Meditating as a NICU cuddler
Census was down in the neonatal ICU so things were very quiet. I spent some time holding a baby who just needed to be held upright for a while after feeding. The nurse said he is always awake in his bed, but when held he falls asleep almost instantly. This baby has his own room and I held him for over an hour as he slept as there was nothing else to do so why not. 🙂 In cases like that it’s a form of meditation, sitting there quietly with nothing to do, nothing to see or interact with besides your own mind. Reminding yourself to just “be” – be present, that the baby benefits from the rise and fall of your breathing, your heartbeat, your warmth, your pressure, even your kind thoughts…
That was the status I just posted on Facebook a few hours ago after I got home from volunteering as a baby cuddler.
It’s 1040pm and I just finished writing up a report due tomorrow. I forgot about it and wanted to cry when I realized I still had to do it for tomorrow. Ugh. Tomorrow should not be too bad of a day. A few kids at one school, onto another school for a few more kids, onto a third school for an IEP meeting. I find January and February challenging months for me from a purely seasonal-emotional-darkness perspective, but I am trying to do things to keep me sane. I took some pictures of kids (well, their fingers, not their faces) using Dexteria this past week…a kid asked me if they could use “Dexter” this week and my first thought was the serial killer….I was like WHAT and then I realized they meant the app. AHAHHAHAA
Anyway. I made myself smile. That’s good. I’m gonna put all these papers away (I just saw my superman/meatball notes aka prone extension and supine flexion) that I was using to write this report and GO TO BED and try not to rue the fact its ABOUT TO BE MONDAY AUGHHHHHHHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Jan 14, 2013 | Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: 2