Gratitude

New Start at MamaSpace Yoga

New Start

By Carol Gray, LMT, CST, RPYT, ERYT-200 In yoga practice we often say that each breath is a new beginning, a do-over. As 2020 gets closer to the finish line, I know we all feel like we could use a good do-over, something really different, not anything like this year, especially the things we didn’t like. Enough already. We want something truly different. Yet the temptation is great to keep

Mimi The Pandemic Dog at MamaSpace Yoga

Pandemic Fatigue

By Carol Gray, LMT, CST, RPYT, ERYT-200 I’ve been reading about pandemic fatigue. I’m tired of the pandemic. It’s pretty easy to fall into complaining about the things I love, but can’t do until – when? I was talking with my doctor recently. She said that she asks her patients what new thing they have learned during the pandemic. For many of us, learning is a key to happiness. What

A View of the MamaSpace Yoga Video Studio

I Miss Teaching In-Person Prenatal Yoga Classes

By Carol Gray, LMT, CST, RPYT, ERYT-200 As I stand in our old yoga studio, I prepare to begin again. I’ve rearranged this room – several times. In some ways it’s almost unrecognizable. I’ve moved shelving and props. I’ve hung blankets from the ceiling and walls to produce better sound quality for our yoga videos. I’ve hauled lighting and camera equipment up and down flights of stairs. I’ve spent hours

Nugget's Birth - a Birt Story at MamaSpace Yoga

Nugget’s Birth

Dearest Carol, Thank you for your blessings and teachings! Our nugget arrived 2 weeks early. 2 days before labor baby was positioned transverse! :/ Dr wanted to manually reposition baby but baby had other plans. Everyone told me not to worry because we still have time. However, we learned later we really don’t.  Thanks to you I applied the cat/cow pose during my contractions. Baby’s head dropped to the correct

Edith’s Birth

Edith was born at 9 pm after almost 24 hours of labor and an hour of pushing. Our birth did not go as planned and I was ready for the unexpected. One of the things I focused on in the last trimester was letting go and remembering that at the end of the journey you meet your child, no matter what the steps on the path look like. At our

Graham’s Birth

Baby Graham was born on July 2nd (Monday) and we couldn’t be more in love! On June 29th (Friday) I started having contractions about every hour or less but was only dilated to a 1. On Saturday they started increasing and were about 10 minutes apart most of the day. I started doing lots of goddess pose when I felt good and then a lot of cat/cows when I was

Caroline’s Birth Story

I’m new to Portland and don’t have much of a support network here. I saw Carol’s website and thought I’d give it a go! I’ve spoken to some people since that said they were skeptical about how good it would be because it was free…I had a bit of that but not enough to stop me going and boy am I glad that I went. It was my little oasis

A Standing Birth

Our baby girl arrived this morning at 4:12 am after 6 hours of labor. I can’t thank you enough for all of your help and guidance. I stood during the whole labor and delivery…a position I only realized was possible because of you!!! All the people helping with the delivery kept saying it looked like I knew what I was doing…and I kept saying I am only practicing what you

Making Room For Babies

I just thought you’d be interested  to hear that after prenatal yoga on Sunday, our little guy had a very active night of movements. I could feel his little hand down by his head keep moving and it felt like he was trying to turn around. Then on Monday, my husband and I were feeling my belly to see where baby was and I thought I felt the spine along

Mina’s Birth Story

I went into labor Sunday night after yoga and a perfect date night with my husband. We chose his name during dinner and boom, 11pm my water broke. With my first, it was an explosive break right before she came out, so this time, I was not even 100% sure if I had imagined the feeling at first… like a tiny water balloon popping. But then when I moved, I