yup. it’s that time again.

it’s time for a massage!

little odin loves his massages and since he’s been getting them since the day he was born, he’s quite used to getting them. in fact, i think he probably thinks that all babies get regular massages.

if only all babies were so lucky.

we started giving odin regular massages in he nicu because many of the nurses extolled the virtues of massage and “comforting touch” and were firm believers in it’s power to improve outcomes.

you can imagine that it would be difficult to design a well-controlled study to prove the benefits of massage and some investigators think it’s a waste of a nurses time.

well, odin is our little unscientific anectode that massage works wonders, thank-you-very-much.

as an added benefit, it gives you a great excuse for rubbing a baby’s toes.

we’re believers that massage is important even after one leaves the nicu, since it’s not unusual for micropreemies to have developmental delays associated with stiff joints and tight muscles. and there’s nothing better for relieving stiff joints and tight muscles than a good massage.

as best as i can tell, nobody knows why micropreemies tend to have problems with muscle tone and stiffness, although it’s common enough that we’ve read that some researchers believes it’s the result of different patterns of brain maturation in preemies.

this move is called “paddling the waves” and way back on day 90 we’d chuckle when we did the move while looking at the pictures in the book on infant massage given to us by my sister – all the “normal” babies looked too enormous to be “real”.

we’d imagine the day when we could do the move with out entire hand instead of just a finger or two.

and now that day has arrived.