It still frustrates me even though it’s happened so many times before now. As I have mentioned many times, I have read at least a couple of reputable books on bringing up my baby, and I thought they would be comprehensive. But no. Every few days, I find out about something that the books don’t bring up, and have to resort to searching internet forums for answers.
When do babies start to babble?
According to the internet, 4 months, which is why I thought our little bundle of joy was right on track. At 8 weeks, she looks like she understands what I’m trying to say when I have a conversation with her, and politely blinks or waves her arms and legs in response. She sometimes makes sounds.
At her 8 week well-check up, the pediatrician tries to have a conversation with her. The little darling stares at the lights on the ceiling. The ped tries a little harder, and our baby girl waves her arms a little, and eventually grunts a little, although she looks like she was paying attention. Verdict: no good. She is supposed to be babbling. What?
We will have a follow up in a month to check on her social development. In the meantime, I have to engage with her more. It’s intuitive, but someone should spell it out for me anyway: if the baby makes a sound, encourage her by responding and hope she makes more sounds.
These days, I explain to my daughter that she needs to be noisier. I don’t know how to make her less interested in lights than people though.
Baby has low muscle tone
We checked on her muscle development too, and the ped says that she’s behind as well. But how behind is she?
We found a useful video on youtube showing the typical development of a 2 month-old. I’m posting it here for your reference. Yup, she’s behind. But everyone I know swears that their baby didn’t get that far at 2 months.
Other Tummy Time moves
Another useful follow up video is this one which shows alternatives to the standard lay-on-flat-surface tummy time. We have tried them, and found that she responds much better to being placed on the lap.
We have a follow up appointment in 4 weeks instead of 8, and hopefully we will have caught up by then. I don’t know what happens if she hasn’t caught up, or how much catching up she needs to do. What did people do before the internet? I don’t think pediatricians used to spend hours with their patients explaining everything. Anyway, fingers crossed for the next 3 weeks.