Cherish Baby Massage – Norwich!

One of my friends always jokes with me that Raffie is the only 3rd baby in the world who got to go to Gymboree and that I’m positively ridiculous taking Posie as a 4th as surely all babies past the first have to go along for the ride with all their older sibling’s classes and they don’t get a look in at their own. Largely I agree, it is certainly hard to find the time to do classes with babies after your first but I so love doing them with the little ones and actually, it’s so good for them not to mention me! With Raffie I was rather poorly straight after he was born and it took me a while to get into a groove coupled with the fact I simply liked looking at him ad it being just us at home all day but by 9 months and he was well and truly signed up for stuff. Having had a much easier labour and time of it with Posie, I wanted to get out and about with her much earlier on. Maybe part of that was lockdown and not being able to for so long but I was determined to do things with her and as soon as we were allowed I signed her up for a baby massage class with Cherish Baby Massage.

Baby massage is something I did with Florence and adored and over the years have applied the techniques I learned every evening after bath time. It’s a really great way of soothing and relaxing not to mention helping with colic and it really gets the bed time routine off to a calming start when they’re all warm and snuggly and clean wrapped in a towel. I definitely needed a refresher and this class fit in perfectly time wise for me with a 5 week course on a Friday morning at the Knowles Dance and Fitness Studio up at White House Farm.

I’m just so glad that I made the call to take her because what I’ve gained from Kim’s classes is so much more than a refresher in how to do baby massage, which is very helpful and has been incorporated into our daily routine with much benefit. I have also made friends (we now have a WhatsApp group and aim to continue to meet up on a Friday morning) and it gave Posie and I some lovely time together each week. Truth is I’m actually really sad they’re over and I just wish the course had been longer!

Posie and I attended the first class available on the second step out of the lockdown road map so it was a small class (perfectly sized) with 8 of us joining Kim in the studio. We were all given mats and bag of goodies including our own bottle of oil and a pamphlet containing all the moves we would learn and after a class ice breakwer where we introduced ourselves Kim took us through the first step on our massage journey. Each week she taught us the next part to the full body massage for babies also telling us how we can adapt each stroke as they grow bigger and also gifting us with information as to how each move benefits a bay, toddler and even an older child. Very informative and yet easy to do. We all had a bit of a giggle and a little bit of a chat as we learned and towards the end of each class Kim would engage us all in a chat on a certain topic relating to our babies. It was a great way to get to know the other Mums and babies and felt really lovely, informal but with purpose.

In between the first and second week Kim organised for us to go as a group to Dotty Pottery, also at White House Farm where we got to chat to each other a bit more and take advantage of a group offer they had for pottery printing with the baby’s feet and hands. We are big Dotty Pottery fans any way and this visit was lovely chatting with the other Mums. Kim really put so much effort into making sure we were all comfortable around each other and gave us all such a good opportunity to make friends. Even if you really don’t feel like the most gregarious person and find it hard to chat you’d have been hard pushed not to have felt at ease around this group of ours thanks to Kim!

We just had such a brilliant 5 weeks. I love now knowing all the different massage techniques and what each one does to calm or soothe the baby and am using all I’ve learned daily. I even get to use the gorgeous gift Kim gave us all to say goodbye, an oil dispenser personalised just for Poise and made by Striking Stationery – Kim was so generous. We got Tropic goodies at the start and chocolates and then the end came this gorgeous bottle.

One of the other Mums, Helen, who runs Three Corner Design (balloons for every celebration – check her out) also gave all the babies a star balloon which stole the show on the last Friday!

I flipping loved every second and want to go back and do it all again. We did ask but she’s got her next class already signed up – sob! Still, Kim is going to teach baby yoga very soon so we will be back for that and in the mean time the whole class is going to continue with our friendship and we shall be having coffee on Friday mornings instead!

The course of 5 classes cost £55 and I can’t recommend Cherish Baby Massage enough. It was fun, informative, intimate and chilled but it was also a real giggle and I’, just so glad I’ve made some lovely new friends to boot. I feel very lucky to have been part of this group – so thanks Kim and Cherish Baby Massage for making it all so easy and all so great for Posie and I and all the other Mums and babies!

To book a course with Kim find her on her Facebook page or her Instagram under @CherishBabyMassage and send her a direct message.