3:51 p.m. - 2006-04-27
Unsightly Blemishes and a Nice, Big Bowel Movement
Hurry, while supplies last!
Har. One of my latest least-loved side effects of pregnancy is my new acne. My skin is having a ball, hearkening back to the good ol' days when I was 14 and practically had to keep a tube of Clerasil on my person at all times. This is most unfair, especially when pregnancy books say things like, "You may find that your skin is the best it's looked in years. Enjoy your glow! Or you may find you have acne." I'm pretty handy with the ol' makeup, though, so each morning I get to work with some heavy-duty foundation and industrial-strength concealer and spackle it all on.
Another annoyance about those books is the way they presume to know how I'm feeling each day. I'm in my second trimester, so I'm supposed to be feeling pretty good, and as much as I like to tell myself that I'm feeling pretty good, it's just not the case. The books tell me my nausea is passing and that I want to be eating normally. I wish they were more accurate, like "Today, you might find that the only thing you'll want for dinner is a slice of whole-wheat bread and a handful of Goldfish crackers, because you'll feel like you'll throw up anything else. Later, you'll find yourself irritable and gassy and you'll be in bed, passed out, by 8:15." Maybe that's more of a horoscope, but I feel I deserve to know these things.
Last night was my first prenatal yoga class, and it was really pretty cool. We'll normally meet at a local pre-school, but since they were having plumbing issues yesterday (and as our instructor Jennifer said, you can't have a prenatal yoga class without functionind restrooms), we met in a church. Literally, in the church sanctuary -- we spread our mats out in a row right between the pews and the altar. (Is that the sanctuary part? I'm not the churchy type, as you may know.) It was a little weird at first, but with the evening sun filtering through the stained glass, it was actually peaceful and serene.
Prenatal yoga is way different than regular yoga. It's *extremely* low-impact, for one -- none of that pesky standing-on-one-leg bullshit to worry about. Our instructor mainly focuses on breathing, and chanting (which I can't say I think I'll be doing a lot of), and stretching. We did a lot of mindfully, and loudly, inhaling and exhaling, as well as some visualization and other earthy-crunchy type stuff. Two highlights were squatting to practice pumping our Kegel muscles (while visualizing a rose opening), and then hearing Jennifer tell us that among the many benefits we'll notice of prenatal yoga is a "nice, big bowel movement" afterward. Overall, I'd highly recommend this class, but not if you're the type who doesn't want to think so much about your rectum.
