Ok, so you have your warm room and your lightly oiled baby, now to begin.

Specific massage routines:

Leboyer massage (yes, THAT Leboyer)

1. Begin with the chest, put both palms flat on the chest, moulding your hand to the shape of the baby (so your whole hand is in even contact with the baby as it moves) and give the baby a minute to get used to this. Sometimes they will breath deeper or sigh or stretch - this is all new to them, so let them experience the touch and get used to it. Then stroke outwards from the breastbone to the sides of the ribcage, lift the hands back to the breastbone and repeat, (if this is the first time you're doing it or the baby is very tiny still, move one hand at a time, so you're always touching the baby). Once you have done this a while stroke from the armpits to the hips for a while, both together, downwards strokes only, and moving one hand at a time if need be.
2. Now do some diagonal strokes. Hold the left thigh with your right hand. Stroke with your left hand from the left hip to the right shoulder and then down to the right hip. Now swap sides, holding the right thigh and stroking with your right hand right hip-left shoulder-left hip. Do each stroke 3 times.
3. Now the arms. Lie baby on their side, hold the wrist in your "outer" hand (the hand on the same side as the baby's back as they lie on their side in front of you) and straighten the arm a little. Using the "inner hand" cup around the shoulder and glide the hand down the arm, with even pressure. Don't pull on the shoulder joint, use counter-pressure with the hand holding the wrist so you can squeeze from the shoulder to the wrist without pulling. Think about a milking movement. Do the stroke 3 times, then swap the holding hand and the massaging hand and repeat 3 times. Then turn the baby over onto their other side and repeat for the other arm. Lie the baby on its back again and massage the palms and fingers, stroking to the fingertips.
4. The abdomen. Oil the stomach and not whether it is full or empty, hard of soft. A hard belly cannot tolerate pressure so be very gentle, sometimes a colicky baby will need many massages before they have a softer belly. Using alternate hands stroke from the pit of the belly (just above the belly-button) to the pubic bone. As usual, 3 times. With your right hand stroke from the bottom of the right side of the ribcage down across to the genitals and over them. Neither make a fuss about the genitals nor leave them out as if they are untouchable or don't exist. Repeat with the left hand on the left side, alternate between sides, repeating 2-3 times. Some baby boys might get an erection at this - it's NOT sexual touch or a sexual response to touch, it's just that he's relaxed and you're moving the blood flow down towards that area with your strokes. You might regard it as a blush - normal, healthy, unremarkable. How you react to the baby's body is important as from this they gain their own opinions of it, so monitor your own reactions too. Now circle the abdomen, ALWAYS clockwise (that's the direction the colon moves food in) starting at the navel and slowly cirling outwards in a slow spiral.
5. THe legs. Basically the same as the arms but they stay on their back. One hand holds the ankle and keeps the leg reasonably straight and the other "milks" the tension out of it towards the foot. To do the foot, hold the calf in one hand and the ankle in the other. Squeeze the ankle and slide the squeeze right to the toes - this shows the baby the toes are on the end of the foot is on the end of the leg. Now rub the sole from the heel towards the toes - the baby may fan their toes at this stroke. Now "milk" each little toe.
6. Now the back. Turn baby onto his tummy and oil his back. Stroke downwards from the shoulders to the buttocks on long smooth strokes. You can let one hand follwo the other to make this a continuous stroke which can be very relaxing for you both. For a bigger baby or a toddler you can use 3 fingers to stroke down the sides of the spine to the sacrum. Don't press too hard. Next put both hands side by side on the back and move one forward and the other back, continuously, it's ok if the skin gets moved around, so long as you have enough oil on there it'll be fine. To finish the back stroke a few times from the forehead, round to the shoulders, down the back, across the buttocks, down the legs, over the feet and beyond. Top to toe as it were.


Phew! There's a bit more you can do, but that's a good beginning. I'll be back after lunch to do the colic one.

Bx