crawling/mobility eight months

[mangostar]

Hello

DD is 8.5 months. Generally i am very happy with development. She feeds herself, babbles (mamma dadda and hello), claps, good eye contact, feet in mouth, takes socks off, smiles alot, answers to name, etc etc. But on gross motor skills she seems to be skipping a few steps.

She sits very well unsupported (for an hour easily), great balance, never falls over and will stretch as far as possible to reach toys. If i kneel on the floor with her on my lap if there is a cot, box, table within grasp she will pull herself up and can stand unsupported once up. she seems very keen on standing at the moment. However she hates being on her stomach. She has rolled onto her stomach about twice by accident and immediately has rolled back. Occassionally whilst lying on her back she will propel herself backwards by kicking her legs, but shows no real interest in learning to crawl or get around. In the last two weeks whilst sitting she has started to do this little bounce on her bottom and to bend forward putting her hands on the floor - which made me think she might start to take off - but nothing so far.

I guess my concern is how can they learn to become mobile if they do not spend time on their stomachs, can they learn to crawl from the sitting position and how can they learn to get themselves into a sitting position. She will roll onto her sides alot to grab toys but wont go onto the stomach. If she thinks shes turning too far she immediately flips onto her back

All developmental assessments have been normal.

Any thoughts appreciated. Just want her to get mobile - think she will love it.

Don't worry, you may want her to be mobile but believe me as soon as she is you will wish she wasn't.

Neither of my dc's would spend any time on their stomaches and ds didn't crawl until 14 months, he then went on to walk at 16 months.

She will do it as soon as she is ready, in the meantime enjoy her immobility, honestly.

DD is the same age and started crawling about 2 weeks ago.

Since she was about 5 months she has been doing what i can only describe as skydiving positions on the floor where her arms and legs are spreadegale and she kind of bounces on her tummy. Sometimes her hands would connect with the ground and she would push herself backwards. For months we have been finding her under the coffee table or sofa where she had backwards slid herself.

She has been sitting upright unsupported for a few months now and her crawling breakthrough really didnt seem to have anything to do with the tummy bouncing she had been doing. She moved from sitting upright to sitting with her two hands on the ground to then two hands on the ground and on her knees if that makes sense.

Once she got that hands and knees position sorted she just had to work out how to co-ordinate her limbs to move together. THat seemed to take about a week and now she is unstopable.

She tried to crawl out the doggy door yesterday. Though i was desperate for her to start crawling i think i am going to miss my lovely immobile baby.

Dear Both

Thankyou very much for your responses much appreciated.

"moved from sitting upright to sitting with her two hands on the ground" is where mine seems to have got to over the last week - so hopefully knees will be next although not seen signs of it yet.

I probably wont force tummy time, if its possible to get to crawling from sitting, coz she really hates it!!!!

DD hated being on her tummy. I remember thinking the same as you - "How is she going to learn to crawl if she won't go on her front?" But she did it from sitting, with no problem at all.

Once she was crawling and had cracked getting from hands and knees back up to sitting again, she actually spent a lot more time on her front! I think it was the lack of control for her, she hated being stuck on her front. So once it was on her terms and she could put herself there, and get herself back up, she was much happier with the whole arrangement.

As long as she doesn't seem cross and frustrated I would just enjoy her immobility! My DD is exactly the same age and sounds quite similar developmentally - babbling, clapping etc. She's also at the 'sitting with hands on the floor' stage but she is just SO grumpy at the moment - seems so desparate to be on the move but just can't get there. It's driving us all nuts and I feel so sorry for her!

OP - my DS always hated being put on his tummy and cried when I tried it.

From 10 months he started to bum-shuffle and seems to have no intention of crawling! I think he'll bum-shuffle for a few months and then start to walk.

Btw, just in case it isn't clear: bum-shuffling is when child is sat on floor unsupported and moves hips and bum to move. Is quite cute to watch and before I had DS I'd assumed that all babies crawled! Ha!

Your DC sounds perfectly normal :)