Mama Montage: news crews, super moons, and sick babies

I think I'm still recovering from the weekend, because I'm tired this morning. Of course it doesn't help that Sprout is suffering through her first fever, third day running. Poor little bleary babe. She's been sleeping OK, but I think my mommy brain makes my sleep more restless--even though I'm shielded from the full force of mommy-sick-baby worry with a doctor hubby (and awesome medically savvy childcare help, even). One of Sprout's yoga playmates recently had roseola, so it could be that--although I haven't seen any rashes on Sprout yet. We've just been dosing her with baby tylenol, monitoring her temp, and keeping her hydrated.

The weekend was busy, though! With my 10-hour work days, Friday is now a part of my weekends (yay flex time!), so the busy weekend started on Friday with my mama-baby yoga class being featured on the local news (click on the link to see the embedded news videos, up on my yoga website). The news crew filmed during most of our babies' nap times, so all us mamas were a bit tired from baby wrangling by the end of the 1 hour shot (for ~3 min of footage, heh).

Then, after that, I went in for what was supposed to be a quick oil change and that turned into 3.5 hours trapped at the car place. They found I needed new tires, and since I transport baby around, I wasn't going to scrimp or question when it came to car safety. However, I was stuck waiting with a very patient baby front-slung onto me that whole time. The hubby was still at the hospital, so couldn't rescue me. Thank heavens for cheerios and breastfeeding (in the cold bathroom); Sprout was a trooper through that waiting ordeal, but it exhausted me. When I got home, I handed the baby to the hubby and crashed face first onto the bed. I didn't end up having dinner until around 8PM, after I had briefly nursed the baby to sleep.

Saturdays are now yoga days, so I taught my regular morning class followed by co-teaching the mama-baby class. I don't remember what I did Saturday afternoon/night, except I made sure to go out and view the super moon (large, pretty, golden-colored).

Sunday was a total lounge day for me. I was alone again with baby (working hubby) and just spent it doing domestic stuff: watching Bones while nursing; taking a walk in the neighborhood; making crockpot lentils; doing laundry and dishes; watching the dogs run around in the fenced yard; and letting Sprout pick at dandylions on our lawn.

Yoga Split: teaching excitement

Last week, I completed a 16 hour training on teaching postnatal yoga. Above is a picture of the peaceful lounge at the studio in Raleigh where most of our training took place. We had a whole day on anatomy, and then a day observing a mama-baby class and taking a postpartum class. There were only two of us in the class, so I'm glad they still held it! I took the time off work to attend, driving back and forth from Greenville. The class will definitely strengthen my own teaching, and made me realize I need to have more focus on the abdomen and pelvic floor for myself and my student mamas.

In other yoga news, my new sessions of regular yoga and mama-baby yoga start up this weekend after a month break. My regular yoga class is full with 8 people, three of whom are new and the others are either friends or students I've had since I started teaching two years ago :). Our mama-baby class for precrawlers will be small, with only three others besides the co-teacher and myself (with our own daughters). On the other hand, we're trying out offering two toddler-mama yoga classes in April, and both class are completely full (8 mama-toddler pairs) with a waiting list. It's going to be a full room!

Finally, if that wasn't enough excitement for the yoga teacher aspect of my life, on March 18th we're scheduled to film a short mama-baby yoga segment for our local news!

Mama Montage: cookies and springtime

I made hamentashen cookies this weekend using this recipe.The cookies turned out decent and presentable, but I would call them more jam-cake tea cookies, than hamentashen. I used blackberry jam because I couldn't find the sweet poppyseed filling that I really wanted. The main selling point of these cookies was that they were for the "busy mom," and I actually finished making n' baking 'em during Sprout's 1 hour nap on Sunday. Now, I just need to figure out how to get dried cookie dough out of my wedding ring (whoops).

It was a pretty great weekend...exhausting, but pretty great. On Friday, I had a burst of energy which inspired me to take some exploratory drives around with Sprout in tow. First, I checked out the (new-to-me) Mickey & Mallory Bakery in Ayden, where I picked up two mini-canoli (one of my fave desserts!) and a breakfast cinnamon bun.

Then, I drove all the way out to Carolina Seasons plant nursury (practically on the other end of the county) in order to gaze longinly at their fruit/nut trees/bushes: persimmon, fig, pecan, blueberry, raspberry, peach, pear. Ah. I so want to start an edible garden in my fenced backyard (we're on 0.7 acres in our home lot), but I have no idea how to start. There's a company based in Durham called Bountiful Backyards which designs edible home gardens--assessing your land/sun/soil ph and drawing up a plan--but they cost a little over $300 for the consultation + travel out to me in eastern NC. Hmm, but we'll see. I want a garden, but don't want to invest in one and have all the plants die.

After that, I stopped by a friend's office. She works at an awesome childcare resource center called ChildLinks. I was able to pick up 3 toys for Sprout (two ring stackers, and a multi-texture plush flower thing), which I can keep for 3 weeks and then trade back in for more. They have a board book library as well! I also signed up as a member to use their lamination, stencils, colored paper, and criticut machine. I'll have to ask my friend for project ideas, but I initially thought the materials might be good for a basic chore/good behavior chart.

Finally, I also found the location of the gym that is closest to my house (it was hidden behind some other storefronts; I may sign up...soon...). I can't remember if I did much else on Friday, but that was enough!

All week and during the weekend, Sprout has been refusing all jarred pureed food--like spitting it out in messy raspberries. There's only so much splatter paint a mama can take! So, I've been having to get creative. She could live off cheerios if we let her, but I wanted to give her some other solid food besides carbs. Surprisingly, we discovered she looooves blackbeans smothered in mild green chilli sauce. I found out she was swallowing them sorta like pills (ask me how I know), but she enjoyed their taste. She also ate some scrambled egg, tofu, toast + creamcheese, banana, asparagus bits, and canned mandarin orange over the weekend. I'm hoping she'll allow for a bit more of her jarred food again, though, because of course the hubby bought two trays-worth (like ~20 jars!) of organic baby food last week! They may become some interesting 'dipping sauces' or muffin-fillers, heh.

What else? Ah, I returned to teaching yoga on Saturday. I had a regular class (8 people!) and a mama-baby class. I was exhausted after teaching, but happy. I also accomplished getting groceries, putting away 2 wks of laundry, and having the house cleaned (with much thanks to my cleaners, who hadn't been to my dog fur carpeted house in a month). All of that while the hubby was on-call, starting a new inpatient rotation (ie. he was gone most of the weekend).

I have a busy work week ahead of me, so next weekend may not be nearly as productive. I just had to reflect on last weekend being particularly good, with a large part of the credit going towards sunny springy weather and being in the company of a beautiful baby girl.