Parent Savers
The Benefits of Infant Massage

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Please be advised, this transcription was performed from a company independent of New Mommy Media, LLC. As such, translation was required which may alter the accuracy of the transcription.

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JULIE MITCHELL: Young babies have it pretty rough and as parents we want to do everything we can to help them cope and adapt to the outside world. By making infancy massage part of their daily routine, we can provide a number of benefits to our developing child. I’m Julie Mitchell, I’m a birth doula and a prenatal massage therapist. I also teach infancy massage classes. Today we’re going to be talking about infancy massage. This is Parent Savers episode 100.

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JOHNER RIEHL: Welcome everybody once again to another episode of Parent Savers. This is actually our hundredth episode of Parent Savers.

ERIN ESTEVES: Yippy-kay-yey.

JOHNER RIEHL: And that would be a milestone for some others but we’re just going to keep pushing through with Parent Savers.

ERIN ESTEVES: Yes.

JOHNER RIEHL: And not even celebrate it too much other than say hundredth whatever we’ll talk to you when we have a thousand. Right?

JAMIE FRENCH: Right.

JOHNER RIEHL: Alright. So were broadcasting as you know from the birth education centre of San Diego. Parent Savers is your weekly online on the go support group for parents from the newborn years through kindergarten. I’m your host Johner Riehl. Thanks again to all of our loyal listeners who join us week in and week out and thanks to those of you who may be listening the first time. As you may know you can join our Parent Savers club and receive access and special bonus content after each new show plus special giveaways and discounts from time to time. And if you haven’t already please make sure to download the free Parent Savers app, available in the Android and the ITunes market place so you can automatically have access to all the great parenting advice and conversation we have on Parent Savers every week. Actually before we start today’s conversation on infant massage, let’s introduce everyone who’s in the room.

My name is Johner as you guys now and I have three boys, a 7 year old, a 5 year old and a 2 year old and I have zero experience with infancy massage or infant massage so definitely interested in learning more.

JULIE MITCHELL: Well I can’t wait to tell you more.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yes.

SCOTT FRENCH: Hi I’m Scott French. I have a 10 week old daughter.

JOHNER RIEHL: Nice.

SCOTT FRENCH: So it’s the first baby in the family so…

JOHNER RIEHL: Congrats and she’s here?

SCOTT FRENCH: She’s here with us you’ll hear in the background.

JOHNER RIEHL: Not a problem.

SCOTT FRENCH: So…

JAMIE FRENCH: Hi I’m Jamie French and yup [inaudible 00:02:14] house wife and we are, we actually took an infancy massage with Julie.

JOHNER RIEHL: Awesome.

ERIN ESTEVES: Well I’m Erin Esteves otherwise known as OG Mamasita and that stands for officially geriatric just so you know. I am the producer of the show and I have one boy, he is two and a half and yeah no sleep but before I go on to that…

JOHNER RIEHL: No sleep is implied.

ERIN ESTEVES: No sleep as always.

JOHNER RIEHL: And for parents [inaudible]

ERIN ESTEVES: I just wanted to say that if you’re listening for the first time and you would like to participate but don’t live in San Diego, you can participate virtually. We have a virtual panellist program. You can like us on Facebook. You can send us your questions. You can also follow us on Twitter by the #parentsaversvp so go ahead and feel free to comment and send us your questions.

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JOHNER RIEHL: For today’s Parent Savers we’re going to talk about a news headline with our panellists and this is where we look at a story that we’ve recently found in the news, maybe online that we think would’ve be of interest to parents and make a good discussion topic and this one is pretty entertaining. We got this one of Yahoo News and the headline is Utah mom buys all the store’s indecent t-shirts, it happen in Salt Lake City. A mother upset about indecent t-shirts on display to a Utah mall found a quick if not especially convenient way to remove them. She bought every single last one of them. Judy Cox and her 18-year-old son were shopping at the Mall in Salt Lake City, and she saw shirts in the window of a PacSun store and they featured pictures of scantily clad dressed models in provocative poses. So they had kind of pictures of women on. So this offended, she complain about to the store manager, manager said they couldn’t be taken down without approval from the corporate. So then she bought all 19 t-shirts that they have for a total of $567 and she says she plans to return them later, toward the end of the chain store's 60-day return period or she’ll return them at the end of the 6 day refund. The shirt’s cost $28 each on the website and she says you know these shirts clearly cross the boundary and it’s continually pushed to our children so that’s why she wanted to buy all of them.

JOHNER RIEHL: So I think she’s kind of a genius because of the return policy.

ERIN ESTEVES: Yes that for me was the clincher.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah.

ERIN ESTEVES: Because she’s taking, had she not taken them back I would’ve been like well stupid you know but she’s taking them back.

JOHNER RIEHL: True but it if only cost $600 dollars to take an important, a stand that you thought is important against the merchandising of women.

ERIN ESTEVES: Right but that store is in our mall here in San Diego and I actually pointed it out to my husband the other day because I saw the t-shirts…

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah.

ERIN ESTEVES: In question and I guess it’s that we lived in a beach community but essentially to me it was a woman in a bra.

JOHNER RIEHL: Got it.

ERIN ESTEVES: Standing in a bra with her hands on her hips. That’s I don’t see that as provocative. I don’t see that as sexual. But I loved the story.

JOHNER RIEHL: It’s pretty interesting. I think it’s pretty hilarious. I mean it’s, I guess it’s in a way of her pushing her agenda and her censorship but it really not going to end up costing her anything except…

ERIN ESTEVES: Oh yeah.

JOHNER RIEHL: The short term head but she’s going to get her money back [inaudible 00:05:17]

ERIN ESTEVES: She’s getting her money back but the stores just going to order more…

JAMIE FRENCH: Yeah.

ERIN ESTEVES: Because now we’re out of product.

JOHNER RIEHL: And they got the publicity too.

ERIN ESTEVES: And they got the interest.

JOHNER RIEHL: That’s right.

ERIN ESTEVES: Well you know I mean.

JOHNER RIEHL: This is the shirt that was bought by the Utah mom. But yeah it’s how come it is okay to go to the beach and everyone is basically going in their underwear.

ERIN ESTEVES: Yeah.

JOHNER RIEHL: When you go to the beach and it’s like oh whatever…

ERIN ESTEVES: Exactly.

JOHNER RIEHL: But you don’t see that, that’s a whole other discussion.

ERIN ESTEVES: A whole other topic.

JOHNER RIEHL: Right we have a link to that story on the episode page on the website.

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JOHNER RIEHL: Today’s topic on Parent Savers is infant massage. Today we’re talking with Julie Mitchell, a doula and prenatal massage therapist so thanks so much for joining us.

JULIE MITCHELL: Thank you. It’s great being here.

JOHNER RIEHL: Let’s I guess just jump right into you know infancy massage. Why, what are the benefits of it? Why is it so important? Why is it something that you like to teach like to tell people?

JULIE MITCHELL: Yeah. So some of the most, the biggest benefits to massaging your infant helps with prenatal and infancy bonding. You know moms get the whole feeding thing but this is a way to also get the partners involve in something more bonding. And Scott I’m sure we’ll let you know about that in a minute but also like you guys were saying sleep, this really helps with sleep. Jamie was just telling me off in a little bit that she, that Violet has now slept through the night which is super exciting at 10 weeks.

JAMIE FRENCH: Yeah I put her down at 8 and she woke up at 5:15 this morning so…

JOHNER RIEHL: Got it.

JAMIE FRENCH: So I got a win.

ERIN ESTEVES: Okay this is massage not drugging right?

JULIE MITHCELL: Yes.

JOHNER RIEHL: It is.

JULIE MITCHELL: Massage.

ERIN ESTEVES: Okay.

JOHNER RIEHL: Well I will say we don’t talk about the no hitter, it’s I know we’re excited but we don’t talk about it right?

JAMIE FRENCH: Right.

ERIS ESTEVES: Well.

JOHNER RIEHL: I’m very happy for you but I want you to sit.

JULIE MITCHELL: And of course every baby is going to react differently of course. Another really big benefit that we’ve notice with infancy massage is digestion. So babies get gas and colic and just some tummy issues and with infancy massage we can really help relieve a lot of that. So it helps with circulation just like if you got a massage, circulation and all over relaxation and who doesn’t want a nice calm relax baby. So definitely helps with all of those types of things.

JOHNER RIEHL: What about you know if the baby is fuzzy?

JULIE MITCHELL: Yeah really the ideal time to massage a baby is during that quiet alert state. If they’re really fuzzy you first want to calm them down.

JOHNER RIEHL: And so the massage itself isn’t a [inaudible]

JULIE MITCHELL: Once it becomes a part of the routine they’ll look forward to it before we ever start a massage we always say hey baby are you ready for your massage now? And once they get use to that they get really excited about it they know what to expect. But yeah you do want them a little bit calmer first before you start.

ERIN ESTEVES: So if I could just a really quick question so other than for example colic, what would prompt someone to start infant massage?

JULIE MITCHELL: To start like on a daily routine just the general?

ERIN ESTEVES: Yeah. Why would, just out of curiosity you know it’s like what prompted you guys to start to go for infant massage?

JAMIE FRENCH: You know there’s a, my mother was told me about the Indian culture and how they massage your babies a lot until and you know it’s something that goes back a long time and something I feel like in our western society we kind of missed out on so I do think that there’s something to that and also you know they, I like getting massages…

ERIN ESTEVES: Yeah.

JAMIE FRENCH: Why wouldn’t she get a massage too? And so it was a great way. It was actually the massage actually instituted our kind of started our nightly routine too so it was a great way for a great set a way for us to kind of getting a routine for her down. But she, that mean she knows when she’s going to bed just base on that, just base on that routine which is nice.

SCOTT FRENCH: And so we usually start about at seven, seven thirty at night. Bring out the coconut oil which is one of the thousands of cures. Coconut oils we read every article right now, and just a great oil and uses for massaging. So we do that about 20 to 30 minutes. Start with their feet, as you’ve mention earlier you know if they are fuzzy, well definitely her legs and her feet as like her go to you just grab those at any time and she’s calm. Where sometimes some parts of her body she may get agitated but you can always kind of go to the feet which always the easy part for…

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah well I guess let’s here and take a step back what are, what is infant massage mean because I we’re not going to threw a baby over the table and putting hot rocks on them right?

JULIE MITCHELL: Right. No. We’re not doing hot stone on a baby. No, definitely not.

JOHNERL RIEHL: Great. So what the technique? What are we talking about?

JULIE MITCHELL: So how I teach my classes and how most infancy massage classes will run as you come with your baby we’re on a blanket on the floor and we start very simply. We start with the feet and then throughout the series you end up with a full body massage just like you’d get but a little bit different from a baby you know area smaller and all that so.

JOHNER RIEHL: Right your hand kind of covers the whole baby.

JULIE MITCHELL: Yeah. Yeah. So again we just start you know kind of kneading in the foot…

JOHNER RIEHL: Okay.

JULIE MITCHELL: Just like I would on you but it’s a little bit smaller.

JOHNER RIEHL: Tinny Tiny

JULIE MITCHELL: Yeah. Yeah and then we are above the leg and they’re just different techniques that…

JOHNER RIEHL: It’s really just all over touch.

JULIE MITCHELL: Oh yes. Yes. Yes. It’s really very similar to you getting a massage just the parents are doing it to their own baby in a smaller scale. Yeah so but there you know maybe they’re on a pillow in front of you on your lap or just on the blanket in front of you but yeah we make this part of our daily routine like I said I give everyone coconut oil to start with because I don’t want to give something synthetic because babies in what they do with their hands they go bite into their mouths. So we want to give them something that they can ingest if they do put their hands…

JOHNER RIEHL: And so did you put a slippery baby to bed every night?

JAMIE FRENCH: It actually gets absorbed to their skin and so it’s not too bad. Yeah it’s not bad yeah exactly and coconut oil it’s like and so in 74 degrees it becomes a liquid so once it gets into your hands it’s all liquidly and it’s absorbed into our skin.

JOHNER RIEHL: And then the skin warms it up?

JULIE MITCHELL: Yeah absolutely.

JOHNER RIEHL: I’m not definitely with coconut oil.

JULIE MITCHELL: You’re not? I’m surprised! It’s like everybody is in the coconut oil this days.

ERIN ESTEVES: I know.

JULIE MITCHELL: It starts out pretty solid.

JOHNER RIEHL: Okay.

JULIE MITCHELL: So it starts out pretty, as soon as you put it in your hand it liquefies.

JOHNER RIEHL: Got it.

JULIE MITCHELL: Yeah.

JOHNER RIEHL: And so then you put so then every night you guys before you putting Violet to sleep your rubbing the feet and the…

JAMIE FRENCH: Absolutely I am.

JOHNER RIEHL: Do you all wet the whole body?

JAMIE FRENCH: You know it depends on the day. Some days are better than others and some days she has more patience than others. So you know we kind of see what you get of the day you know when we… She just got her shots two weeks ago so or a week ago I’m sorry so those days…

JOHNER RIEHL: Avoiding that area I think…

JAMIE FRENCH: Yeah exactly then knowing that because she was super sensitive.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah.

JULIE MITCHELL: Well…

JOHNER RIEHL: So what exactly did you do last night and do it the exact same thing again right? That she slept through it…

JAMIE FRENCH: Exactly. No it was her second time sleeping through the night so I think she’s pretty good little kiddo.

JOHNER RIEHL: That’s awesome.

SCOTT FRENCH: Yeah and she’s now coming up ten weeks trying to get more tummy time so…

JAMIE FRENCH: Yeah.

SCOTT FRENCH: Kind of start the massage off on her stomach so we work on her back first as that’s fresh for her so that give about a few minutes on her back rubbing just relaxes her from shoulders on down.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah.

SCOTT FRENCH: And then when she finish that we kind of roll her back over and go back to her feet and arms and ….

JOHNER RIEHL: And its great bonding,

JAMIE FRENCH: Yeah.

JOHNER RIEHL: I mean it really is great…

JAMIE FRENCH: Yeah it’s nice. It’s I think it’s something that she looks forward to as well and it’s hard to tell because she never say…

JOHNER RIEHL: What else do you really you don’t have that many opportunities to interact, especially dads, with the young babies other than maybe some tummy time and put him on your chest so it seems it’s really neat to be able to you know have that time.

SCOTT FRENCH: Exactly. There’s been a long week at work so I get home at seven and started to dim the lights on the room and give her a massage. Wrap her up after that and…

JAMIE FRENCH: and then you fall asleep.

SCOTT FRENCH: Read a book and then fall asleep next to the book.

JAMIE FRENCH: Next to the book she falls asleep yeah.

SCOTT FRENCH: I feel really good though.

JAMIE FRENCH: It’s so cute.

SCOTT FRENCH: It’s actually really fine.

JOHNER RIEHL: So what was the class like? Was it just you two in the class or are there other couples?

JAMIE FRENCH: Yeah it was actually was just us two which was actually fantastic we go one on one. Yeah there’s nothing much better than one on one experience so…

JULIE MITCHELL: Yeah.

JAMIE FRENCH: Which is great.

JULIE MITCHELL: You can find group classes, it just so happen that Scott and Jamie were the only couple on this class put to go last but yeah couple of different couples could come. It could be a group class, we all learn at once. Does get a little hectic I always tell people that the class will last anywhere between 30 minutes and probably an hour just depending on what the babies will allow because they’re the boss not us.

JOHNER RIEHL: So what benefits are you guys getting as parents doing massage?

JAMIE FRENCH: Well besides yeah I mean Scott’s getting a chance to bond and she has been sleeping really well and it was to gain that routine establish for us was really good…

SCOTT FRENCH: Yeah.

JAMIE FRENCH: Because the structure were kind of like just grew into like a better routine like that routine at night grows into like thirteen during the day…

JOHNER RIEHL: Right.

JAMIE FRENCH: So she has certain expectations with that which I think it helps.

JOHNER RIEHL: Does it led to more parental massages.

SCOTT FRENCH: Right.

JAMIE FRENCH: Not really.

SCOTT FRENCH: I’m open!

JOHNER RIEHL: Nice. Alright well let’s take a quick break here, when we come back we’ll talk about some more of the benefits as well as you know maybe how long infant massage can last for and when it should stop so we’ll take a quick break. We’ll be right back.

[Theme Music]

JOHNER RIEHL: Welcome back everyone to Parent Savers. Today we’re talking about infant massage with Julie Mitchell. Thanks for joining us again Julie.

JULIE MITCHELL: Wonderful being here.

JOHNER RIEHL: So we’re talking about some of the benefits for infant massage but I think there’s still some more that we didn’t quite touch on. So what about you know improving a baby’s circulation is that been shown that that something that happens?

JULIE MITCHELL: Absolutely. Same thing with when you get a massage when we’re moving the limb around and we are moving blood around as well so yeah.

JOHNER RIEHL: Right.

JULIE MITCHELL: So if there’s stagnant blood anywhere it definitely gets moved through the system.

JOHNER RIEHL: Are there any surprising results that have you heard about from infant massage that maybe something happen that you didn’t expect that was positive? Are you going to expecting it to be the awesome most thing in the world?

JULIE MITCHELL: Well like I said before you know every baby, every couple, every you know situation is going to be different but I think the overall experience of…

JOHNER RIEHL: Oh hi baby…

JAMIE FRENCH: Violet wanted to be heard too.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah.

ERIN ESTEVES: She’s like I like my massage…

JOHNER RIEHL: That’s right.

ERIN ESTEVES: Don’t you talk bad about it.

JOHNER RIEHL: That’s right.

JULIE MITCHELL: Before we ever start a massage, we ask the baby is it okay? So we’ll start rubbing the oil on our hand s and say okay are you ready for your massage today? Is it okay? And even the small you know Violet start coming 5 weeks I think…

SCOTT FRENCH: Between 4 to 5 weeks old.

JULIE MITCHELL: And there’s a clear yes or no. You know the first couple of times they going to look at you because it’s a word they’ve never heard maybe or something but they’ll either open their arms way up and be like okay or they’ll kind of, you’ve seen babies, they kind of curl up maybe even roll away from you and that’s a no. And so maybe you’ll just have to back off your question a little bit how about can I massage your feet today? And then you’ll see that babies think about it. It’s really-really cool. They absolute does say what’s appropriate touch and what’s not because it gives them control over their own body and at this stage, you know we don’t think about it that way as adults that they should be in control. But they should be at their bodies. So infancy massage definitely has a big part of that.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah it’s so I like if you were trained in infancy massage or knew about it, is that something you can start at the hospital or do you recommend waiting until the baby is around 5 weeks like you said [inaudible].

JULIE MITCHELL: Oh no, day one is great.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah.

JULIE MITCHELL: Absolutely. Absolutely so people can come to an infancy massage class really I say between zero and six months. Six months because they get really squirmy and there’s a lot of other things that are dragging their attention away and all that so doesn’t mean as a parent you should stop massaging at that time, it just means you might not get a full body massage in and that’s okay.

JOHNER RIEHL: Would you guys say that you think that she knows because part of my impression of really young babies is that they don’t really understand those are their hands or those are their feet or what’s going on but it’s interesting to hear you talk about them wanting to give you permission or give control. Do you guys see that as you do the massage?

SCOTT FRENCH: One thing we’ve done is like work through like her like toes and her fingers and you know…

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah.

SCOTT FRENCH: Each one in front of her and kind of hopefully it helps with that connection between…

JOHNER RIEHL: Right in a way maybe is helping her make the connection.

SCOTT FRENCH: Right as you work the foot and the individual toe. And you start like four weeks the toe is super-super small to get our fingers in there trying to each one individually and I can tell it was almost doubled as she doubled her age already now. Yeah and as we talk about just her gas on her stomach needs back up definitely work different ways.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah.

SCOTT FRENCH: For us to understand how we can do that is like we’re saying oh she’s gassy, she’s going to cry all night.

JOHNER RIEHL: Right.

SCOTT FRENCH: How we can work you know some ways…

JAMIE FRENCH: Yeah it gives us a coping night how to help her out you know because there’s definitely times when babies get gas and it’s uncomfortable for them.

SCOTT FRENCH: How we get her knees or stomach kind of one of those and work the stomach through.

ERIN ESTEVES: So it empowered you.

SCOTT FRENCH: Right.

ERIN ESTEVES: You feel like you have something to fall back on like you said your coping technique.

SCOTT FRENCH: Right. And also as a new dad I you know took all the birth educations classes pretty much here at the birth education centre hitting a bird with these mothers but all those courses were really like pretty much up to the hospital.

JOHNER RIEHL: Exactly.

SCOTT FRENCH: There’s really nothing beyond the hospitals. Now you bring her home and brought the question of could you just in the hospital. Yes now for the second child we can, I can do that.

JOHNER RIEHL: Right.

SCOTT FRENCH: I was learning each of these classes with her, kind of learning each week as you go. How work the different parts of the body. As kind of a new father like oh I don’t want to…

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah.

SCOTT FRENCH: Do something to hurt her.

JULIE MITCHELL: Yeah. Yeah.

SCOTT FRENCH: And what is good and proper.

JOHNER RIEHL: Okay. I’m jealous because I don’t I feel like I didn’t play with my baby’s toes enough. Like I mean that’s really adorable…

JULIE MITCHELL: Yeah. Yeah.

JOHNER RIEHL: To think about their tinny tiny little toes and getting in them.

JULIE MITCHELL: I call them champagne grapes.

JAMIE FRENCH: Yes.

JOHNER RIEHL: Really that’s yeah. I mean…

JAMIE FRENCH: They are that’s like the right size.

JULIE MITCHELL: And what’s Scott was talking about that’s a great way to use infancy massage. It gives you the confidence to be like hey I’m not going to hurt my baby.

JOHNER RIEHL: Right.

JULIE MITCHELL: I can do this and be okay. Yeah we all, we’re parents we knew we’re going to make mistakes and that’s okay but I’ve seen new dads you know as a doula they’re like afraid to touch their babies and then yeah definitely watching Scott throughout the class, so much more confidence about him every week he comes in which is wonderful.

JOHNER RIEHL: So you had mention I think earlier you know starting up to six months and then you can keep on going maybe wouldn’t have the biggest benefits but you seem…

JULIE MITCHELL: Oh no. Absolutely it still has benefits…

JOHNER RIEHL: Okay.

JULIE MITCHELL: It’s just more that they’re so busy.

JAMIE FRENCH: Squirming.

JULIE MITCHELL: Yeah kids are you know, now I’m crawling, now I’m rolling, whatever their doing at that stage, they’re so much busier.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah.

JULIE MITCHELL: So it’s hard to get in like a full massage fully.

JOHNER RIEHL: Right.

JULIE MITCHELL: But hey kid let me rub your hand, you’ve been crawling around on those hands let me rub them. Most kids will at least let you do that at one point oh hey you know what I haven’t done your back in a while let’s see if I can get your back and here and there. Absolutely.

JOHNER RIEHL: What about when they start teething? Is there anything you can do to help that like you massage their gums?

JULIE MITCHELL: I don’t know any techniques for gum massaging itself but all over massage releases endorphins that help with pain in general. So yes there are associations that when you give a massage it can just relieve some of that pain.

JOHNER RIEHL: Got them. So for people looking to get started around infancy massage either locally or if they don’t live here in San Diego, a lot of our listeners don’t, how can people you know find out or get started? Are there meet up groups about it or…

JULIE MITCHELL: I’m sure there are…

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah.

JULIE MITCHELL: Those meet up groups are everything right?

JOHNER RIEHL: Right.

JULIE MITCHELL: But really you go online and I’m sure if you Google infancy massage and then your hometown, you’ll be able to find somebody absolutely.

JOHNER RIEHL: So you’re still taking classes or is it kind of you’ve learned it and now you’re done?

JAMIE FRENCH: I think when was our last? The way you said like a one set of wrap up session left but yeah I think we got all the areas, her head or…

JULIE MITCHELL: It generally in four weeks we’ll go throughout the whole body so we start with feet and then legs and then we move up to the stomach and then hands and arms and chest and then head and back and it’s separated throughout the series and then like I said because it just depend on what the babies will allow. Some of those classes are shorter than others. And then so we always have a fifth week to either finish what we didn’t finish up before or just kind of an overall okay let’s do a full body massage together so if there’s any questions or anything like that.

JOHNER RIEHL: It seems like, generally speaking, it’s one of those things that is hard to do wrong.

JULIE MITCHELL: Yeah.

JOHNER RIEHL: It’s just the fact that you’re doing it…

JULIE MITCHELL: Absolutely.

JOHNER RIEHL: Is really the big victory.

JULIE MITCHELL: Yeah.

JOHNER RIEHL: For infancy massage.

JAMIE FRENCH: Where like you were saying about you know those stages and everything else as Scott I’m sure he’s rubbing her toes, you’re saying I’m rubbing your toes and yeah it clicks better.

JOHNER RIEHL: Right.

JAMIE FRENCH: About oh those are my feet, those are my hands, you know 10 weeks does she know that? I don’t know but she’ll like, she’ll get there, soon.

ERIN ESTEVES: And any opportunity for contact …

JULIE MITCHELL: Oh yes.

ERIN ESTEVES: Is just you know beneficial for the family in general.

JOHNER RIEHL: I think that I need to get out and rub some babies.

JULIE MITCHELL: Yeah.

ERIN ESTEVES: Okay.

JOHNER RIEHL: I guess I shouldn’t say that.

ERIN ESTEVES: I think your wife was listening.

JOHNER RIEHL: That’s right. Some other peoples…

JOHNER RIEHL: Some other peoples…

ERIN ESTEVES: I think what I’m taking away from this is that even though my son is two and a half, I can still start this with him.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah.

JULIE MITCHELL: Absolutely.

ERIN ESTEVES: And he would be very squirmy at some point but very you know receptive of others.

JAMIE FRENCH: Absolutely! Absolutely!Yeah.

JULIE MITCHELL: I’m actually wanting to expand and do a toddler type class but haven’t got in there yet.

ERIN ESTEVES: Great! Well I’m excited. Sign me up!

JOHNER RIEHL: Yup. Awesome! Alright well thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for sharing with us Scott and Jamie as well. For more information about infant massage and more information about any of our panellists, you can visit the episode page on our website. We’re going to continue the conversation for members of our Parent Savers club. After the show we’ll talk a little more about the group massage sessions for infants. So for more information about the Parent Savers club you can visit www.parentsavers.com .

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JENNIFER SHEER: Hi Parent Savers. I am Dr. Jennifer Sheer, a clinical psychologist with the practice in San Diego. One of my specialties is working with women during pregnancy and throughout the transition to motherhood. Today’s segment is on ways to manage the panic we often feel with the sleep deprivation that comes along with baby. There’re certain things we all know we should do in order to get the sleep we need, however actually doing them is a whole other story. We know we should nap when baby naps, let go of the house work and allow others to help us. However, in order to do these things, we must let go of how we are used to functioning.

Do battle with the perfectionist inside us and allow ourselves to be partially dependant on others. Some ways to exercise these necessary shift is to remind yourself that this is an extremely intense yet very temperate time of your life. To really commit to the job responsibilities of becoming a new mom in relation to sleep, job is all about baby and self-care and the rest is interference. Do your best to stay focus on the true priority and guard it like a mama bear. Accept that you will be functioning with a certain level of stress that comes from fatigue and that’s okay. You’re still capable of being just good enough without feeling fully prepared or on top of your game.

Try accepting this level of discomfort, instead of fighting it like relaxing muscles instead of tensing them when you feel stressed. If it’s difficult to allow yourself to feel somewhat dependant on others, recognized that you were doing this in service of being more fully available for your baby. It might be helpful to remind yourself that even if you feel resistant or uncomfortable in these new behaviours, it is all to benefit baby in your own feelings of maternal confidence. I hope these ways of thinking about the anxiety with mom fatigue aids you all in having more restful sleep whenever the opportunity is there for you to take. Thanks for listening to Parent Savers.

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JOHNER RIEHL: That wraps up today’s show. Thank you so much for listening to Parent Savers.
Don’t forget to check out our sister shows:
• Preggie Pals for expecting parents
• The Boob Group for moms who breastfeed and
• Twin Talks for parents of multiple kids.

Next week we’ll be talking about another exciting topic that will be useful and helpful for parents everywhere from infancy to kindergarten.
This is Parent Savers empowering new parents.

[Disclaimer]
This has been a New Mommy Media production. Information and material contained in this episode are presented for educational purposes only. Statements and opinions expressed in this episode are not necessarily those of New Mommy Media and should not be considered facts. Though information in which areas are related to be accurate, it is not intended to replace or substitute for professional, Medical or advisor care and should not be used for diagnosing or treating health care problem or disease or prescribing any medications. If you have questions or concerns regarding your physical or mental health or the health of your baby, please seek assistance from a qualified health care provider.

SUNNY GAULT: New Mommy Media is expanding our line up of shows for new and expecting parents. If you have an idea for a new series or if you’re a business or organization interested in joining our network of shows through a co-branded podcast, visit www.NewMommyMedia.com .

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