Tummy Time

Alex has had a big week! On Monday, he had his two month checkup and his first round of vaccinations. Three big shots in his fat little thighs! Poor little guy.

He weighed 12 pounds on Monday and was 22.5 inches long. At birth he was 7 lbs 6 oz, and 20.5 inches long. The doctor was pleased with his weight gain and how vocal he is. Then he asked about tummy time. I said I was putting Alex on his belly once or twice a day, and the doctor exclaimed, "He needs to go on his belly TEN times a day!"

Ten!

Let me explain about tummy time. You may have heard that in the US, babies are supposed to go to sleep on their backs now. Doctors used to tell people to put babies to sleep on their tummies, but several years ago studies revealed that sleeping on their backs could prevent crib death. So now there's this big "back to sleep" campaign and you're never supposed to put a baby on his belly to sleep.

One side-effect of this is that today's babies do a lot of things -- like crawl -- later than the babies of the past did. The reason is because spending time on their tummies helps them develop muscle tone and strength, and they're missing out on that. So now you're supposed to put them on their tummies to play, so they can develop the muscles and skills that they can't develop on their backs.

But ten times a day? That seems kind of crazy! I'm a very obedient patient, though, even when I'm not actually the patient. So Alex has been spending a lot of time on his tummy this week.

It was kind of hard at first.



Because really, who wants to be on their tummy when they can hardly pick their head up off the floor?

But the doctor told me on Monday that of course babies who don't get much tummy time don't like it. But he assured me that if I did it more and more often, Alex would learn to tolerate it.



So we've been doing lots and lots of tummy time -- on all different kinds of surfaces. Alex has had tummy time on blankets on the floor, in the crib, on the exercise ball, over the Boppy pillow, and even across my lap.



We've made a lot of progress.



And then today, something Very Exciting happened. Alex was on his tummy on a blanket on the floor. He was propped up on his elbows looking at a Dr. Seuss board book, and I was running the vacuum around the living room, keeping an eye on him. Suddenly he straightened out his left arm, pushing himself up a little, and ROLLED OVER onto his back on the blanket.

Rolled over!

My mom saw him do it, too, and I'm so glad. Because at first I kept thinking to myself, Did he really just ROLL OVER? But he did! He really did it. He has come a long way in a week!

All that tummy time does make him tired (the doctor told me this would happen, too).



Could there be any better place to take a nap than on your grandmother? I don't think so.