Friday, January 22, 2010

Eating and sitting and rolling, oh my

Ellie is hitting a couple more milestones this week. On Wednesday night, after finishing her first meal, we were working on rolling over on the floor for the 100th time. And she did it! Well, she did it about 80 percent on her own... Her teacher showed us a trick for encouraging rolling over. We have to hold one of her legs crossed over the other one, which helps her get moving. Between that hold, both of us on the floor calling for her and the dogs getting in the mix... she was persuaded to flip from back to stomach. Yay!
I will say that I feel at times like I'm working with a dog on this particular trick. It's hard not to when you're sitting on the floor begging "roll over, roll over, roll over." And the dogs responded plenty to our high-pitched pleas and to the toys we shook next to her as enticement. Radar actually knows how to roll-over, but he knows the trick as "play dead." Muzzy isn't so cooperative, but I think she hears "Lick our faces" and/or "Lick the baby's mouth" when she we call for the trick...
But with or without our encouragement, it seems Ellie is catching on. I'm glad to see it because I've been getting nervous about her not hitting this mark yet. Many places I've read suggest babies will roll over at 4 months. I wasn't worried at that point or even a few weeks later. But as her 5-month birthday came and went with no rolling, I was getting a little concerned.
I just found, though, in our Baby 411 book a great segment.
Q: Help! My baby is almost sitting up and he hasn't rolled over yet. Is this OK?
The authors explained that this is fine and fairly normal in the post-babies-need-to-sleep-on-their-backs era. Ellie is at just about the same point. She's been sitting on her own a bunch this week. She can usually balance for a few minutes completely by herself, and then continue with just minimal propping. What a relief to see my exact concern addressed! I love all that baby knowledge out there!

p.s. Pictures will come soon...

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