Let me be the first to say, I KNEW IT!

Bart Johnson is a fabulous daddy, which makes me one lucky mom and Zoe one lucky baby :) He bathes her, massages her, burps her, changes her dirtiest diapers without complaint, and sings to her (with the wrong words to all sorts of songs, but she doesn’t seem to care). He’s back at work this week, and so his Zoe time is limited, but he makes the most of it! We miss you, Daddy!

On Sunday, we had a CIMI come over and teach us Infant Massage, which is supposed to be a great way to help babies digest better, sleep better and bond better – plus, it’s fun! And there are benefits for parents, too – one of the biggest (in my opinion) is that when you watch your baby grunting and squirming and squeaking to get rid of gas or poop (which happens often), you can actually help. Or at least try to help… Some poops have a mind of their own ;) And let me tell you, little Zoe is not afraid to EAT! In fact, she’s over 8 lbs now (woo hoo!), at just 4 weeks of life, so we get plenty of opportunities to change diapers (Food In, Food Out) and test out our new massage techniques.

Our favorite technique is the “I Love You” stroke, where you trace an “I”, an “L” and a “U” on her belly in the direction of her digestive tract, saying “I Love You” as you do it. It’s so cute. This wacky site has a diagram of how it works on a very odd smiling baby picture, but you’ll get the idea.

Apparently, though it’s never too early to start massage, tiny babies don’t have the patience for a full infant massage, which lasts from 20-30 minutes. So you get a leg rubbed here and an arm there – and the belly as often as you can! I hope we can actually work it into a routine of sorts, if we can ever work out an actual routine… Anyway, I’m hopeful!

Now for more pictures (yes, I hear you asking for them!)