Welcome, Oz!

Congratulations to Blooma yoga teacher Bridgett Erickson! She birthed a beautiful baby boy named Oz on Saturday, Feb. 6. He weighed in at 8 lbs, 2 oz. Welcome to the world, sweet boy! We'll post a picture when we get one. 


In the meantime, enjoy these lovely belly shots recently taken of Bridgett. These gorgeous images were captured by Leann Manning of honeybee & peony. 


Big love to you, Bridgett!


Love,
Alisa, Sarah & the women of Blooma 

Blooma Birth Story: Sue + Alexander

I just wanted to pass along the great news that Alexander Stephen joined our family on January 12, 2010 at 3:25a.m.!!  He weighed in at 8 lbs. 3 oz. and was 21.75 inches long.  He is an absolute perfect sweet angel and we couldn't be more in love with him! 

I am so grateful to you and Blooma for all you had done for me throughout my pregnancy. I feel as though my body was so well-prepared for labor and I was able to breathe through a lot of my contractions without losing focus. Thank you for all you do and I cannot wait to come back with my new little man to the baby yoga classes and to join the new moms group!

Sue

Birth Birth Story: Sharra + Mylo

Dear Sarah and Blooma staff,


I've been meaning to update you and time has been going by so fast.  I delivered my baby boy, Milo Christopher, on December 20th at 4:34 am at St. Joe's.  He was 9 lbs 7 oz and 21 inches long. Labor and delivery went great and he arrived 45 minutes after we got to the hospital!  So, the waterbirth we were planning for didn't happen but it was beautiful and everything that my husband and I hoped for.


I sincerely thank you for your guidance, support and inspiration through my pregnancy.  I loved the prenatal classes and I always left feeling fulfilled and positive in the anticipation of giving birth.  Milo and I will definitely be at the BYOB classes and probably the new mothers group that's starting up too.


Sharra

Blooma Birth Story: Kristina + Brinegar

Hello Blooma!


My baby daughter is here! The after-Christmas prenatal class I attended on Dec. 26 must have worked some magic, because I went into labor the next day. Brinegar Rose (rhymes with 'vinegar' - my grandma's maiden name) was born by water birth with the midwives at Woodwinds on Dec. 28 at 1:37 am. She was 7 lbs 2 oz.

Thanks to Blooma for all the advice and breathing/yoga techniques I used during labor, and thanks to Amber Kay for being an awesome doula! Can't wait to join you again for the BYOB classes when Brin is a few weeks older.

Kristina

Blooma Birth Story: Jennifer + Claire

We have so many great birth announcements and birth stories that have poured in during the last several months that I've decided to make this week Blooma Birth Stories Week on the Blooma blog. Tune in all week to read along, gaze at super cute baby pictures, and send all these new mamas and babies some love. As always, feel free to share your birth stories for the blog by sending them to info@blooma.com.

Namaste,

Alisa, Sarah & the women of Blooma

Blooma Birth Story: Jennifer + Claire

Well, after thinking I was going to be pregnant forever our little pumpkin arrived on Halloween Night a week before she was due. Her name is Claire Marcella Jane and she weighed 7 lbs 2 oz and was 20.5 inches long. She was born at 9:37 pm after my water broke at 8:00 pm on the 30th of Oct.  

I was very lucky to be able to labor at home from Friday night until about 8:30 pm on Saturday night.  We arrived at the hospital at 8:55 and she was born in less then an hour.  I guess we were cutting it kind of close, according to most the hospital staff but that's exactly how I wanted it.  Plus I was able to do all of it without any pain meds or epidural (even though I was begging for one right before she was born).  

 

It was pretty intense but I had a fabulous team supporting me including my husband and rock star doula, Sarah. I couldn't have done it without either one of them. It was such a powerful experience being able to give birth and then walk to my hospital room after it was all over. 

I want to thank all of woman of Blooma for all the support they gave to me through out my pregnancy. All of you helped me accomplish my perfect birth.
 

Jennifer and Claire

Blooma Birth Story: Theresa + Lola Marie

Blooma mama Theresa is one of the first moms to let us know about her 2010 arrival. Here's what Theresa wrote to us:

Lola Marie was born on January 3, 2010— 10 minutes shy of her due date. She weighed in at 6 lbs, 14 oz, and was 21 inches long.

We had a rockin' 33 hour labor. It started Saturday afternoon, and we went to the hospital on Sunday morning. It was the most amazing thing I have ever experienced in my life. Our doula, Liz Abbene, was fantastic and talked me out of about every intervention possible. I was nearly paying the midwives to give me an epidural and a C-section when the head was nearly out (the midwives were laughing at me). Haha!! As soon as that baby was put on my chest, that all seemed like history.

Welcome to the world, sweet Lola. Thanks, Theresa, for sharing your story and congrats on a job well done!

Love,
Alisa, Sarah & the women of Blooma

Blooma Birth Story: Gretta

Thanks to Gretta for sharing the story of her inspiring August VBAC at Methodist Hospital. She shares her experience below in a letter to Sarah Longacre, Blooma owner and prenatal yoga teacher. Welcome to the world little Lydia, and well done, mama!

Love,

Alisa & the women of Blooma

__

Sarah,

I wanted to share our VBAC story with you as I credit a lot of our success to our time at Blooma. Thank you so much for the yoga, tips, advice, and workshops you provide.

Monday night I was three days past my due date and started to have contractions that lasted through the next day. I had them about 20 minutes apart and they stopped around 2:30 p.m. So, I decided to kick it in gear with one last (hopefully) yoga session before she was born.

That night I started contractions again at around 9 p.m. and they quickly intensified. By 11:30 p.m. they were 3 and a half minutes apart and we were calling my sister to come over to watch our 2 year old. We reached Methodist hospital at 1:20 a.m and I was 6 cm dilated!!

By the time we got checked in and up to get an epidural I was at 8 cm! Before we knew it I was completely dilated and decided to get some rest while my body did some work with the contractions. I ended up learning through our doctor that my pelvis is small and tilted which probably caused our son, Walter, to be sunny side up and that this little one was presenting herself the same way. I was told that this could be a good thing, as this may be how she has to come in order to get around my pelvis!!! Great news as we were told that Walter wouldn't make it because of his presentation.

What a difference a positive doctor makes!!!! We were encouraged to make it this time and told of all our options. He did say another C-section was possible, but he also told me what I had to do to make this a VBAC. He was very encouraging and gave me the extra push by saying I could do it and it was possible.

So, at 9:45 a.m. Lydia Anne was born. She was four days past her due date and weighed 6 lbs. 5 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches long. I kept saying "We did it! We did it! We did it!" while she rested on my chest.

I never felt like more of a "Goddess," as you would say in our classes, and never more powerful in my life. It was the biggest personal accomplishment I could have made. After the whole experience, I truly believe that God made Lydia the size she needed to be and the presentation she needed to be in in order to make it into the world! I also am very grateful to my doctor for his support with my VBAC.

After Lydia was born I told my husband that I think your yoga classes are what really inspired me to have a successful VBAC. I have never felt more engaged with my body than when I was in your classes. Thank you so much for your compassion for pregnant women. You are very talented at what you do. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

-Gretta

Blooma Birth Story: Kara

Sometimes you just have to break the "rules of blogging." One of those supposed rules is to keep posts somewhat short. But you know what, I say bah! to rules of blogging. Sometimes stories are too important and too good to shorten. This birth story is one of those stories. It comes from a mama named Kara, about the birth of her daughter, Phoebe. It's open, honest, and raw with emotion. It gives an inside glimpse into Kara's labor, whether she's finding a way to move through moments of fear, or surprised at her ability to laugh at a joke while pushing. Thanks for sharing your story with us, Kara, and congratulations!

Love,
Alisa, Sarah & the women of Blooma

___

In Kara's words:

I know how important it was for me to read positive birth stories, especially ones with first-time moms, when I was pregnant so I'd thought I'd send you my story...

October 30, 2009 7:44 p.m.

She's here! Before too long goes by, I'm trying to write down the story of Phoebe's birth. It was so incredible in so many ways—and yet so perfectly uneventful and boring as births go, which I'm so thankful for. Blooma was such a place of sanity for me—I always left feeling confident, rejuvenated, and ready to take on the world!

During labor, I found myself repeating "I can do this!" over and over again as a sort of mantra, which really surprised me since I've never been someone who found mantras especially helpful. As a Labor and Delivery RN, Blooma was also a place where I could actively focus on positive birth stories, and push out of my head some of the more challenging ones I'd seen at work.

On Thursday morning (Oct. 29th), I felt the first real sense of hope that I wasn't going to be pregnant forever (I was 41 and 2 days pregnant)—or at least wasn't going to have to be induced on Monday (which had been a tentative plan)—when I noticed that I had quite a bit of red "bloody show." I'd also had a couple of contractions the night before that had made me pay attention, but hadn't really affected my sleep. I let our midwife know later that morning, but kept the normal routine going. I went to yoga, where Sarah told me that she felt a lot of birth energy coming off of me and reassured me that it would be soon.

We went to bed both excited and disappointed that nothing had happened.

I'm calling the start of my real labor at 2 a.m. on Friday, October 30, which brings my total length of labor about 16 hours long. I was able to rest through most of the contractions up until that point, when I woke Jim up and asked him to get the bed ready (put on the second set of sheets and waterproof cover) and to let him know things were heating up. After that, though, he went back to sleep since I was able to cope and still rest through some of the contractions and we both knew we should rest while we could.

At 6:30 that morning, I woke Jim up again to call in the troops as I felt things were really starting to get serious. I was still reluctant to consider myself in active labor, but was having to breath through them more and threw up once, so we called our midwife Kim, who canceled a postnatal trip to Wisconsin and told her we'd call her when we wanted her to come over. We also called my mom and sister in law, who we'd invited to attend the birth.

With the introduction of my support folk, I found my contractions slowed down to every 6-8 compared to 4-6 minutes, but their presence energized me and we had a good couple of hours talking. Things I found very helpful coping during these contractions were standing or kneeling and having Jim (or someone else) count during the worst of the contraction. It helped to focus on his voice and to know about when it was peaking. Although they weren't very frequent, they lasted at least a minute, usually closer to a minute and 45.

I finally went upstairs around 11:45 a.m. to try to get my contractions closer together and to refocus myself a little. Meanwhile, Kim had encouraged us to fill up the tub, since it would take awhile and it would occupy Jim for a long time, which it did.

We finally had Kim come over to check on us at 12:30 p.m., where I was very pleased to find out I was 3-4 cm dilated, 80 percent effaced, zero station with a bulging bag of membranes. I had been worried I wasn't going to be at all dilated and would have to reframe my idea of labor if that was the case. I still knew it could be many hours before this baby came, so I encouraged Kim to leave, which she did—saying I could call her back whenever and she had to renew her tabs anyway, which we all found pretty amusing.

Knowing I had made good progress gave me renewed energy and I spent an hour or two downstairs again with Amy and my mom, eating lightly on apples, a piece of cheese, and some popcorn. By 2:30 p.m. I was feeling less able to cope and more and more interested in the tub, so we called Kim and asked her to return to check me again.

By this point, I'd started coping with my contractions by repeating, "I can do this" over and over again, which surprised me but again allowed me to focus on the words and not the pain. I also found it very soothing to have a view of the window and to watch the leaves blowing in the wind. Kim arrived and checked me at 3:30 p.m., and Jim (and I) were so pleased to find out that I was 6-7 cms, able to be stretched to an 8, again with a bulging bag.

Kim called the secondary midwife, Gretchen, and her apprentice, Laura to get everyone here, and I quickly got into the tub. The tub was wonderful! It didn't take away the contraction pain completely, but it was so relaxing, and it was such a relief to be allowed to float and rest my body. I got into the tub for 2 hours, getting out occasionally to use the bathroom, but eventually I got too hot and got out.

At 6:20 p.m., I hadn't changed my cervix, although the bag of waters was descending I asked to have my bag of waters broke, which Kim did, and it had clear fluid—this brought baby down to +1 station and made my cervix go to 8-9. The next part of my labor was pretty wild, as the pain got very intense, very quickly and my previous methods of coping were not working.

Things I remember from that hour are:
- Hitting the bed in frustration
- Pushing the ball, which I'd been leaning on, violently away and Jim pushing it back, which made me furious for some reason
- Telling Jim he needed to stop talking
- Feeling very trapped, but having nowhere to go

Poor Jim! He told me later that this part was the hardest because I was in so much pain, and he couldn't do anything. Quickly though, I felt like pushing but was very nervous about pushing too early. It became clear I was pushing, however (I also think I was saying out loud, "Don't push too soon.") and Amy went down to get the midwives who had stepped downstairs for a few minutes.

They had me get back in the tub at 7:20 p.m., where I almost immediately started pushing. On a side note, the midwives had ordered a pizza at about 6:45, which arrived at 7:25, perfectly timed that no one could touch it until after the birth. The folks downstairs had joked that the baby would arrive before the pizza, and Kim commented that it would be fabulous if it did, since that meant I was so close.

I was oblivious to a lot of what was going on at the time, but someone made a joke at one point during pushing, and I smiled (and Amy caught it on camera), which was incredible even to me at that point—in between contractions I could interact with people, but was so out of it during.

I pushed in a variety of positions: hands and knees, flipped over over floating in my back, on just my knees holding the side of the tub. I know I made a lot of noise during this part of labor—the feelings were so overwhelming and I think I was also afraid it would last a long time and I didn't think I could handle it. Jim was right in front of me; I could see he'd been tearing up and that he was so excited we were at this point in labor. Kim was very soothing, reminding me to push in long, steady pushes and I remember her saying "It's not going to be a long pushing stage. You're pushing very well."

I also could feel the baby inside and between nearly every contraction, I would check my progress. It was very surreal to feel her move down—I could tell she didn't have much hair!

At one point, near the end, Kim was providing counter pressure and I felt an extremely painful movement down there and I snapped at Kim to "Stop it! What are you doing?" but it wasn't Kim, it was the baby internally. It happened again, and I yelled at her again, but she just calmly replied that she wasn't doing anything—it was the baby, which I didn't really believe at the time.

At around that point, someone asked me a question, and my answer was, "No, I'm going to catch my baby" and I pushed her head out, paused while Kim checked for a cord, and then pushed her shoulders out.

Kim and I brought her up together and it was such a relief to have her out! She had her cord wrapped around her back and then twice around her foot, like a little ballerina dancer. She had her eyes open and was pinking up great, but waited about 30 seconds to cry. I looked down and saw she was a girl and a cheer went up. Then, when she did give a nice, lusty cry, Amy burst into tears and jumped up and down. Jim was crying and so happy, and I was so proud and yet still shocked that I had done it. I kept repeating, "I did it!"

I stayed in the tub for a few more minutes, cooing over my lovely daughter, with Jim at my side, and then after the cord had stopped pulsing, Jim cut it and I handed our new baby to him, while I got out and into the bed. Phoebe was born at 7:44 p.m., weighed 7 lbs 8 oz, 21 inches long.

Her Apgar scores were 9 at 1 minute and 10 at 5 minutes. I'm not sure how we ended up with a long, skinny baby when we are more like hobbits, but she's here, she's beautiful and she's ours.

Blooma Birth Story: Angela

Thanks to Blooma mama, Angela, for sharing the birth story of her son, Grayson! In her words:

___

"It all started on a Tuesday night...

I woke up Tuesday night bleeding. I called the nurses' station at St. Joe's (where I was going to birth) to see what to do. They told me to come in. I was still not dilated and they said that this was a normal occurance. At this time I was having very mild contractions that just felt like cramps. After a few hours we were discharged.

Wednesday I worked from home and continued to have contractions that felt like cramps. They picked up in intensity a bit by Wednesday afternoon. My husband Cory and I decided to head to the Fair for a distraction. We had just paid to park ($11) and were walking to the gate when my water broke. I ducked into a port-a-potty to see if it was really my water or just my bladder. I couldn't really tell. So we walked back to the car to find something else I could use to soak up some of the fluids and decide whether to turn around or go into the Fair. Just then, another gush of liquids came and we decided that with that we would head home.

It was a long night with me breathing through my contractions throughout the night. We got some sleep, but not much. Now it was Thursday. I knew I wasn't going into work so I emailed my boss to tell him I wouldn't be in that day. We spent the day breathing through contractions, working with distractions and talking to our fabulous doula, Liz! We watched the movie Yes, Man, walked around Long Lake Regional park, took multiple walks around the block and just enjoyed each others' company (all while breathing through contractions).

Around 4 p.m. the contractions picked up again in intensity. I was a bit nervous that we were not at the hospital since the doctor told me to go in immediately if my water broke. I just didn't want to be confined there, but I also didn't want to get an infection. So after talking it through with Liz we decided to wait it out. By that evening the contractions were coming stronger. I was crying for an epidural by 8 p.m. and ready to head out the door as soon as Liz got there. Cory even called the hospital to let them know we were coming in.

But lo and behold Liz came around 9 p.m. We were all stationed in the bedroom with very dim lighting and Liz' peaceful, calming voice encouraging me to work with each contraction. Cory and I would "slow dance" through them—each one lasting about a minute. I was still crying for an epidural. At this point Liz had me jump in the tub.

The contractions came less frequently and I was able to get some rest finally between them. She explained to me what would need to be done in order to get an epidural. I was wanting a quick fix, willing this child out of me right now—no matter what. And that's not what an epidural would have done.

After the tub we were back in the bedroom with me on the birth ball. Cory said that it was here I was a changed person. The contractions weren't as bad. I was much more relaxed and able to handle them by just breathing, hip circling, and imagining how powerfully they were helping to open the cervix. Around 1:30 a.m. I felt a slight urge to use the bathroom (not pee). This was a good sign. It was time to go in to the hospital.

Cory called St. Joe's to make sure they still had a room for us and to let them know we were heading in for real. I climbed in the back seat of the Honda on all fours and did my hip circles with Liz applying pressure on my lower back. In the 15 minutes I only had 2 contractions and was able to breathe through them. I was in my zone now.

When we got to the hospital Cory dropped Liz and I off at the emergency room and parked the truck. We had to wait for a nurse to come escort us up to our room. I had one little pit stop before getting into the elevator for a contraction. But we made it. I was hooked up to the fetal heart monitor and the other monitor for contractions for 20 minutes. They checked me—7 cm dilated!!! We couldn't have been happier!

After my 20 minutes on the fetal monitor were up I was able to get into the awesome tub and work through more contractions. I was getting close. I was now between an 8 and a 9. However, I didn't progress much after this. A shift change occurred and the labor and delivery nurse came into check me. She said either the kid had no hair or I still had a second bag of water in the way of the cervix. We decided to break the water bag. After she did this things progressed very quickly. Within an hour I was ready to push. The doctor had been called and here it was time to push.

They could no longer distinguish between my heartbeat and the baby's so they put a fetal heartbeat monitor in his forehead to pick up his heartbeat. It was low, so they hooked me up to an oxygen tank where I was coached to breathe deeply—once for me, once for baby, and once for my uterus.

It was now time to push. I started pushing around 9:30 a.m. and before long they were were calling the doctor NOW because the baby's head was right there. One more push and it was out. One more push and he was half out. One more push and at 10:01 a.m. on Friday, Sept 4, 2009, Grayson Jeffrey entered the world and was put right up on my chest. All perfect 6 lbs. 2 oz. of him. I couldn't have done it without my AMAZING support team of Cory and Liz and the fabulous nurses at St. Joe's. What a perfect ending to a beautiful pregnancy"

Congratulations, Angela! Thanks so much for sharing your story with all of us.

Love,
Alisa, Sarah & the women of Blooma

Blooma birth story: Rebecca

We are so honored that so many of you want to share your birth stories! And we've been receiving so many lately that we're going to make this a regular feature of the blog. (If you want to share yours, e-mail it to me at alisa@blooma.com.)

Today we hear from a mama named Rebecca who wrote to me saying, "I never tire of hearing about people's amazing birth experiences and I think it is so important for women to have a chance to hear the full range of possibilities."

If you're a birth story junkie like Rebecca (and those of us at Blooma), follow this link to Rebecca's blog. She sprinkles her story with plenty of humor, including details of "groaning that morphed into loud, low MOOing" and compares herself at one point to "a most unsexy, mooing pole dancer." I was a vocal birther myself, so this description made me laugh out loud with understanding! Thanks for sharing, Rebecca!

Love,
Alisa, Sarah & the women of Blooma

A Boring Birth (impossible!)

We were touched by a mother's story posted recently on a blog for the local chapter of the International Cesarean Awareness Network (ICAN). Martha Basham's written birth story is beautiful, inspiring, and poignant. So then why does she refer to it as "boring?"

She writes, "it wasn’t was dramatic. Or scary. Or painful. It wasn’t anything that people typically envision in a birth. And it was nothing like you see on T.V. By all means, Isaiah’s entrance into this world would probably be classified by some, as boring...

"But really, I would not call it boring. Sure, it wouldn’t make for good T.V. but I wouldn’t call it boring. I would call it peaceful. Joyous. Beautiful. Calm. Relaxing. Even triumphant."

To read Martha's entire story, head over to the ICAN blog. We never get tired of empowering birth stories like these!

Love,
Alisa, Sarah & the women of Blooma

Cindy Crawford talks birth

Here's a bit of celeb gab for you. Cindy Crawford shares her birth story, in two parts, on MyBestBirth.com. Here is part one and here is part two. What fun insight to how one of the world's most famous super models gave birth!

Love,
Alisa, Sarah & the women of Blooma

From epidural to au naturel... one woman's story

In case you haven't heard of "Dooce," she's a mom blogger in Utah who writes with serious sass, a foul mouth, and oh—did I mention she's hilarious? She has a 5-year-old daughter and a wee one who's just about a month old.

In one of her most recent blog postings she compellingly tells the very, very beginning of her youngest daughter's birth story, writing about how, in her opinion, women who choose home birth and natural childbirth must be just plain nuts. (It gets better, keep reading.)

She writes, "Up until about the 30th week of my pregnancy I hadn't given labor much thought, only that I was going to ask for the epidural two days before contractions started. I'm not kidding, that was the extent of my birth plan."

Many women decide to do just that. But curiously, just weeks before her labor, Dooce somehow jumped from give-me-pain-meds-NOW to deciding to hire a doula and plan for a natural childbirth. She said the change of heart came surprisingly from a book she had planned to hate.

Of this book, called Your Best Birth, Dooce writes about how it initially made her crazy amounts of angry, even calling the book's writers "hippies" who must "smell like patchouli." But then, something about it got to her.

Now she writes: “If you are pregnant or are planning to become pregnant, GO READ THAT BOOK. From now on when someone asks me what is the one piece of advice I would give to a pregnant woman, it will be: GO BUY A COPY OF THAT BOOK.”

I personally haven’t read it yet, but my intrigue has been upped even more by Dooce's posting. Have you read it? If so, let us know what you think. Leave a message here or e-mail me at alisa@blooma.com.

Meanwhile, I can't wait for the rest of Dooce's postings about how her birth turned out. She does refer to it as a "sacred and spiritual experience," so I'm guessing it went pretty well. Plus, her new daughter Marlo is just plain beautiful. Congrats, Dooce!

Love,
Alisa, Sarah & the women of Blooma