2012

Namaste.

I won’t pretend to know what that means but I’ve always wanted to say it without sounding like a douche and what better time than after my first real yoga experience. I say real because that time where I had to do the Downward Facing Dog after losing a bet doesn’t count.

Yesterday, the husband and I attended a Prenatal Yoga Class conducted by COMO Shambhala as part of the Drypers Soon-To-Be Mother’s Day campaign. Even though Finn is our third baby, it was a first for us because the past two pregnancies, we went for a grand total of zero prenatal classes. Our birthing plan was relatively straightforward – get to the hospital and start screaming for an epidural. Bam, problem solved.

Instead of trying to breathe away the pain, I could lie back and enjoy HIMYM reruns painlessly until the baby was ready to come out.

This round, I’m contemplating holding off the epidural for as long as possible and hopefully go for a hardcore natural birth without any pain medication. It’s a long shot and I’m likely to cave and cry like a baby at the first signs of pain but I’m going to try the breathing thing to see if it works.

We showed up for the class not knowing what to expect. Our level of tolerance for New Agey stuff is notoriously low and watching someone do the Garudasana or Natarajasana makes me giggle involuntarily. Yes, ok, I’m 12. In fact, the only pose that makes me not laugh is the Savasana, also known as the corpse pose, of which I am an expert.

Thankfully, we didn’t have to do any of those advanced yoga moves. Most of the 2-hour class was spent on relaxation techniques and simple poses to help manage the pain. The general idea is to get off the bed and into positions that will help move the labor along, positions that included squatting, grabbing a wall, hugging a chair, that sort of thing.

My favorite one was lying on my side with a bolster while the husband massaged my feet. It was so good that I’m going to make him do it every night from now until I give birth.

Besides this prenatal yoga class, Drypers has also organized a series of 7 other complimentary classes for expectant moms, to help them get ready for pregnancy in as many different ways as possible. The classes range from cooking to scrapbooking to photography, and even a babies book club. There will be 2 more classes in May: a Massage class for Daddies and Interior Decoration for Babies’ Nurseries. Sign up via the Drypers Facebook page and parents will get a complimentary goodie bag when they attend.

This is part 1 of a series of sponsored conversations on behalf of Drypers Singapore. All opinions and text are my own.

It’s got to be too early to be thinking of birth plans and post-birthing plans – like what I’m going to do with the third baby after he pops out, kicking and screaming. Actually, the kicking can be easily subdued with a baby swaddle but it’s the screaming part because that I’m mostly concerned about because it’s been almost 3 years since I’ve had to decipher the code that is an infant’s random but guttural and heart-wrenching cry. And then there’s the 3-hour feeding schedule, the sleepless nights, the breastfeeding battles, the blocked ducts and the post-natal depression.

The last couple of nights, I’ve been lying in bed tossing and turning, having a mild panic attack thinking about how I’m going to handle 3 kids on my own. I was expecting to hit this phase sometime in the last trimester but these blasted hormones are giving me an early delivery present.

I’ve been here before with the last 2 pregnancies and I know the best thing to do is to let the panic pass. After all, I do have a plan. Sort of. Ok, so it’s more like a fuzzy rough guideline I formulated in all of 2 minutes.

Which is this. 2 words: Do it.

Wake up every morning and face the madness head on. One feed after the next. One nap-time struggle after the next. One apocalyptic meltdown after the next. Sometimes several all the same time, but even the worst of those do pass.

I could possibly cave and hire a helper or a nanny to ease things a little bit but the masochistic part of me wants to give this a shot. Obviously, everyone is going to have to adjust. The husband will have to change a couple more diapers, the kids will have to take turns to entertain the baby and everyone is going to have fewer sets of clean underwear for a couple of months but we will find a way to soldier on. And there’s always disposable underwear to save the day.

Hopefully in the next couple of months, I’ll put together a more comprehensive plan but if there’s one thing I know about infants, it’s that they don’t give a rat’s ass about following plans.

So I’m probably better off taking all that time to catch up on my sleep now so I’ll be ready for the onslaught come August.