Preparing for Baby (including Breastfeeding)

A little bit of preparation goes a long way when you’re planning to breastfeed. Topics include:

• How milk is produced in the breast
• Getting started in the hospital
• Establishing a plentiful milk supply
• Recognizing signs of success, as well as when to seek help
• Interpreting your baby’s hunger cues
• Life as a nursing mother
• Common concerns and how to handle them
• What partners and family members need to know

Newborns 101 prepares you for life with a newborn baby.  You’ll “graduate” ready to start life with your new son or daughter!

Hear the most current information on early development, how to care for your infant, and parenting strategies for the first few months.  The mixture of video, hands-on practice and real-life scenarios go beyond what you can read in a book.

Topics include:

• Care procedures at birth
• Newborn behaviors, cues, and reflexes: what they mean and how to respond
• How to soothe and hold your baby and use swaddling products
• Car seat installation basics
• Using dolls, you’ll practice holding and diapering
• Tummy time and taking a temperature will be demonstrated

We strongly encourage everyone in your baby’s caregiving circle to take an Infant CPR class, including parents, grandparents, babysitters and nannies.

These CPR courses are not certification courses, but the curricula follow those of the American Heart Association. Our instructors are AHA certified.

Infant CPR

Learn how to respond in a respiratory or cardiac emergency. Demonstration of hands-on chest compressions, breaths, and choking relief on infant and child will reinforce your learning and help you understand how to act in real life.  Instructions will be sent to you on registration, of how to make a simple homemade mannequin to practice on while the instructor guides you through the process. 

This Two part Baby Massage class helps you feel confident as you tune in to your baby’s needs, communication cues, and responses.  Infant massage is a wonderful way to promote brain development through positive touch. While promoting development you may see your baby becoming calmer, happier and easier to soothe.  They may even sleep better for you!

This hands-on class, led by an Occupational Therapist certified in infant massage, provides parents with an easy, beautiful way to learn about and care for their baby.  Relax and have fun with your baby as you both enjoy the many benefits of Baby Massage.

Recommended for babies ages 3 weeks through cruising.

Please bring a blanket or beach towel for baby to lie on during class.

Baby led weaning is an approach to starting solids that allows baby to self-feed as opposed to be fed. Instead of purees and spoon-feeding, baby and parents can share the same foods while baby exercises his hand/eye coordination, pincer grasp and ability to know when he is full. Led by New Mama instructor and IBCLC, Vickie Albright, this workshop will cover signs of readiness for solids, benefits of allowing baby to take the lead, approaches to getting started and safety concerns.

As babies near their first birthday, language starts to develop. But until they master words, those little people can have big frustrations when no one understands them! Teaching your baby simple words in American Sign Language can give your baby a powerful new tool to communicate with you until they learn to speak. This class will teach you how to use simple signs with your pre-verbal baby, and tuition includes an instructional booklet. 

This class is babies 6 months and older.  Babies welcome in class!