Tummy time. The bane of Audrey's existence, if she had one. New mothers know how "tummy time" is pushed and pushed. There are specific toys and pillows marketed for this purpose, which, I will admit, we do own one of. I think it has been used a grand total of maybe 5 times. Tummy time is simply that--time on one's tummy. I believe it came about when having infants sleep on their sides or belly became taboo. I suppose the idea is that if your child only ever sleeps and lays on their back, their neck will not get the exercise it needs, and your child will forever have a floppy head atop a limp neck. How awful!! Fear of a limp-necked daughter raced through my head as I laid Audrey down on her belly, just to hear her scream and scream, face down on the quilt du jour. Hearing her scream is awful, so I'd pick her up. What's a mother to do?
After discussing this with my mom and brother, I was sure that even without said "tummy time", my daughter would, in fact, someday be able to hold her own head up. Forget tummy time, that was my new philosophy! I never had tummy time myself, and as far as I can tell, my neck isn't any stonger or limper than anyone else's. Phew!
Audrey has made great strides this last week--seemingly a different baby. She wakes herself at night giggling. How nice that even at 14 weeks she can laugh at herself. She watches us eat, as if thinking, "Oh, so it goes in there.....". This afternoon as I made a feeble attempt to get some work done, on a whim I rolled her onto her tummy. She lifted her head up and looked around, no problems! What, is this my child?? That's her doll Harold next to her.
Oh, wait, it must be my child...she's already looking at my geology and geophysics text books. Is there a "Future Geophysicists of America" group? If so, sign her up!
Notice the bald spot on her head. That's from laying on her back and vigorously turning her head from left-to-right-to-left, making sure she doesn't miss a thing. Again, I had a similar bald spot, and as far as my mirrors can tell me, I don't seem to be folliclely challenged in any way.
2 comments:
Do you *really* want her looking at your Geophysics books? Make sure they don't mention anything about UXO!
Wynne had the same bald spot but I wish we'd taken a picture of it! Also, I think we read tummy time was to make them stronger- for rolling over and ultimately crawling...
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