But in the absence of crack, I did decide to check out this cranial-sacral therapist that was recommended to me to see if it might do something.
She was booked out over a month in advance so even though I called in July we didn't have our first appointment until last Friday. Her office (do we call it that?) is in South Minneapolis on 34th and 1st -- not a bad place, but not an awesome place to walk around alone at night. When we got there I was pleasantly surprised to see a very well-kept 1900s stucco of the very same type that Matt and I would love to own one day.
Her name is Angel, and I was sort of picturing a willowy-looking woman with long brown hair who smelled of patchouli. She was none of these things, and looked more like an elementary school teacher who maybe led seances on the side. As we were waiting for our appointment, I started to look at some of the paper stuck to the walls and was appalled to see that it was all sorts of propaganda about vaccines. I will tell you, I was thisclose to walking out the door. Perhaps even pushed a bit closer after I picked up a book from the book shelf entitled Excitotoxins: The taste that kills, which was all about how Nutrasweet will, you guessed it, kill you. It would have been a better scene had I been carrying a Diet Coke (with a splash of Crystal Light?).
As I grumbled, I looked down and saw Bug with her wonky eyes and was convinced to stay (and I will have you know I avoided Nutrasweet while pregnant, so don't go blaming the eyes on that one).
When it was our turn she led us back to the 'treatment room' which was a converted bedroom with a massage table. She had us take Bug out and I explained the eyes, which she said she had noticed right away. I was relieved in a way that she was making the eyes in the presence of one of the people who might be able to help, since at every other appointment lately she has snapped to attention the second she has heard a new voice. Seriously, it was like driving the car to the dealership and having the noise happen right when they came out to look.
She had me go through the pregnancy and birth story which I have successfully whittled down to less than five minutes without even a hint of tears, even when I get to the nursing part. I said that Bug had received her 2 month shots but we were waiting on her 4 month ones until she felt better -- and to my grateful surprise, she had nothing negative to say about vaccinations (maybe she saw that we use the Seventh Generation diapers and granted us a freebie?).
She explained how she thought that Bug might have tight muscles in the back of her head that might be contributing to her eyes rolling back and her pulling her head back (which I always thought was part of her reflux, which it very well could still be). She had us do this weird exercise with some sort of electric bear that both of us found to be bizarre, and then after that she said that she thought Bug's head was shaped oddly.
I was trying to comfort myself with the fact that we had just been to the pediatrician that week so her head shape couldn't have been that out of the ordinary, or cause for any immediate concern, but I admit I started to get a bit twitchy. She said that her plates were overlapping in the back and the soft spot that they're supposed to have back there was really really small. She did some pressure point work, and asked us if we could see a difference in her head shape. I was convinced you could, Matt told me later he wasn't as much.
She continued to do some positioning and massage, explaining how she was tight on one side, etc etc. She showed us how to do inversions (holding Bug upside down) and as weird as it was to hold your baby upside down it was even weirder to watch Bug curl to one side (her "tight" side). Eventually she relaxed and held her arms above her head.
After a bit more poking (and a bit more crying - at 5:45, we are rarely in a good mood) it was time for us to go. I almost felt like lying on the table and asking for some help for my roaring headache but was able to restrain myself.
In short (and this already has been quite the abridged version, at least for me) I have no idea if there is any science behind it, but she was a changed baby afterward. She told us that she might sleep or be awake, and she sort of slept in the car on the way home and was then uncharacteristically alert the rest of the night. Like, I shit you not, the eyes did not roll. I wanted to go back the next day, and/or hire her to just live in our basement.
She had told us before we left that she wasn't sure with the "shift" (the movement of her plates, which would relieve some "pressure") if Bug would focus on fixing her eyes or work on her motor skills first. Unfortunately for me and my Eye Neuroses, Bug has chosen to work on motor skills, and hasn't stopped kicking her legs since (and picking up rubber ducky in the bathtub!). I was a bad mom and didn't feed her the extra water I was told to after the appointment (at this point I am feeling stubborn about putting any liquid into her that does not have calories), but I figure I can redeem myself when we go again on Thursday. The eyes are still back to being wonky, but I have some renewed hope.
Oh, and we go back to neurologist on Wednesday for another EEG and to see if we can get off the phenobarb (which, because it is orange flavored (I craved orange while pregnant?) gets Bug ridiculously excited).
Feet. Second only to my hands.
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