It's been six years now, but I still remember clearly (okay, not that clearly) the early, sleepy months after my daughter was born, and the comfort of nursing and rocking with a snuggly baby on my chest. Attempting to maintain some sort of a yoga practice in those days, I'd put her on the floor beside me, where she'd happily gaze up at my sun salutations.
But then all of a sudden she was crawling, all about going places and discovering things (which went straight into her mouth, edible or not). The novelty of mobility for her was much more exciting than the lap I had to offer. I felt like a sheep herder, constantly diverting her from unsavory things or snatching breakable items from her path. One of my daughter's favorite pastimes at this stage was to crawl into the most hard-to-reach corner of the room and sit placidly eating dust bunnies until I could heave the couch aside to retrieve her. (Needless to say the standard of cleanliness in our apartment had been lowered just a tad since she arrived.) And just like that, the days of her lying peacefully on the floor admiring my asanas were over.
If you're a new-ish mom, those 90-minute yoga classes you might have enjoyed pre-baby are most likely (at least for now) a thing of the past. And now that she's past infancy, the nature of the you-two yoga time may have changed, but all that means is so should the focus of your practice. I wish I had known then some of the ingenious ways to engage your baby in a yoga practice, which I learned by training with Sarah Perron and Laura Staton, the founders of Baby Om. Some of the mom-baby poses below and many more can be found in their wonderful book, Baby Om: Yoga for Mothers and Babies. In these partner poses, your baby becomes an active participant--you'll engage and excite her, so you'll both have fun. And you'll get a little hard-to-come-by-these-days exercise yourself.
Airplane: Lie on your back, with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Have your baby crawl up your legs until her head peeks over your knees, and you can hold her hands or just under her arms. Lift your feet off the ground, engaging your stomach muscles, until your lower legs are parallel to the floor. Smile and sing or at least say "wheee" as you gently swing your legs from side to side and give her an airplane ride. When you're ready, gently lower down and come in for a soft landing.
Baby Presses: Lie on your back and encourage your baby to crawl up on your chest. Holding around her ribcage, try some baby presses up and down, then hold your arms out straight and draw a figure eight in the air with your hands.
Seated Forward Bend: Sit facing your baby, with legs out straight and the bottoms of your feet on her belly; tickle her with your toes. Keep your back as straight as you can as you lean forward, maybe reaching for and holding your baby's hands.
Flying Butterfly Pose: Sit with knees bent and the bottoms of your feet together; pull your feet as close to your body as is comfortable. Encourage your baby to climb on your back, and hold on to your shoulders, or you can reach up and hold her hands. Lean forward and hold, or move forward and back and take her for a ride.
Savasana (relaxation): At the end of your session, even if it was short, see if you can lie down for a couple of minutes to close your practice. Put a lullaby on or sing one (or head to iTunes and download "namaste song," track 13 from Dance for the Sun.) Lie on your back with legs stretched out long, and gently lie baby on her back over your thighs, so she's doing an easy backbend. My six-year-old daughter still loves to lie like this.
