Infant Massage

Last week Audrey and I (Ashley) welcomed Julie Conner into our home. Julie works for the school district in its Infant and Toddler Early Intervention program. She is a social worker, counselor, teacher, and parent support extraordinaire. Brian and I first met her in early December at a parent support group she was facilitating soon after we learned about both the program and Audrey's visual impairment. At the time, I wasn't feeling that Audrey and I had really bonded and my self-esteem as a parent was suffering. That sounds silly, but in all of the baby books I had read (and there were many) I learned that our newborn would spend hour upon hour looking into our eyes and that we as parents would be the most fascinating things in our baby's life. We never got any such feedback from her though, and that was tough for us.

Sighted babies give parents cues such as eye contact and smiling to show that they feel safe and secure and these things promote bonding. Through research, I learned that blind babies and babies with other disabilities give different kinds of cues and that I needed to learn to read them. You can read more about bonding with blind babies here.

Anyway, Julie told us that infant massage could be a wonderful way for us to bond, build trust, and stimulate Audrey's senses, and she offered to come over and teach me how to do it.
Read more about Infant Massage here.

So on Tuesday and Thursday of last week, Julie came over and I learned about some of the history of infant massage as well as strokes for the legs, stomach, and chest. She'll be coming back next week to teach me strokes for the rest of the body.

Audrey absolutely loves it and it has become an integral part of our nighttime winding down routine. She especially enjoys the strokes under her feet, which is so surprising to me since I'm so ticklish. Just today I nearly crawled out of my skin and writhed embarassingly in my seat during the exfoliation part of my pedicure.

Julie, Audrey, and Babydoll

Massage has been a wonderful way to communicate with Audrey. Her response to the strokes has been the best part about it. Her smiles and coos fill up our hearts and bring us such immeasurable joy and reassurance. We are so excited to have this new knowledge to put in our parenting toolbox.