MaternityShare

Baby Massage August 25, 2008

Today I went to a baby massage class at Elephant Pharm. They give free classes. A new mom told me about it and I told 3 other moms I have met recently. Two of them took me up on taking the class together. I wound up spending the bulk of the time changing a diaper or breastfeeding but I did learn some good stuff in the amount of time that I was able to focus on what the teacher was saying.

My primary goal was to learn how to ease colic. Baby massage offers this as one of its many benefits. Other benefits are that babies who are massaged do better in social situations and in school. It also helps them not to get learning disabilities or, to limit the amount of a disability if they do get one. There were other benefits listed but I don’t at this point recall. My brain is switching off and going to sleep.

After class I went up to the teacher and had her go over how to soothe a colicky baby because I missed parts of it tending to Will. She had me practice on her doll. I asked her to demonstrate on my leg what kind of pressure to use on the baby. I learned the “I Love You” maneuvers. You spell “I” L” “U” (”I Love You”) on their abdomen over their digestive tract. There are nuances that I am too drunk off of sleep deprivation to list now but I found the whole baby massage thing fascinating. I look forward to learning more and doing this with Will.

Later on today I was on the phone with my mom and telling her about the class. While describing to her the I Love You maneuver I enacted the first part just gently on Will and a split second later he emitted a very loud poo/gas situation. Wow.

nite.