"Can I Rub Your Belly?"

I had my first prenatal massage this week. It was wonderful, really. But here are a few critiques I have:

-Laying on my side wasn't my favorite. I have to lay on my side all. the. time. I was really hoping for a big hole in the table so that I could stick my big ole' belly in there and lay on my stomach. If I get the chance to get another prenatal massage in the next 3 months, I'm totally looking for a place with this table.

-Prenatal massages should have a built in bathroom break. With my sweet little Baby B tap dancing on my bladder, I knew that this was bound to happen. So I didn't drink ANY liquid the morning before and went to the bathroom at least 3 times. Including RIGHT before I went into the massage room. However, about 50 minutes into my wonderful hour-long massage, there it was. It kind of ruined the last 10 minutes for me. I guess I could have asked for a break. But that would have involved getting dressed, walking all the way down the hall, coming back, getting undressed and settled and that would have left about 3 minutes in my massage! It just didn't seem worth it. My suggestion: a built in break that doesn't interfere with your massage time. A bathroom connected to the room that you're in. Is that too much to ask? :)

-Weirdly enough, (or maybe not so weirdly enough, I've never had a prenatal massage before) Monica (my sweet masseuse) asked if she could rub my belly. She said it was a great way to sooth the baby after she's born, because she'll remember that touch. Ok. This, I still don't really understand. How am I supposed to rub my baby? Whatever... I thought, "Why not?" Well, next time I'll probably say, "No." I mean, it felt OK. It was just WEIRD. I was laying on my side and she would reach over me, pull my belly from underneath like she was trying to roll over a beached whale. Dislike. One fun thing that came with this though, Elle got all kinds of crazy afterwords. I hadn't really felt her all morning, so I was a little concerned because normally she's moving all the time. [Did you know that Elle's sleeping and dreaming in there? This probably accounts for her lack of activity that morning. ] So, it was reassuring and fun to have her with me. She either loved the belly rubbing or hated it. :)

Those are my critiques for prenatal massages. Overall... wonderful. Will I do it again? Who in their right mind passes up any kind of massage? Yes.

Happy Saturday!