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Motor Control
A baby discovers the joy of movement
I think my baby is learning to hug. Maybe it was an accident, but today when I held him high on my shoulder, his arm wrapped around the back of my neck and squeezed. And this evening, as he lay nearly sleeping on my belly, his draped arms curled rather than just hanging, for the first time.
He’s not very good with his arms. Limb control generally: pretty much flailing, so far. His kicks are so strong I keep expecting to find bruises on the backs of his heels (I remember the bruise on the inside of my belly). But the arms just wave about uselessly in the air most of the time.
You’re meant to give your baby “tummy time” every day so that they learn to raise their head, hold up their torso, work towards crawling.
We haven’t been very good about this. Until last week, the baby hated it. You put him on his belly, nudged his arms forward… he drew them back, faceplanted, and fussed until you picked him up. He was simply not interested.
He likes airplane time. His neck has been strong since his first day of life, and Robert discovered that the inversion calms him. So that’s how we play: I lay on my back, baby balanced on my shins. He laughs. He drools. He opens his mouth in a huge, gummy smile, and chunks of white spit up slime out.
