tummy time
Savannah hates being on her tummy. This doesn’t make sense to me, because I can’t sleep unless I’m on my tummy. :-) She’s also incredibly content, and will sit forever entertaining herself if you left her.
However, she’s now almost 10 months old and doesn’t really move or scootch around at all like other babies her age. I really try not to compare, but whenever my friends talk about their kids crawling around – especially kids younger than Savannah! – I feel a little sad and wonder if something is wrong with my baby. Fortunately, one of my friends is a physical therapist for children, and she and I have been getting together weekly for play dates since last fall. She assures me that nothing is wrong with Savannah, that she just doesn’t have that desire to move around. Her arm muscles are underdeveloped because of this.
My friend gave me a few exercises to work with Savannah and encourage her to use her arms more. The intent is not necessarily to get her crawling, but just encourage her to move and explore on her own. So far, she has learned that she can spin around while sitting so she’ll do that which is kinda cute. And we’re making some very small progress with getting her to like tummy time. I’m supposed to put her on her tummy 4 times a day for 15 minutes each.
These pictures make me laugh because they’re so pathetic.
She gives up and just lets her head sink to the floor as she cries mournfully. I’m a terribly mean mommy!
Today I put her on her tummy for tummy time, and she flipped over to her back. I put her back, and she immediately turned to her back. I couldn’t get her to stay on her tummy! Smart girl. :-) So I’ll have to try some of the other exercises my friend gave me. Maybe Savannah will figure out she can roll from place to place?
She will reach really far to get something. She even gets her butt off the ground as she’s stretching! One of these days she’s going to start crawling, I just know it.
To close on a sweet note, when we were driving back from Indiana, I looked in the back seat to see if Savannah had fallen asleep. We had a toy mirror that was sitting on the seat, and the angle was just perfect that I could see her face in the reflection! Awww I just had to take a picture.
9 thoughts on “tummy time”
Aww! Johnny hated tummy time, too. We had a little mirror that we put on the floor so he could look at himself and he sorta enjoyed that.
Is she ok if she’s propped up a little, like on a pillow or something?
Maybe she’ll be one of those babies who totally skips crawling and goes to walking! My sister did that.
aww;) poor baby;)
The mirror photo is SO sweet:)
Kacie: Yeah I know a lot of babies who skip crawling! And if she does, that’s okay. However, I’d love to encourage her to crawl if she will because apparently it’s important for strengthening their hands. My friend (the PT) says she’s noticed a correlation between babies who skip crawling and having issues later on, with for example handwriting.
Our baby didn’t crawl until he was almost a year old, almost skipped it. He was more interested in pulling himself up on the furniture. And walking.
If you wear her in a sling, it’s my understanding that the muscles a baby uses in the facing-outward type carries use similar muscles to tummy time, without the screaming and hatefulness. Tummy time is aimed more at babies who sit in bouncers all day or otherwise don’t get carried as much.
MrsB: That’s interesting! I’ve never heard that before. I wear her in my Ergo all the time, but should I pull out my Moby again so I can wear her forward-facing? I hate this whole “let her cry for 15 minutes”, especially because in general I don’t let her just cry.
i think almost all the babies here go from being carried everywhere to walking. they don’t let their babies crawl, the floor is too dirty (even in houses!). i dont think too many ppl have handwriting problems, but then again characters are a bit different than the alphabet :)
Josh was the same way! He was just starting to roll over at 9ish months, and mostly because he hated tummy time as well. He learned real quick how to flip himself over so he didn’t have to endure tummy time anymore ;) He did start crawling maybe around 10 months and was taking first steps right around a year.
Every baby is so different! Here Lucy is already walking across the room unassisted while her brother at this age was just starting to roll over. And Josh is a very physically and pretty agile kid these days, so it’s not like he’s physically behind or anything. They each just do things at their own pace.
I’m totally laughing because she’s already learned how to be a true girl–dramatic! Those photos are just too precious, but it must be hard to just let her cry. You’re so mean, trying to get her to reach her full potential! ;-)
I couldn’t help responding to this post – my day-to-day job deals a lot with typical/atypical development in children from 0-5. Here’s the website for what DCPS does: http://www.earlystagesdc.org — if you go to “For Families” and then “Downloads,” you’ll find a downloadable PDF of the developmental milestones that typically developing children reach as they grow. Your physical therapist friend is totally right — kids develop at their own pace, and you shouldn’t worry! I had a parent come in with the same concerns a little while ago, and the occupational therapist here suggested a couple of things: in addition to tummy time, have her lie on her back and spend time with her mobile (her reaching and kicking will also help her develop those ab muscles) and, in addition to having her lie on her tummy, support her so that she is using her arms to prop her upper body up. Apologies if this is completely repetitive! I just got excited because I actually knew something about this! :)
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