Yay!!! Mimi, I'm so psyched you got out with your clipless pedals...you should be very proud of yourself!!!

I have spds, keep 'em really loose, and after 3 months of having them, I am intuitively unclipping at all the right times. So just keep at it...keep practicing. I had 3 falls before I think it became deeply ingrained that I needed to clip out.

Make SURE they're really loose. My friend who put them on for me had one of them tightened all the way by accident, and that's part of the reason I had such a problem at the beginning.