Kegels.

I hated them. I remember complaining about them this time last year. I thought they were overrated. “Who cares, they are so secondary and once this baby pops out, they won’t matter”.

After pushing for almost 3 hours, and a vacuum assist birth, I remember resting in my hospital bed thinking…”I wish I would have done my Kegels.” While, I think the kid just didn’t fit, I cant help but wonder if they could have helped my postpartum issues a bit. Come to find out, the PC muscles are often weakened by pregnancy and birth, and need to be worked out or they atrophy just like the rest of the muscles in our bodies. Yes, we want toned PC muscles just like our Gluteus Maximus. If we don’t tone them, we can find common issues like bladder control (hate sneezing?) and in serious issues, prolapse.

7 months later, everyday since March 14th-I am doing my Kegels. Moms-to-be, one word of advice: Kegels. For the love of God, Kegels. If you can count to three and hold your pee, you can do Kegels. For more information about Kegels: how to do them properly and the benefits, check out http://www.kegel-exercises.com/ and The Mayo Clinic’s article here: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/kegel-exercises/WO00119

My name is Sarah (like most of the western world) and mama to my first, Baby J. I am 28 years old and in 2004 married my husband and graduated college with a Bachelor’s in personal responsibility and conflict resolution (got to love roommates!). We live about a half a mile from the beach in a small coastal town in northern California. Just to clarify…no, I am not tall. No, I do not surf. (I am blonde, though, and you can catch me saying “totally” here and there). I am a pastor-turned-personal fitness trainer with an emphasis in sarcasm and dry wit. After giving birth to baby J and having a hard time losing the baby weight (and remembering what it was like to love fitness, pre-pregnancy), I decided to focus my attention on helping others with weight loss and healthy living, especially mamas.

I love good rock and roll. Even in the womb, baby J experienced his first concert (Ben Folds, at the Warfield at 23 weeks). I love a song with a strong melody laced in sardonic lyrics. And if my child didn’t need to sleep at night, we would be out at shows weekly. (But let’s be honest, who wants to deal with a cranky baby in the morning? Not I.) Most nights now, you’ll find me with a glass of wine or beer (or both) and a baby or fitness book.

Most of my entries here will focus on music, life on the coast, healthy living strategies and maybe recipe here and there. Oh, and of course-motherhood. I’d say my parenting style is one part attachment, one part by the seat of my pants, one part holy-crap-what-did-i-do, one part intentionality. Mostly, I love my kid and I am doing the best I can.

When I am not blogging or spending time with the family, you can catch me drinking coffee with friends, visiting social networking sites, cringing at American Idol, exercising on the beach or trying to organize my house after 3 years of neglect.

I was a cynic.

I truly believed that people who had children were really miserable on the inside. I believed that moms would talk about their babies, oogling over baby products, making crafts after storytime because they were delusional. They needed to tell themselves that they loved motherhood because they were committed to loving and raising a child for 18-24 years (or longer, if they are still living in the basement, mooching off mom and dad into their 30’s). Why not make the best of it? I was a jaded cynic.

Then it happened to me.

March 2009 marks the end of my cynicism. Here I was, hugely pregnant, wanting nothing more than my sciatic pain to go away and this baby to pop out. And after 2 days of contractions, 11 hours in the hospital and a vacuum extraction, baby J was born. He was beautiful. 7 pounds, 5 ounces of baby goodness. Each month, I fall more in love with this little human being. I want to talk about him all the time. I want to hold him, tickle him, hear his cute little squeal. I want him to have the best I can give him. I want to make crafts with him after storytime.

I am one of them. (But I still make sarcastic jokes, will never buy from Land’s End and hate to clean and bake.)