Baby Backbends

Welcome back to Acura Yoga Family. This practice today will take us through a lot of different kinds of backbends for you and baby. I encourage you to really think about what feels good and go in that direction. Let go of the other stuff. We'll start the way that we always begin taking three centering breaths. Sweep your hands to the sky. Exhale, palms to center. Inhale, looking up, lifting up. Exhale to center. Inhale, sweeping in, filling up. Exhaling, letting go of anything that doesn't serve you today. Join me for three deep om's. Breathing in. And we'll start with our song, The More We Get Together. I'll take it through twice so you can listen and then join in. The more we get together, together, together. The more we get together, the happier we'll be. For your friends are my friends and my friends are your friends. The more we get together, the happier we'll be. Once more, here we go. The more we get together, together, together. The more we get together, the happier we'll be. For your friends are my friends and my friends are your friends. The more we get together, the happier we'll be. Let's get moving. Baby can be with you and may mimic what you're doing or may sit watching you by your side as we take my first vinyasa. Starting on hands and knees, inhale to cow, moo. Exhale around your spine to cat, meow. Take child's pose, which we'll also call little mouse pose. You can say squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak. And then slide forward into little cobra, tss. Press back through table to your downward facing dog and take three nice breath cycles here. Walk your dog by bending one leg. Inhale through center. Exhale, bend your other leg. Inhale through center. Bring your knees back down onto the earth and inhale, moo. Exhale, meow.

Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak. Slide forward, tss. And once more, downward facing dog. And you can say woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof. Inhale here. Keep making sound or relax on your breath. Remember, taking two to three minutes as you bring your knees down, come back to seated. Taking a few moments of mindful movement every day will teach your child that you are taking care of yourself. And now we'll go into some bridge raises. Your baby can be seated on you as you roll back down. Use your glutes to squeeze and lift you a little higher. And exhale, roll on down. Once more, just like that, igniting the strength in your back to lift your heart higher.

Exhale, rolling down. Take your baby off to the side, roll onto your side, and press up into seated. Good job. Nice little warm up right there. Next up, we will use some different props to both support baby and you in a back bend. The first one is taking a very small ball. I really like this slightly soft ball, but you could use any ball like a soccer ball or basketball. So you'll lift up baby and we'll start. I know this isn't a back bend, but they really enjoy a little roll on the ball first. And if they're struggling a little bit, you might turn them around so that they can face you. This also counts as tummy time. We will then flip baby over and allow them to relax in this very supported back bend. So my little guy is a little resistant right now. I don't really encourage you to press your baby into the shape and you might find that you roll two or three times and then bring them up to hold you, to look at you for a moment. The more you test in with these things, the more often that they're going to become receptive. So we start with a little ball and we have a second exercise. If you have a bigger ball at home, that's also nice. So take your small ball out to the side. Your baby might want to hold it. That's an option. And then place your baby at the top of your mat. They may or may not stay there like my baby. And take your big ball. Lower on to the ball with your sacrum. Feet are firmly on the earth and then begin to roll back. In the very beginning, you can interlace your hands behind the back of your head to ease into your back bend. And then when you feel ready, reach your arms out to the side and you can roll forward and back and maybe make a silly face at your little one while you get a very supported back bend. You can take your hands on the ground and maybe even press into straight-ish legs. Give your baby a kiss and then come back up. Press into the ball to come into seated. And the same sequence that we did on the small ball, we'll do on this larger ball. So start with baby facing towards you. Again, this counts as tummy time. So giving them a gentle roll, they get accustomed to this new texture. And then flipping them over, just as you enjoyed a gentle supported back bend, so can they. Sometimes they'll be really fussy if they can't see you.

So this is a great opportunity to spin them around so that they're rolling towards you while your hands are on their hips, supporting them. And when they're done, you can be done. This is a great place to take some little bounces. And then we'll move on to the rest of our class. So you might be wondering what you can do if you don't have a ball. Well, we'll take this into a little bit of core and a gentle backbend that baby can do with you. So you'll pick your little one up. You'll start by placing them on your legs and you can slide just a little bit up and then slide back down. So once that feels good to do a back bend and be upside down, your baby can rest right here. And then you can come into your boat pose. So a nice place to get into your core. I like to take two or three low boats, high boats. And as your baby gets bigger, you get stronger. And then come back, say hello to your baby and check in, make sure that they still feel good. And now we'll take it into a little bit of closing, cool down song. If you know this one, you can sing along. Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream, merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream. One more time. Here we go. Rocking side to side. Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream, merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream. We have a fun hip stretch where baby can watch by staying in the crook of your leg. Your other hand will come up and under to hold on to your foot. You can hold the other elbow under your calf. And we'll sing my favorite version of rock a by baby. Listen closely because the words are a little bit different than the original version that I used to sing when I was really little. Rock a by baby in the treetop, when the wind blows, the cradle will rock. When the bow swings so gently and sweet, it will send baby directly to sleep. Place your baby down. We're going to switch baby to the other side and take that once more. So here we go. Cradling your own leg, getting a nice little hip stretch. Sing along with me. Rock a by baby in the treetop, when the wind blows, the cradle will rock. When the bow swings so gently and sweet, it will send baby directly to sleep. Place that leg down on the ground. Give your baby a big kiss. And now we're going to set up for a restorative shavasana. We're going to come back into waterfall pose. So to set up, you might have to take baby off to the side. You'll place the block underneath your sacrum and reach your legs to the sky.

So unlike a regular restorative class, you might have somebody who wants to move a little bit. So we can start our waterfall shavasana by giving a little bit of movement, maybe giving everything a shake. And you might have a little like swimmy fish crawling over you and around you and upside down. That's okay. They might not be ready for stillness right now. And then your waterfall can freeze. And we'll take just two breaths, relaxing here. And then your waterfall unfreezes so you can have a little bit of movement. And then it freezes again, two more breath cycles.

And then once more, it unfreezes a little bit of movement, a little wiggle. Maybe your baby wants to crawl all over you. That's totally normal. It's okay. And then two more last breath cycles. Please feel free to pause here if you're both having a quiet moment. Place your legs back on the ground. Restorative bridge pose. Baby can be seated on you or next to you, whichever you both prefer. And then lift your hips, take your block off to the side, and then roll onto your side body. And once again, use the strength of your arms and your hands to bring you up into seated. And we'll take one om to close our practice today.

Palms together, breathing in with me. Thank you so much for joining me today and taking this time for your practice and your body. Namaste.