Tummy Time

At 4 months old, Abigail is picking up new tricks all the time. I was brimming with confidence in my little smarty as we went to her 4 month appointment last week. The Dr. began to ask..

- is she smiling? check!
- laughing? check!
- grabbing? double check!
- can she hold her head up? check, check, check!
- does she roll over from back to tummy? umm....
- does she push up on her hands when on her tummy? err...

So truth be told -- I've been neglecting tummy time. I tried it around 2 months and tried to be persistent every day, but she just hated it and would scream and get all worked up. I started doing "tummy time" on my chest, and when she started holding her head up, we moved to the bumbo seat. She became such a pro at holding her head up high that I forgot all about tummy time.

Now my mother's guilt was raging. A couple days later I pulled out her play mat and slathered it up with toys. At first she was delighted at the new set-up when I laid her on her back. She rolled from side to side checking everything out. On one of these side rolls I pushed her the rest of the way so that she was on her tummy.

Then massive chaos and histeria broke loose. I gritted my teeth and tried to get her to stay there, waving toys in her face, singing songs, holding a book... the screaming got worse and worse til she was all red in the face.

I finally picked her up and she panted and clutched to my shirt trying to overcome the ordeal. I tried laying her back down on her back and she screamed and grabbed onto my shirt.

The only way I got her to calm down was rocking her and then reading some books. She looked exhausted even though she just woke up from her nap 30 minutes ago.

I didn't know what to do! Should I just hold out and let her cry until she gets used to tummy time again? I don't want her to have any developmental delays! When she was on her tummy her head was face down screaming into the mat... it didn't look like she even tried pushing up. I put a small boppy under her chest to support her but that didn't work either.

After posting the above entry on one of my great mommy web groups I had a couple suggestions that really worked. One mom suggested a wedge pillow instead of a boppy to better support her tummy and chest, and another mom thought I should try putting her in front of a mirror. I took both ideas to heart and I am happy to say that Abigail did MUCH better. She still didn't like to stay there for long but made it to about 5 minutes.

When Dusty found out that the doc said Abigail should have 10 minutes of tummy time every day, he took charge of the situation. On Saturday he lay down on his tummy face to face with Abigail, with cell phone in hand to time the excercise. I was amazed that he was able to keep her there for 10 full minutes! Just goes to show a girl will do anything to impress her daddy. :)

All week we've been working on tummy time and she is getting much better, even pushing up now and trying to scoot!! She still starts to fuss around 8 minutes at which point we push toward the finish line, but I'm so proud of my little "athlete."

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com