kangaroo care and reflexes

Now, John usually writes the posts, but since John didn't participate in Kangaroo Care last night I decided I should write today's post. If you watched Grey's Anatomy last week then you know what Kangaroo Care is, for those of you that didn't watch it Kangaroo Care is when a parent holds a preemie next to their chest, exposing skin to skin. Many belief that Kangaroo Care helps to calm babies by listening to the parent's heart beat. Last night I did this for the first time. For an hour I was able to sit and hold Brecken as he played with my hair and suffered a severe case of the hiccups. By the time I put him back in his isolete his heart rate had dropped from 200 to 150 and he was calmly sleeping. The only downside to the whole experience is that he is a toaster oven and we were both sweating the entire time. For the sake of sparing all of your eyes we thought we would just post pictures of when I had my shirt on (we didn't want anyone to have a heart attack).




This morning the reflexologist came in to test Brecken's reflexes. What she looks for is the ability of the child to stretch out their arms and legs and then bring them back into the fetal position. Not only was Brecken very responsive, but he would often lay their in the fetal position without being swaddled. She said that at this age because their central nervous system is so under developed they often kick around. She also looked at the alignment of his hips and then she sat him up to test his head control. He did such a great job. Even more exciting, though, he was awake and smiling through the whole exercise. She said he was the one of the happiest babies she has ever seen. Most of the time we couldn't stop laughing at him because when he would smile all you could see were his big gums!!!