Tummy Time

Back to sleep, front to play.

That is the new baby advice for parents of my generation, where the babies sleep on their backs and you then put them on their tummies to play.

I read that because they spend a lot more time sleeping than playing that our generation of babies will reach their milestones a little bit later than we did when we were kids. So not to worry if your baby crawls or walks a bit later than you did.

They call this front to play time, Tummy Time.

Well, Tummy Time usually consists of a face plant on the play mat and Isabel crying because well...it sucks face planting!

I talked to a lot of mothers and they said that their babies hated Tummy Time too and didn't do it and their kids turned out just fine.

So I am not too worried about x number of hours a day for Tummy Time but still try to encourage Isabel to spend some time on her tummy.

Isabel hated Tummy Time so much though, so I looked for ideas out there on how to get your child interested in Tummy Time without tramatizing them too much in the process or turning them into a pug nosed dog because of too much face planting.

One suggestion was to lay down on your back and put the baby on your tummy, tummy to tummy and talk to your baby as this was going on.

Isabel didn't freak out as much when I started putting her on my tummy and it was a lot more fun for me as she didn't cry and we could talk and we could look at each other. So this video clip shows the intitial stages of tummy-to-tummy time.

Little by little she is starting to get used to the idea of being on her tummy and seems to actually like it.

Daddy wanted to get in on the action too.

With a little encouragement of praise and smiles she started enjoying more and more Tummy Time.

She is almost a seasoned pro at this Tummy Time

I know as soon as she starts crawling I will be in trouble but watching her get better and better on her stomach really is cute.