On the Move

Sarah was a late mover.  I was a spoiled mom.  Ever since she's been born she's liked to be upright.  Even in the hospital she was never a baby that you could snuggle in your arms and rock to sleep - she much preferred to be over your shoulder looking around at the world.  I think it was that predisposition that had her sitting at a young age - around 5 months.  However, she had no desire to move once she was upright.  She'd grunt and groan if something she wanted was out of her reach, but she didn't seem to realize that by rolling over or scooting forward she might actually be able to attain it for herself. She also has never like sleeping on her back, so I think that delayed her rolling - she's preferred to sleep on her side since she was very young, and if you put her on her back, she was talented enough to get herself to her side to get back to sleep - and mommy and daddy liked this too, because a baby on her side was much less likely to lose her binky.

Somewhere near the end of May she decided she'd start rolling over.  Somewhere near the beginning of June she decided to start "inchworm crawling", where she'll put the entire front half of her body down on the floor, scoot her legs forward, lift her body up, and try again.  If I can figure out how to link video to this/get video off our camcorder, I'll post video of it because it's quite funny.  Recently, we've moved forward toward what I consider real crawling.  She doesn't quite move forward yet on hands and knees, but she holds herself up on them, and will move one leg forward before she loses track of what she wanted to do.

Moving has become a challenge and a game to her.  Pillows, dogs, and legs are now obstacles to cross.  I left her on the floor in our bedroom to run downstairs to get her bottle, and I can't do that anymore as when I came back she had crawled under the baby gate blocking the entrance to our room and had got herself stuck.  She doesn't pull herself up on objects yet, but can push herself up to her legs - so if I'm lying down she'll crawl over to me and push herself to a modified plank position on her hands and legs.  I envy her ab strength. Twice while writing this I had to stop to keep her from crawling off the couch.  Unfortunately along with her new-found mobility does not come an appreciation for being on top of high places. 

Standing makes her happy - whenever she's upset, most of the time if you just put her in a standing position she calms right down.  I hope she'll make it the next three weeks, but I suspect my post summer school time will be spent baby proofing the house.  And thus ends 9 months of relative peace.

Sarah loves her musical table - mostly because it's the right height to stand up against!