Today I spent the first part of my day in Tzfat, where I had two appointments. Since I already had one appointment scheduled in the city, I thought it would be good to maximize my time in the area and found a craniosacral therapist there to treat the baby, so that was my second appointment.
I think that craniosacral therapy is valuable, particularly for a newborn who has recently had to fit through the birth canal and probably experienced some kind of pressure on the skull that causes misalignment. There are a number of potential issues that can be positively impacted by doing craniosacral adjustments, including colic, difficulty in sleeping or feeding, and birth trauma. The main downside of this therapy is that it’s not something that is covered by health insurance, but then again, it seems that most of what I find most valuable relating to health care isn’t!
Another thing I had wanted to do this morning was to meet up with someone in the area giving away classical music cassettes. I’ve been doing hours of research on Down syndrome every day beginning when the baby was two days old, and one thing that I came across was the importance of music therapy in stimulating the brain. Mozart and Bach were particularly recommended.
I started looking into purchasing some classical music (you should see the list of things I think would be valuable to buy for this baby!) but was delighted to see a posting a short time later by someone in Tzfat giving away lots of classical cassettes. A neighbor had given me a cd/cassette player around Pesach time, so I have a way to play the cassettes. I emailed to ask if she had any Mozart or Bach, and sure enough, she did! I told her why I wanted them and she very generously put aside 11 cassettes for me, 6 Mozart and 5 Bach! That was such an amazing thing! I’m looking forward to using them next week after Tisha B’Av.
And on a different note, traveling to Tzfat made me once again appreciative that the baby was in the NICU in Nahariya rather than the Tzfat hospital that I was in labor at. The ride there is along a winding road and so nauseating that I don’t know how I would have managed it every day. I took dd11 and ds10 with me today, thinking they would enjoy walking around the Old City of Tzfat while I was taking care of my appointments. Poor ds10 tends to get carsick, and threw up on the way there and the way back. We were all very happy to get home. 🙂
Avivah
Wonderful news about the craniosacral specialist and the music. Kol hakavod!!!
Why would you recommend craniosacral therapy over chiropractic adjustment?
They are two different things and there are advantages to both; I feel that craniosacral is more gentle and simultaneously gets more at the deeper root of the issue and for a newborn, they can shift the bones in the head in a way that chiropractors can’t. But that’s just my personal feeling about it.
Hi Avivah,
Mazel tov and much joy to you and your family on this new adventure in your journey! Have you contacted Chanah Lazaroff? She and Herschel adopted two boys with Trisomy 21 and she has really become an expert on therapies to maximize all potentials. The more early interventions, the better. Since you mentioned music, I wanted to be sure you were aware of the value of “patterning”. The child’s body is moved in all the motions of crawling, as crawling is a movement that is “cross crawl”, or left right brain integration. Chanah has all kinds of info. Do you have her contact info?
Hugs, and much love to you all.
Karen
I do have her contact info, thank you for the reminder of her as a resource person!
Where do you get your energy. I have 3 kids and can barely accomplish what you do with one-especially here. I really admire you and your family. Please refer me to prior posts or write one about time management.
Again Mazel Tov on you beautiful baby boy!
Susan
Susan, I can’t honestly say I have so much energy. I just do what has to be done. Last night I was so tired I felt like collapsing and even though I went to sleep earlier than usual when I woke up I was still super tired but somehow Hashem gave me strength for another day…
I have written about home organization, but don’t have time to search the archives right now. It would be in the homemaking category, if that helps at all! But my underlying belief is that you have to prioritize and make a decision about what’s most important; you can’t do it all and if you try to you’ll end up miserable. When you know what’s most important to you, then you can feel good about doing what you care most about and let go of what you can’t get around to. http://oceansofjoy.wordpress.com/2007/08/31/time-management-and-the-big-rocks/ I hope this helps!