The Hoop Experiment: maaliskuuta 2015

tiistai 31. maaliskuuta 2015

Pregnancy week 21 - it's a boy!

It's been a really busy week... Fire shows, glow shows, Parsifal-production rehearsals, music video shootings, hooping at the energy expo, my best friends baby shower etc. Normally I love action and busy schedule, but now I feel like the pregnancy is sucking all energy out of me. I feel a lot more tired than usually. But the best thing during this week was the ultra sound. We got to see our little one and it's a little boy!

After the glow show on last Friday

Hooping at the energy expo on Wednesday & Thursday

Our precious boy!

www.parsifal.fi. Run troughs for Parsifal on Sunday

Before the Fire show on last Saturday

The mental roller coaster ride is getting a little bit easier. I have finally found my inner zen, peace or what ever. Well, I feel fine most of the time! But when I put on my show costumes and look in the mirror, I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

I think it should look like this:

When it actually looks like this...

Gotta love these mama-pants

Oh, they say that pregnancy increases your flexibility. I have had trouble with my back flexibility after I quit gymnastics. The injuries and scoliosis made my back really stiff, but now I finally found my toes again! Yippii!

I am really amazed that I can still hoop without ANY problems! People can already see my baby bump and they ask all the time doesn't it bother my hooping. But not at all! Weird! Only sometimes the little one kicks in the middle of spinning, but that just feels funny and lights my day =)!

I made a video from last week's gigs. Didn't have that much time to edit it, but here comes the
video hooping from pregnancy weeks 20-21.

Have a nice spring!!

torstai 19. maaliskuuta 2015

Pregnancy week 19 - Roller coaster ride

Pregnancy week 19.
The baby is a size of a mango (and my brain is squashed banana smoothie.) Last week has been one long mental roller coaster ride. I thought it would be easier. At least I thought I was prepared getting bigger and ready to say no to performing. Well, it seems, it's not easy... Not for me. Honestly it's really really hard.

I've tried to keep myself fit during these years. Physically it's easier to do the shows and,well, standing in front of an audience wearing only shorts and small top feels more comfortable when the core is tight. So, I've pumped this image in my head (and in my core) during these years and now it's just not as easy to let go as I thought. I just have to try to suck it up and find my inner zen. The baby is now the number one... And when the little one kicks, I instantly feel better.

Saying no has always been hard for me, especially when it comes to performing. Doing shows is not just about getting my income, it's my passion. The way I see and define myself. I was suppose start my maternity leave in the end of may. Now it seems, I should step aside in the end of April. It's just so hard to say no to shows I've waited for so long to happen. Where is my inner zen? Oooommm... error, dysfunction....

Well, I try to enjoy these shows I still have ahead of me and then embrace the maternity leave...

Oh, since I'm in the middle of pregnancy, I took few rehearsal video clips for comparison. The other one is recorded in October (before pregnancy) and the other one is recorded yesterday (4,5 months pregnant).

Just before pregnancy

19 weeks pregnant (4,5 months)

Cheers!

perjantai 13. maaliskuuta 2015

Pregnancy weeks 14-18

I have felt more energetic during these weeks. I have trained, done shows, went back to gym and started eating more normally and healthy - like I used to. There were many days when I wondered am I pregnant at all? Well, then the belly started growing and during the 15 th week I felt the first little moves, which increased every day and became stronger. And the same time I became really aware that I had to struggle to fit my costumes... I couldn't help myself wondering, what does the costumer and audience think? Do I look fat - or just cute with my baby bump. At least I felt heavy and big... But it didn't affect my performance at all. I still could do everything in my hoop solo!

14 pregnancy week - Valentine's day. Belly shows only when you look from the side.

(Pregnant in many of these clips)

On pregnancy week 16 I felt the first time that I can't perform trough my whole pregnancy (surprise!). I had a free spinning gig in one night club. Free spinning means that I'm dancing with my hoop on stage while dj plays the music... This normally means around 10 pm-4 am. Few breaks here and there. Around midnight I was really exhausted! And what happened to me for the first time, when my abs and muscles became tired, I could no longer do multi hooping on my body (well a long period of time at least)... I switched to poi every 20 minutes. When it was finally 4 am. I literally passed out to my hotel bed... and felt extremely tired for three days!

No nightclubbing for this mama for a while

Now I'm in the end of 18th pregnancy week and you can clearly see the belly. This week I also noticed that I can't do inversion anymore. Headstands, shoulder stands etc. make me dizzy and little bit nauseous. Everything else is still do-able.

Summary:

+ More energetic

+ Feeling more like me again

+ Multi hooping with 5 hoops still doable.

- No more inversions

- Back pain

- Gotta hate the sellulite

First trimester (weeks 1-13)

Oh, wau... The first trimester.. don't miss it at all. It was 8th of December when I got the positive test result and right after the test I started feeling really ill and nauseous. Especially in the morning. In the evening I was just so tired that I couldn't do anything else, but lay on the sofa and eat - carbs - all the time. Well, I did the shows already booked, but other than that, I basically lived my days on our sofa.No training for me during that time. It was a relief that my Christmas holiday started early...

New Year's performance

On January (and + 5 kg later) I finally started feeling little bit better during the days and hit back the training hall...

Training with Milla

If I ate really well (read carbs) I could perform as well.... Two shows were 9 am in the morning, which meant that I had to wake up around 4.30 am. Eating rye bread right after I got out of bed helped a lot.

Fooling around before the show

So, First trimester summary:

- Feeling really ill

- Tired

- almost no training

+ Still could do everything with hoop, even the inversions.

About The Hoop Experiment and me

Is hooping your passion? Mine too!
Hooping fills my days in so many ways... It brings me joy, it keeps me fit, it keeps me motivated and it helps me to pay my bills. At the moment I work as a professional show performer in Finland and abroad as well; Fire shows, glow shows, hoops, poi, staff, singing, gigs, teaching in workshops and of course training fill my calender. Hmm.. At least filled my calender.

On November (2014) my husband and I got some great news.We are going to have a baby! Yai! The baby is more than wanted and welcome! We jumped for joy! Still slowly these questions started to pop up in my head: How to combine growing belly and hooping successfully together? Will I be able to still hoop, especially multi hoop and how long? And what happens after, do I have to learn on-body multi hooping all over again?
I tried to google answers to my questions, but I couldn't find that much of a info - especially about multi hooping, so I decided to make an experiment of my own - Hooping while pregnant and hooping post partum. You'r welcome to join my prego hooping journey =)!

Few throw -backs: