I Still Suck At Infant Massages

Today was part 2 of 3 in my quest to learn infant massaging for my baby daughter (Briana). Unfortunately, I still suck at infant massages. Because Briana was born prematurely, she qualified for the Early Intervention program. Among the services offered through Early Intervention is infant massaging.

So naturally, I figured it would be great to try to learn the art of infant massaging, which according to the instructor also translates to adults as well. And really, who couldn't use a good relaxing massage now and then, right? I know I could. My neck always feels stiff these days. (Hint! Hint!) Regardless, I'm sure Briana is definitely thanking me for learning it.

Last week, I had learned about massaging the arms and stomach. In fact, the massage techniques actually came in handy one day. After I had massaged her stomach, Briana quickly pooped. Coincidence? Possibly.

Today's techniques involved the arms, the chest, and the back. Like the legs, massaging the arm are quite similar. Massaging the chest was rather quick as well as it only had two movements. Unfortunately, all hell broke loose when it came to massaging Briana's back.

Briana currently does not enjoy being on her stomach for a prolonged amount of time where she has to keep her head up. Karen and I have to regularly make sure Briana does her "tummy time" exercises, which is basically having her lie on her tummy in an effort to get her to support her head. The exercise aids in developing her head support. Briana will do well for a short period of time, before resting her head on the ground... and then eventually she will whimper and cry because she does not want to be in that position.

Needless to say, Briana did not want to be on her stomach for the back massage techniques. She cried like there was no tomorrow. Of course, adding to her discomfort was the fact that she was hungry. I had to take a little timeout to feed her. So, the instructor simply continued demonstrating the back techniques on the doll that she brings with her. Show me on the doll where the bad man touched you! Just kidding.

Anyway, aside from her disdain for being on her stomach, Briana seemed to enjoy the massage this week again. She was even cooing for a little while. Someday, I'll get it right and I'll be a massaging machine. And then Briana will be the most relaxed baby ever... yeah right.

Shortly after, I continued working on renovating our first floor bathroom. Originally, my friends (Marc, Kelley, and Andrea) were supposed to come over for the night. We had shifted our plans this week from Tuesday to today because Karen and I had a little church meeting/christening preparation on Tuesday. Our plan for tonight was to hang out and catch a couple of episodes of Wipeout. Unfortunately, Marc and Kelley had a bout of what I like to call "the Kelley runs", which is a nice euphemism for stomach issues. Hopefully, the both of them are okay because they are leaving on vacation at the end of this week. Andrea, meanwhile, was swamped with work so she could not make as well.

So with Briana's christening coming up this weekend and Karen's wishes to have the first floor bathroom functional for the christening, I figured it was a good time to work on the house. Sadly, the main projects to tackle for the bathroom involved being in our crawlspace as drains and vent pipes needed to be run.

I dislike plumbing work, mostly because it is dirty. When it comes to installing drains and vents, there is the added annoyance of not really knowing what fittings you will need and all of that until you start running pipes. Had I a whole arsenal of pipe fittings, I probably would not mind it. But since I don't, I have to guess as to which pipe fittings I will need and how many of each. Inevitably, I always guess wrong, which means that I have to make multiple trips to the local hardware store. It's annoying... and time consuming.

Of course, it probably would not have been so bad had I not tried to fix an existing problem with one of our drains at the same time. For some bizarre reason, we have a drain in our house that empties outside. I have no idea why the drain pipe leads outside and not into the main stack. It just came with the house that way and has remained that way for... about 8 years that I know of.

Naturally, the drain to the outside irked me, primarily because the drain to the outside was not even done well because it left a gaping hole in our foundation... which potentially could be large enough for small critters or whatnot to enter. For all I know, critters may have already used it as an entrance into our crawlspace. The thought annoys me... so much so that I had to fix it. So, what better time than now to make that particular drain lead to the main stack like all normal drains? After all, I was doing plumbing work anyway. I might as well just do it now and patch the hole another time.

Needless to say, with the increased number of drains and vents to work on today, I had to make multiple trips to the local hardware store for pipe fittings. Consequently, I now also have a bunch of pipe fittings to return as well. Sure, I was annoyed. The first trip I took today, I figured I had enough items. This was before grabbing takeout dinner from Not Your Average Joe's in Norwell. (Cue Rachael Ray's "Yum-O" sound.) Not Your Average Joe's has become my favorite restaurant. Interestingly enough, it seems like Karen and I have not eaten there in a while. So it was good ordering takeout today.

Anyway, while in the crawlspace I discovered that I needed more of a certain type of fitting. So I quickly went back to the store and purchased more. The sad thing is... I'm not even done with the drain and vent installation. After tonight, I'm close, but I'm not done yet. I just have one last fitting to purchase and that should be it. In terms of functionality, however, the first floor bathroom should drain properly. (And the other drain that previously led outside should as well.)

Now all that is really left to do before Briana's christening is install the pedestal sink. We'll see if I have enough time and supplies to tackle that in the upcoming days. After all, I'll need more drain pipe fittings, supply lines, and possibly bolts. So we'll see.