On my first day of vacation in San Diego in late October, we awoke to a thick blanket of fog.  We grabbed some exceptionally good coffee and a bacon breakfast sandwich (it was vacation after all) and hopped into our rented PT Cruiser and headed North to La Jolla.  The fog in La Jolla was even worse, we pulled into a parking spot right on the beach and couldn’t see a thing.  The only reason we knew we were at the beach was that there was a sign indicating as much.

It was about 8:30 am, and we had no idea what to do so Jonathan decided to go for a run.  I thought “wouldn’t it be perfect if I could find a yoga class!” so I started to do a GPS search on Jonathan’s phone to see if I could find a yoga studio.  No luck.  I’m not all that handy with GPS technology.  As I was hitting teeny tiny buttons and getting more and more frustrated by the fog and how much my vacation was sucking, I looked up to see two women with yoga mats walk right by me.  I was too stunned to speak, so luckily my husband flagged them down.  After they got over their fear that we were going to kidnap or mug them, they were nice enough to tell me that a free community class was going to start in the park at 9:00.  “Where is this park?” I asked, concerned I wouldn’t be able to find it with aforementioned GPS.  “Right there” they pointed.   It was about 15 feet away.

I ran to the public bathroom and threw on my yoga clothes which I had luckily thrown into the back of the rent-a-car on a whim.  I wandered back to the park and was trying to come to peace with the idea of practicing in the dewy grass, when I noticed a big pile of free mats.  Next to the free mats, two men were setting up an amazing amount of percussion instruments.

I spoke to the woman who appeared to be in charge and she informed me that this was a free class to celebrate the eight-year anniversary of the Prana Yoga studio in La Jolla (www.prana-yoga.com) and the one-year anniversary of the downtown La Jolla LuLu Lemon store. 

The class was taught by Gerhard Gessner, E-RYT who owns Prana Yoga.  He explained that it would be a Power Flow class.  As I sat on the mat, smelling the ocean and people watching all these West Coast yogis I started to get really excited to experience a different kind of yoga class.  I’ve only ever practiced at Dover Yoga, so I was eager to experience something new.

Gerhard was a great teacher.  He had a strong voice and I liked his pace as he led us through the flows.  I liked how he speckled the class with humor (in side plank “lift your left hand off your mat, ok now lift your right hand….haha just kidding”).  One thing he didn’t include was a lot of “fluff” as Carrie would call it.  His directions were all physical and anatomical.  However, he was struggling against the crashing waves and ambient park noise to probably about 50-75 people in a semi-circle around him.

The class was pretty strenuous, but right up my alley.  I loved the challenges and the flows that Gerhard chose.  Tons of sun salutations (my favorite!) and he even joked “Keep going, keep going!  It’s working, the sun is coming out!”.  The thing that really surprised me was its similarity to Flow classes I’ve taken at Dover Yoga.  Halfway through the class it hit me, yoga is yoga.  It’s 5,000 years old – it’s not going to change from coast to coast.

So as the sun broke through the clouds and burned off all the fog, I was forced to close my super sensitive eyes and go inward.  I was totally present in the moment – smelling the ocean, feeling the sun on my skin, smelling the grass, smiling at my good fortune of stumbling upon this class, listening to the soft sounds of the drums playing nearby, feeling the sweet release as my muscles stretched and worked and my body released the stress of a cross-country flight and jetlag.  I was on vacation.  In California.  Doing Yoga. Outside.  Breathing.  Life is Good.

Five years ago, right before I gave birth to my daughter, I had the full intention of going back to work after my 12 weeks of maternity leave. 

Then she was born, and I couldn’t go to the bathroom in the hospital without wheeling her crib thingy into the bathroom with me.  Those first twelve weeks passed in a blur or sleeplessness, total fear, depression, anxiety, and lots of bodily fluids flying around.  Layered beneath, and perhaps fueling all these feelings, was this gargantuan love that I felt for this teeny weeny, helpless baby.  I couldn’t even really go there and try to measure the love.  It was too scary.  And when I thought about going back to work, I couldn’t really go there either.  It gave me such a sick feeling in my stomach, made the back of my neck sweat.  It was like a primal response.  There was NO WAY I could leave this baby in someone else’s care.  Life at home was weird and scary and hard, but I would choose that any day over the pain of leaving her.

But what about my ideals?  I went to college!  I had a career!  I finally had a job I really liked.   I wasn’t going to give all that up for a mere baby.  How boring.  How 1957.

Right before the 12 week mark and my pending return to work, we flew to Florida to visit my husband’s parents.  On the way home, the panic started to really set in about returning to work.  If you’ve ever walked through an airport with a newborn,  you know how every woman you pass has to stop and oogle at the baby. 

Here’s my chance I thought – I’ll take a survey of all these moms.

“So, I’m trying to decide – did you go back to work or stay home with your kids?”

 The response was amazing.  Every woman I asked was so willing to talk to me about it.  All the women who had returned to work said things like,

“It’s really hard, but you can do it.”

“It stinks, but you’ll make it through.”

“You’ll feel guilty, but eventually it will get better.  It’s fine.”

The women who had chosen to stay home said things like,

“It was the best decision I ever made.”

“I don’t regret it.”

“They were the best years of my life.”

Everyone is different and has different needs, but for me, this little science experiment in the airport sealed my decision (I think I had already made up my mind anyway).  I quit my job the next day . It was the best decision I ever made.  I don’t regret it.  

What did you go through in deciding to go back to work or not?

I nursed all three of my kids for about one year each and the one product that I would highly recommend to other nursing mommas is Breast Shells.

Basically, it creates an air pocket for your nipple which allows them to heal a bit faster since they are not just hanging around in a damp nursing pad in between each feeding.

Also, the pressure from the shell can help alleviate engorgement.  I admit to even sterilizing the shells and collecting the milk that leaked out and freezing it! 

Does anyone else have any must-have products for nursing moms?