Quality Time

Very interesting. Some things are coming together about my new life.

To begin, as I mentioned in recent posts, I'm starting to get involved in my work life again. There has actually been quite a bit of turmoil since my request for additional time off, and now I'm trying to do some damage control. I could dig in my heels and say I'm on leave, I shouldn't have to do any work for school. But it really is making me, as well as the people at school, crazy. So as long as I get to stay with my baby while I do it, I don't mind doing some work for school from home.

But of course this gets me thinking all the more of what it really will be like when I return.

From another angle, I've written on here in the past my worries about how I would keep my best mental health practices in place. Pre-baby I opened almost every day with yoga and meditation in addition to my showering, davening and eating a good breakfast. (Most mornings required about 2 hours before I was ready to leave the apartment.) Often during my meditations my thoughts would be interrupted with the projected voices of busy mothers saying, "Ha, you won't be able to do THAT with kids."

Well, it's true. It will never be the same, but thus far I don't mind so much.

MEDITATION
I have not had a proper sitting meditation time at all since ND was born. I did have one time pretty close, but I was nursing her at the time and it was a very different experience. However, the nursing itself has become a whole new kind of meditation. Sometimes I've tried to enter into the same sort of thinking space that I used to, but it's so valuable just to stare into her eyes. That's my substitute for the medtation piece right now.

YOGA
As for yoga... did you know there is such a thing as mom/baby yoga? Again, it's not the same practice as I had before, but I still am able to do a yoga sequence with ND awake either watching me (and even laughing sometimes), or taking part in the poses themselves! I also found a DVD called Mommy Baby Exercise Routine that does some similar routines, but as more of a muscle building routine than yoga sequence. My favorite in both involves lying on my back with my legs in a tabletop position. ND lies stomach down on my legs, facing me. I hold her hands and push my legs forward, strengthening my abs while she practices balance and drools on me. Just like this, except I would be lying flat on my back:


AND MORE
Now today I had a lesson on infant massage which is SO FUN!!! I've been doing it with ND already based on some videos I've watched and ND LOVES it!!! But now I've been directly instructed, so I know some new tricks and feel better about how much pressure to give etc. I also know that I really need to work on slowing down my pace. I found that as I practiced slowing down today, I really felt myself calm.

So I figure that even if I'm away from my love for 6 hours of the day, we can have an exceptionally good beginning and end if we can exercise in the morning and I can put her to bed after a bed or massage each night. Sure, I know I won't always pull it often... especially during anecdotal (report card) season or if she's not in the mood. But I do feel a little better with the idea that we can both look forward to this other experience together.