitude and having my heart open to more blessings. Eating wise I am still having most of my meals raw or as close to raw as I can. I have gained a total of 18 pounds so far and weighting at 141 pounds.

31 weeks pregnant!

Wow I didn't realize that so much time has passed since my last entry! I guess when I last posted I was at 27 weeks. Time has been flying by and I have been so busy with mostly teaching and enjoying my pregnancy. I am in my 3rd trimester now and feel better than ever.

I can't believe how much energy I have and how amazing I feel every day. I always thought that towards the end it gets more challenging with the weight gain and many other discomforts they mention in the books. Actually it is crazy how when you open almost any pregnancy book it starts with a long, long list of how you are going to suffer in each trimester. There are pages and pages of different discomforts you are expected to get, it is quite scary what kind of messages they put into women's heads. There needs to be more pregnancy books that should talk about how great you will feel only if you eat healthy (preferably high raw) and exercise and practice positive thinking. I do believe that as we progress on the path of consciousness evolution and our spiritual journey we will all live more healthy and happy lives. It all starts with us and our belief system. Same applies to birth. There is a lot of fear surrounding labour and birth and many mothers don't know any better but to expect total trauma from the birthing experience. It is time that we opened up to a different philosophy, that which supports the view that the birth is a natural, beautiful and a transformational event. And as women we need to get educated and empowered so that we can fully participate in the miracle of our baby's birth not give the power away to someone else.

There is a wonderful movie out there called "Orgasmic Birth", which inspired a quite interesting movement within prenatal care system. If you haven't seen it yet and you are pregnant or wanting to get pregnant it is a must to see. For a preview visit: http://www.orgasmicbirth.com/

and it will change your view on how birth can be blissful and ecstatic. I have showed this movie in my prenatal yoga class to all of the moms and will continue to support the view of gentle birth choices so that eventually the society as a whole will support this sacred and empowering process that is labour and birth. In my city there were a few screenings organized in the local libraries to educate health care providers and mothers to be on orgasmic birth. If you are a doula or a prenatal yoga teacher or a birth educator I encourage you to become a part of the orgasmic birth movement. It will change the way we bring our babies into the world, which in turn will change their experience for the years to come.

So yes I have been busy, busy, busy with teaching prenatal yoga, doing all kinds of research on gentle birth choices, and putting together a few prenatal yoga workshops. I have been also practicing hypnobirthing and in that way visualizing a natural birth. My husband and I have solidify the decision on having a home water birth. Here is a picture of us taking a walk by the lake, me at 7 months pregnant.

And another picture of me doing Dancer's Pose also at 7 months. Having done yoga every day for my entire pregnancy and eating high raw diet has given me an incredible energy, enthusiasm, and a deep bond with my body and my baby. Now at 31 weeks I am weighting 135 pounds and feel amazing.

Spinach Salad

Health benefits of spinach: loaded with calcium, folic acid, iron and vitamin C, A, K and fiber. Also spinach is loaded with flavonoid that functions as antioxidant and anti-cancer agent. Spinach contains carotenoid that help fights cancer. It is anti-aging food.

I really like raw organic baby spinach and eat it quite a lot. My favourite spinach salad includes granny smith apples, red onions, red peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes. I also love spinach in my green smoothies.

Prenatal Massage

I swear I have no idea what I would do without a good prenatal massage. Massage is a big part of my health care and its especially valuable now. With all of the organs shifting in the body and my back supporting more weight in the belly I definitely feel it more than ever. My mid back and lower back just feels sore and like its really doing so much work, which it is providing all the support for my baby. Pregnancy is such a curious state-you feel every little thing changing in your body on daily basis. Yes it is quite remarkable but at the same time quite intense. So far I had three major physical sensations in this order: first I felt ligaments in the abdomen stretch making the sides of my belly sore, then I had sharp pain in the pubic bone due to pubic bone separation and finally right now I have sore back from my belly growing larger. Other than that I can't complain. I enjoy feeling my baby kick and going through all of the changes knowing that it won't last forever. I am enjoying being able to rest, eat well and exercise and I enjoy all of the wonderful support I get from my family and my husband. Bless them all :) It must be hard to put up with a pregnant woman.

Braxton Hicks Contractions.

So yesterday was meditation at Jennifer's and it was great as usual. I feel so happy to be able to meditate, chant and talk about spiritual stuff with other women. Yesterday we meditated on solar plexus chakra and when we went to lay down for guided meditation I put a beautiful citrine crystal on my navel. It felt soooo good and I think the baby liked it because she was kicking a lot and making the crystal vibrate.

Citrine crystal's metaphysical qualities: It is one of the only stones that dissipates negative energy, and never requires cleansing or clearing. It's warm energy promotes optimism. Attracts abundance. Activates third (solar plexus) chakra. Enhances body's healing energies. Good for mental focus, endurance and self esteem.

The meditation session is a delicious 2 hour pampering that I offer to myself and my daughter. Ohhhh so good to again freely talk about chakras, health, energy, vibes, etc. It is good to offer
each other support and share experiences. This was our third session and we are going through all the chakras one each week.

I did go to Chapters later and read a book called "Trust your Vibes" by Sonia Choquette and it was nice. She talks about how we can open up to our intuition and follow it all the time to enhance our lives and growth. It talked a bit about encouraging intuition and sixth perception in children and how children are influenced by a parent or both parents who are open to trusting their intuition. This made me think how glad I am to offer my daughter a lot of knowledge that I acquired through the years through trial and error about sixth perception. The fact that she will be able to ask me or share with me her experiences and I won't dismiss them nor judge them just makes me happy. There is nothing like validating your child's feelings and intuition.

I also had lunch at Thai place (vegetarian soup and papaya salad) and then I was reading a book in Chapters when my entire belly started to tense up. It felt quite uncomfortable like there was a lot of gas trapped in my belly and it had nowhere to escape...sort of like when I didn't know I had allergy to gluten and would eat it and then get this gassy,bloated and tensed feeling. I thought maybe the thai soup had gluten in it but it was very unlikely as it was a clear vegetable broth with no spices and just pure veggies. I focused on the sensation and relaxed my back into the chair. The tension then spread to my lower belly and my lower back and it was gone soon after. It was very freaky as I haven't sensed that type of "moving" sensation ever where it would just spread all over my belly and back. Later on I read up about it and learned that I had my first braxton hicks contraction. Cool. It means that my uterus is practicing to push the baby out. This is how it will expel the baby but the contractions are not strong enough at this point to do this. It made me think about labour and gave me an idea how it would feel. It was pretty intense but maybe because I am so tuned into my body. I can only imagine how much more intense the real deal will be!!!!Holy crap but even having said that I can't wait as its going to be an amazing experience - something you will only go in life once or at the most a few times.

I ate high raw all day yesterday. My breakfast is always a smoothie. Lunch I had an egg with toast (not raw but close enough). I snacked on dried fruit. For dinner I had vegetable soup and papaya salad. For supper I had a green smoothie. It was good. I used green tea ice tea for the base and added strawberries and mango for fruit and then added a handful of spinach. It was so yummy and it made me feel great. Today is my 3rd day high raw. I had a slip up with cooked food few days ago where I ate a lot of rice with veggies, tofu, and cooked vegetables. I am motivated more than ever to stay raw as I am getting into my 3rd trimester and this is where the most weight comes in. I already weight 130 and can tell how much impact extra weight has on the body and the mind. So the better I eat and the more I focus on raw the better I will feel. I won't gain too much weight just enough to still feel good and be healthy. There is a huge difference eating raw while you are pregnant. You feel so much more vibrant, lighter, happier,
in tune with your body and your baby. Cooked food dulls all the sensations and makes you feel
so sluggish and unmotivated. At least in my experience. When I do eat cooked food I do it to
ground myself. I noticed I tend to eat it when I feel tired and ungrounded. Yes it does ground me but then I need at least one full day to recover from feeling sluggish. I love eating raw and love how it makes me feel.

Here goes my weight in:

Week 1-8: 124 pounds
Week 8-12: 124 pounds
Week 12-16: 125 pounds
Week 16-20: 127 pounds
Week 21: 127 pounds
Week 22: 127 pounds
Week 23: 130 pounds

Thai Papaya Salad

If you haven't had one try it. It's so fresh, crispy, flavourful and deliscious. I have been obsessed with papaya salad ever since I got pregnant. This is one food I crave all the time and could eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I love that its sweet, sour and hot. I love how great and happy it makes me feel. I love all the enzymes and vitamins in it..you can practically feel them as you eat it. It is quite easy to prepare although I get mine from my fav Thai place. If you want to make it at home here is the recipe:

1 1/2 tablespoons palm sugar

3/4 lime

2 cups green papaya, shredded

6 green beans

1 clove garlic

1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce

2 chili peppers

5 cherry tomatos

2 tablespoons peanuts, chopped

*Makes 2 servings*

IT'S A GIRL!

I had my second ultrasound on Wednesday and we found out that we are having a little girl. I was so happy I could hardly talk and so was my husband. We were both secretly hoping for a girl and only admitted to it after we found out. I would be happy either way but this is just amazing. The ultrasound went well even though I got a technician that wasn't very friendly or talkative. It didn't change how happy we both felt. The baby looked so much bigger this time and finally it had more space to move around. I enjoyed this ultrasound so much more. I could see more of her body like the arms (we haven't seen them clearly before) and her profile. She just looked so peaceful and happy in there! It was wonderful. I loved finding out the sex of the baby. It made it so much more real. It made us both bond to the baby in a deeper way. Now we can buy girly stuff and call her "she" and we can focus on picking out baby girl names. Makes it totally so much easier. I know it was the perfect choice for us. There is no way I would be able to wait for another 4months and what would be challenging is thinking I am having a girl only to find out that its a boy or vice versa. I like it better knowing.

I got to sort through 4 boxes of baby boy clothes that we have from Armando's sister. I wanted to pick out what I could use and what I wanted to give her back. There was a lot of stuff that was unisex but also stuff that was typical for a baby boy. I also went and bought 4 girl outfits all in pink. I was getting tired of blue, green, yellow and white. We still have to set up the entire baby's room but that's in May. Right now the baby's room is a guest room and we have Armando's dad visiting from the Philippines for a week. So we'll have to wait. I can't wait though. I have a lot of ideas for her room.

Diet wise I have been staying very high raw for past two weeks. I may have had a soup or baked potatoe on two or three occasions but other than that it is all raw. What interesting happened is getting an extreme aversion to fish. When my husband and I became vegetarians 5 years ago we have kept fish in our diet. We would have it maybe 1 or 2 times a month. We ended up going to this Fish and Seafood restaurant with a friend and I ate a small portion of salmon. I felt so sick afterwards. Not physically but mentally and emotionally. I felt exactly the same as I felt when I knew I had to let go of meat. I felt incredible sadness for the lost life of this animal and eating its dead flesh was too much. I wanted to cry and felt so dirty and kept feeling the energy of the dead fish in my body. Luckily next morning I went to two yoga classes. One with my friend Jennifer and the other with my best friend Shanine. They both helped me to work through my emotions and reactions to the fish. I decided I am ready to let it go and made that fish my last fish ever. Ever since I made that decision something shifted in me and I started to feel right and happy again. I will keep my diet exclusively vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds. I understand that fish was the hardest for me to let go. I associated fish with nourishment (Omega 3 essential oils, vitamins, etc.) and it didn't help that it was a huge part of my childhood. We didn't eat a lot of meat when I was growing up but we ate a lot of fish. Fish was considered a healthier and more nutritious choice and something my mom and my relatives used to show us how much they cared. I realize that for different families it is different foods that symbolize love and care. It may be cakes or cookies, a hearty soup or meat and potatoes. It's important to really look at the food for what it is and to strip away the emotional aspect of it.

I have went through so many shifts and changes in this pregnancy. I became so much more intuitive and sensitive to energies and I know its partly because my baby's energy is quite high. It's vibrating very high and makes me think that we are having a Crystal Child (or simply a sensitive child). A few of my most intuitive healer friends have also felt that. Oh it will be so lovely to see what other major changes and shifts this little one will give us :)

Other health related matters are: I feel great for the most part. My only complaint for the past week is that I feel tightness and pulling in my abdomen from my ligaments stretching. At 18 weeks the uterus is at the belly button as the baby is moving higher up. I can definitely feel it. It's not too uncomfortable but a new sensation I haven't felt before. I also have days that I feel totally exhausted but when I do I rest. My skin is clearer than it was up to this point. I think with the raw food diet most major negative side effects just don't happen. I hear girls in my prenatal yoga class tell me all the time that they have hip pain, back pain, heart burn, swollen ankles and feet, nausea, etc. I know that a healthy diet filled with fresh raw vegetables and fruits gives optimum health to the mother and the baby. I think its the best gift you can give to yourself and the baby along with proper amount of exercise.

My weight in:

Week 1-8: 124 pounds
Week 8-12: 124 pounds
Week 12-16: 125 pounds
Week 16-20: 127 pounds