Before I had a kid, I'd never heard of "tummy time." But once Sadie was born, all I knew from reading Babycenter was that it was absolutely imperative that Sadie have some, every day.
This is exactly what it sounds like: you plop the kid upside down on a blanket or rug and basically leave them to their own devices to kick, squirm and flail. The idea is that it helps develop their neck and upper body muscles, allowing them to first lift their heads, then raise their shoulders, prop themselves up on their elbows and ultimately roll over and crawl and all those lovely things you need a full range of body coordination to achieve.
By this point, 2 1/2 months, Sadie is supposed to be making strides in this arena. "By now, your baby is lifting her head and upper body to look around!" proclaims Babycenter's weekly updates, thoughtfully sent to my inbox every week so that I can obsess about what my baby can and cannot do versus every other 11 week old baby in the universe.
The problem? Sadie hates tummy time. Like, hates it with a passion and does not want anything to do with it. At first, she was hating it but at least trying to push herself up for a few minutes before giving up and collapsing into angry yelling. Now? She doesn't even bother to try. She's like, "why continue this charade?" Ever since she discovered her fingers, she's decided that rather than attempt to make progress during tummy time, she'd rather take advantage of the fact that her fists are located conveniently right next to her mouth. Why work for a long-term payoff when fist-sucking is so much easier and more satisfying? In this way, she's much like her mother.
Guess what....SADIE IS NORMAL! NO baby in today's culture where we throw our kids on their back so that they won't die in bed HATES tummy time.
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