Okay, so it wasn’t quite *today*. I wrote this post when I was 8 weeks and 2 days preggo. But obviously, we weren’t broadcasting the news then. We were mostly just desperate to reach the 12 week mark.

But all that finger crossing, toe crossing, basically every part of my body crossing, was pretty much twisting me up into the tightest ball of tension, ever. I can be a little highly strung on a normal day. The first few weeks of pregnancy are not normal, by any stretch of the imagination – and I have a very stretchy imagination!

So, pregnancy yoga it was then. And in all honesty, despite the fact I was *slightly* worried that the rest of the (heavily pregnant, big-bumped) class would think I was a non-pregnant madwoman (bubba is the size of a peanut, “bump” just looks like a little bloat – if you look reeeeally closely) it was a good move.

Okay, it wasn’t exactly high-octane stuff. There was lots of deeeep breathing and plenty of references to baby (neat switch by the instructor, instead of telling us to pull our naval in, we were encouraged to pull our baby closer), but it did stretch me out a bit and it was only in the 10 minutes of relaxing at the end that I truly realised how tightly wound I was. (Unexpected pregnancy yoga bonus? There are cushions. Lots of cushions!!)

What’s more I’m pretty confident I’ll pick up some good tips for helping with labour (slightly scary thought!) and I’ll be able to keep this up throughout the whole pregnancy, even if i do end up the size of a whale (seems a long way off yet.) And the class were a *lot* more friendly then the average yoga crowd (no human pretzel types making downward dog look a bit too good.)

So, pregnancy yoga? It’s getting a big fat tick from me (and Baby Pearson too!)

PS. Big sigh of relief, at the 12-week scan all appeared normal…aside from the parents-to-be who instead of the usual tears, got slightly hysterical and couldn’t stop laughing.

Where I went: Shambhala Studios, Maple Avenue, Leigh on Sea, Essex SS9 1DJ. Telephone: 01702 478924. Website: shambhalastudios.com

UPDATE: Sadly Shambhala Studios stopped doing prenatal yoga classes when I was about 16 weeks pregnant. I’m 32 weeks along and LOVING the classes at Clements Place, Leigh-on-Sea (clementsplace.co.uk). There’s still lots of cushions and the crowd of mummys-to-be are just as friendly…