Crawling and (almost) Walking

Here's my little supermodel posing for the camera. She's quite the looker if you like chubby ankles and dimpled fingers (which I do)...

Emily crawls like a champ these days. She's only been crawling for about a month, but to look at her you'd think she'd been at it for much longer. She's also pulling up on anything and everything - a skill she aquired only two or three weeks ago and has been perfecting. If you're thinking it's pretty late for an almost one-year-old to just start pulling up, crawling and walking (she creeps around furniture), you're right. Emily is late with all of that. The surgery threw her off and the subsequent three weeks in arm restraints, but I think the lack of tummy time really delayed Emily's mobility. We didn't do it on purpose, but we kept her off her belly because we wanted to protect her from bumping her face while she wore the NAM. I also tended to carry her a lot - the mother bear instinct, I guess.

It's a relief to see Emily moving around and catching up developmentally. My advice to you (and I just spoke with another mom today whose baby is wearing the NAM) is try not to worry about it. If you can enroll your baby in Early Intervention and have them followed by a physical or occupational therapist, then that will put your mind at ease. Meanwhile, understand that our babies have a lot to overcome - surgery, hospitalization, arm restraints...lots of change. So cut your baby some slack and just take it a day at a time. I'm not saying to ignore red flags or anything, just work with your baby as much as possible and try to relax about it if he or she seems to be lagging behind the other babies in the crowd.


A funny thing happened when we brought Emily out into the sun the other day, her hair turned red. Do you see it?? There's more red than brown in this picture. I hope the color stays.