First time mum…4 month old baby boy

[Infertilitylife]

Hello everyone,

I’m a first time mum after many years of infertility and IVF treatment. My little boy is now 4 months old, born by c section due at 38+2. Little one is on the second centile but has followed this trend since being born so GP/HV not concerned.

I don’t have any friends with babies etc and I’m starting to worry as my son isn’t trying to grab things and hates tummy time. He constantly just wants his hands in his mouth and wants to sit up and look around. He loves to babble at me and his dad, look at toys and laughs and smiles etc. He also loves to weight bear on his legs and bounce. but he does not want to reach out and play with things himself. We do practice tummy time but he becomes really upset which then makes it even worse. He’s happy to do it on us but if he’s on his tummy any other time he really doesn’t like it.

Is this normal? Am I worrying for nothing?

Thank you

Sounds very normal to me. I really wouldn't be concerned

Thank you. I think I’m just overthinking everything :(

It's so easy to worry isn't it? It starts before they even arrive.

Are you getting out to any groups? That can help sometimes even if it's only having a cuppa and talking about how horrible sleep deprivation is

Just to reassure you - my now 14 month old son didn’t do tummy time from about 4 months as he would be sick and upset every time and lost weight and dropped centiles. He much preferred to be stood up with us holding him, so that’s what we did ALOT. At 9 months be started walking independently. He never crawled on his hands and knees, but will now sometimes bear crawl to get under something. He’s very happy and healthy now and had been walking really steadily for a number of months now. We saw the health visitor recently and despite the fact he refuses to eat dinner and spends all day running around he’s actually gone up to the next percentiles.
Just so you feel reassured that tummy time etc isn’t the end of the world if they can’t do it often. If he’s able to hold his head and likes being stood up then that’s also great for him to practice head control.
Also, you’re not overthinking everything, you’re being a great parent and noticing when your child seems to be doing / not doing things others are doing. It’s good to look out for things so you can catch them early if there is an issue. But, always remember that every baby truly does develop differently and at their own pace. There will always be a baby more ‘advanced’ than yours, so try not to compare too much.

@CadyEastman Thank you. I haven’t been out to any groups yet but I do plan to. Just hard to know which ones are beneficial etc but I’ll definitely have another look into them ☺️

@Row23 Thank you so much for the reassurance. My little boy has been able to hold his head up for a while and loves to sit up/stand up etc. and predictably after writing this post yesterday, this morning he’s decided he can actually do tummy time on a pillow and likes it (picture attached) 😂 Whereas before he would just face plant and scream.

I really do need to remember that every baby is different and that he will do things when he is ready 🙂