Crying. Spitting up. Nursing. These are not only accepted, but sometimes gently encouraged, in Jodi Earls' "Mommy and Me" class -- a yoga session designed for mothers with babies from four months to crawling age.

"Don't worry about the fussiness; it's all part of it," a radiant and smiling Earls reassured the mothers, starting the class by instructing the moms to place one hand on their heart and another on "baby."

A chorus of squeaks, gurgles and a lone wail fill the room. Over the course of the one-hour session the sounds would swing from baby bliss to distress and everything in between.

"As a group (the babies) ride this wave in the class, like in the beginning they're mellow with the om. And then when we're touching them they get the fussies and want to nurse. Then later they calm down a little bit," said Earls, a certified Anusara Yoga instructor who has been teaching yoga for five-plus years.

Her latest yogic venture -- teaching mothers and their newborns -- brings a whole new meaning to the traditional yogic goal of becoming more flexible.

Earls continually reassures the moms that "anything goes" as they incorporate their young ones the best they can into deep breathing exercises and some basic yoga poses -- downward dog, plank, and cobra.

"It feels like I haven't taken a breath all day," mused Jenny Gass, after raising her baby high for a deep inhale and then hugging her 10-month-old Allison on the exhale.

"Because we're alive we know we have been (breathing)," a chuckling Earls replied. "But we've probably been robbing ourselves of oxygen a little."

Earls, who has been teaching the "Mommy and Me" class at Napa Valley Yoga on First Street for about one year, said that as with all yoga practice, deep breathing helps the mothers and their babies move toward a calmer, more balanced state. For the past three years while teaching pre-natal yoga to pregnant women Earls pondered adapting a class to mothers and their just-born babies because it seemed like a logical progression. Ultimately, it would be having her first child -- Olivia, who is now 7 months old -- that inspired Earls to start up "Mommy and Me." Now Olivia accompanies and participates in every session.

"Overall, a yoga practice of any kind benefits us by helping us find a balance between our thoughts, emotions, and the body," Earls said. "Bearing a child throws you off balance. This helps the new moms find a harmony with the changes in their life and their body."

She said the deep breathing can "begin shifting the energy of the mom," she said.

"Our breathing is a reflection of energy in the body. As it deepens we become more calm. When we are calmer they generally become calmer," she said of the babies.

Earls believes this could be because the babies "organically" pick up on their mom's "shifts in energy and breathing."

Throughout the class the focus shifts from gentle stretches for baby to yoga poses for mom that sometimes include the little one in the movements and other times just allow for eye contact.

"The more we stretch our hamstrings, the more our lower back will forgive us for everything it's gone through," Earls said as she guided the mothers through a series of leg lunges.

Janie Falk, who owns and teaches at Napa Valley Yoga, said the goal of the "Mommy and Me" class isn't really to ingrain yoga techniques into children who can't yet crawl, or even for mom to master yoga. Instead, the hope is to help in "building a real good bond between mom and baby."

"It's sort of a continuance from doing yoga in pregnancy. Why not keep it going and bring baby into it?" Falk asked.

Gass, who won't be taking the class much longer because she returns to work this week teaching kindergarten, said she's learned a few key lessons from attending just two "Mommy and Me" sessions.

"It's taught us how to spend quiet time together without toys or loudness or excitement -- to just enjoy each other prop free," Gass said of she and her young daughter, Allison. "We go home and teach Dad the poses we learned and the ones that she enjoyed."

"It's made me realize I'm not alone in this, and you can throw the books and all the Web sites out the window because whatever we're doing is right. It reassures me that I'm on the right track and the other moms are very supportive."

Gass was alluding to a theme of trusting oneself that Earls continually reinforced throughout her late morning class Wednesday.

"The whole idea of Shrada is trust. Trusting your instincts," Earls had said, her voice falling into a slow, even cadence as she guided her students through their final round of breathing and stretching. "Shrada is faith, not just that everything is going to be OK, but that everything is great. That everything you learn is what you're supposed to learn, and everything you missed you really didn't need anyway."

"Open yourself to the idea that you're going to be a fantastic mother," Earls said.

She then led the mothers and children through their final "om" of the class before everyone brought their hands to their hearts for a farewell of "Namaste" -- the Sanskrit saying that loosely translates to "The divine in me recognizes and honors the divine in you."