Look who learnt to flip at 5.5 months!!!
And that made me realise how important it is to let my child develop at his own pace!
I must say D has been rather on the ball in his learning milestones. Those monthly checkups that we went to with a checklist to tick off went pretty well, except for this part. This lifting of head when placed on tummy part.
TUMMY TIME
Is the word. Every mummy whom I know speaks about it.
Have a crying baby? It must be collic! Give tummy time!
Want to train neck muscles? Give tummy time!
Want to prepare them for crawling? Give tummy time!
The wonders of tummy time cannot be overstated.
We heard about it again during D's 3rd month checkup. When he failed one of the developmental milestones that he was assessed on in that month - to be able to lift head up 45 degree when placed on tummy. This was what he looked like during the test:
Didnt help that our PD made quite a big deal out of it. So for the next month or so, I set myself on a mission to train D for his next assessment at the 4th month - to be able to lift head 90 degrees when placed on tummy. This is what you get paid to stay at home for 4 months for. Seriously.
So I tried.
And I failed many times.
I read that giving a pillow to prop/support helps.
So there.
Many times the grandparents saw him in such agony, got heartbroken and asked me to flip him back.
I was heartbroken too! But I wanted D to 'pass' his test in a month's time!
More importantly, I wanted to be sure that given time and practice, my baby is able to support his own head.
So I continued trying.
Then I read that I should make the 'view' more interesting for him.
So I tummy timed together with him and tried to distract him with all his colorful books and toys.
He still wasnt very pleased.
I even let him tummy time on the play gym because I thought having a bear head to stare at may arouse some interest. Muesli cloth was put there for hygiene purpose because the dog just snuggled on the abandoned playgym.
But he wasnt interested in any bear.
He just wasnt pleased.
This went on for a month until our next PD visit.
Sure enough, we missed the mark again. But she was slightly more pleased that he had shown some improvement from the previous visit though still not satisfied.
Being an anxious first time mummy, I went on to google and found out that it was actually quite common with other babies too. It wasnt anything to be worried about!
And so, we didnt do tummy time anymore.
But on a more recent visit to a private PD, I casually told him D wasnt lifting his head up while on tummy yet. You know, just to be sure.
He tested his neck strength and told us all is fine with our boy.
Who knows 2 weeks later, look who flipped over?!?!?!
Baby D at 5.5 months.
It was a big hoohaa in the house that afternoon and I swear we would have popped a champagne if we had one!!! So proud of you darling!
But we have got quite a lazy bummer
That's our D, choosing to rest his head during most of his tummy time.
;p
So there!
Tummy time or not, you decide.
It is still up to individual babies to develop at their own pace.
Of course as parents, we should always be vigilant when certain developmental milestones dont get achieved, just to make sure it is not an early sign of something more serious.
If you are a worrywart, then get a PD who doesnt harp on every single thing by the book.
For us, this wasnt the only thing ours harped on.
His weight was also not meeting her expectations according to the chart of growth. Our D is in the 90th percentile for his height but in the 50th percentile for his weight. Average weight is acceptable what, right?! He is not underweight. But no, we were told he s should put on more to match his height.
No matter how I see it, my D looks ok. He's not the typical sumo baby but is also not scrawny.
My baby cannot be tall AND SLIM meh?!
Look! He also has got the michelin thighs what!!
I digress.
This photo was actually taken after some stranger we met peeked suspiciously at D's thighs while talking to N. He said my next baby will be a boy. According to him, one michelin line means boy. Really?!
