I’ve mentioned Blooma before in the blog earlier this year. Yesterday there was a lovely article in Variety by freelance writer Sarah Moran on the year old yoga studio in Edina. You can read it here.

Looks like a very nurturing and supportive environment for pregnant and postnatal women and their families - wishing this place was around when I was pregnant. Especially since it was hard to find a place that offered childcare while you take the classes.

Check out their schedule of classes and wellness services. The massages look great to me - my back is still whack after pregnancy, awkward carseat manuevers and solid toddler lifting. I’m hoping to sign up Ben to a Yoga for Tots soon.

Well, before babycenter.com can ever send you weekly e-mails letting you know that your growing embryo is the size of a sesame seed or a casaba melon - you actually need to get pregnant. They’ll be glad to help out there too by text messaging you with their weekly “Booty Caller” read on…

From the NYT:

Fertility help has gone mobile. BabyCenter, a parenting Web site, said it would introduce on Thursday the Booty Caller, a series of 18 ovulation alerts sent via text message. Sample message: “Your fertile window opens today and lasts 5 more days. Heat kills sperm so keep your mate away from the hot tub.” The service is free at babycenter.com

(My co-hort May commented - wait shouldn’t that be QUICKIE Call?)

I had to double check and make sure this was for real. It is indeed! You can sign up for Booty Caller here.

(again - thanks to Roadguy for sharing his Cribsheet related finds…)

Somewhere in that old dog-eared “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” is a quote that says “In some ways, your pregnant body is working harder even when you’re resting than a nonpregnant body is when mountain-climbing.” Ah, the validation for the days where I was spent just walking up and down a grocery store aisle. My body had been mountain climbing all day of course I was exhausted!

Speaking of climbing a mountain…I could relate.

We’ve had previous posts about what to pack in your hospital bag. Well, one of the things I packed the first time was the photo above. Peter took it of me atop Fairview Mountain (elev. 9000 ft) overlooking Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies. Pre-babies we had been Canadian Rockies addicts spending a week or two there every summer.  I kept saying we had become “scenery snobs” because, to us,  no other place could compare to the beauty of the area.

I set that photo next to my hospital bed to remind me if I could do that hike, I could do anything. (say, like push a baby through the birth canal). That climb had been the most challenging yet most rewarding feat I had accomplished up to that point.

I remember at one point during our climb on our way to the peak in the photo above. I looked down and there was a tiny plane flying so far below us it looked like a toy. It was a tough ascent but once we made it to the top the feeling was exhaustion combined with exhiliration. The view was gorgeous 360 degrees around! The beauty was dizzying and absolutely breathtaking.

Ben’s birth proved to be a long physically difficult test of endurance. I looked at that photo often for inner strength and to help me dig deep.  Peter hadn’t found the climb to be nearly as arduous as I did. I wanted him to relate somehow to what I was going through. As I neared hour #4 of pushing, I looked over at him and said - between pants. “OK. Now. I’ve. Been. Pushing. Longer. Than. It.  Took. You. To. Run. Grandma’s. Marathon.”  Granted he didn’t have the luxury of having an epidural for his run - but still….perspective.

So when I had  Vivian - I  packed a picture of a newborn Ben in my hospital bag. The more recent end result of the physically hardest most rewarding thing I’ve ever done.  The view when I was finished. Breathtaking.

I’m happy to say that if Ben was a marathon labor, Vivian was a 50 yard dash. A sprint.  She was a molehill not a mountain of a labor.  2.5 pushes and “Hello Vivian!” Phew. Much easier, but the end result just as rewarding. And again - the view, breathtaking.

It is funny how childbirth completely changes your threshold for pain. Now in my current training for the Iron Girl I’m tapping into all of the above experiences for motivation. If I can climb mountains and give birth. I can certainly do this duathlon. Right? Right!

So moms  during your delivery - did you summon up strength from any previous physical endeavor? Have you been able to accomplish things you never thought you could now that you’ve experienced labor and delivery?

We’ve seen the old movies and sitcoms where the expectant father nervously paces in the waiting room the nurse steps in and proclaims “It’s a boy!” or “It’s a girl!”  Said father then hands out the cigars and receives ‘attaboy’ pats on the back.

According to leading obstetrician, Michel Odent those “father in the waiting room” days should return. He thinks fathers in the delivery room hinder rather than help the mother with labor and believes the experience can also have negative repercussions down the road.

Read the article here. Thanks to Cribsheeter, Becky for alerting us to this story.

Personally, I bristled when I read this. Having my husband in the delivery rooms both times was amazing. I needed him for strength and support the first time with a difficult delivery. And, I will never forget his big fat happy tears that fell on my shoulder when the doctor proclaimed “It’s a girl!” with my easier second delivery. This was a shared experience and I can not imagine him not being there to witness our children entering the world and hearing our them cry for the first time.

But this may not be the case for everyone. 

What are your thoughts? Waiting room or Delivery room? Anyone have experiences to share either way?

Josephine Marcotty’s Bodytalk post today reminded me of just about every pregnancy appointment. Wow! Have you seen them around town?