Flipping Sophie

Dear baby Sophie has mastered how to flip when she turned 5 month and two weeks!

The first time it happened was really quite funny and I think it took her by surprise. But before that faithful night (Mummy forgot to note down the date), we've been trying to "teach" her how to flip by raising her arm so that it will be positioned nicely in front of her when she turns. We also helped her get her momentum to flip by swaying her body from side to side before we give her a slight nudge so that she'll understand how she can flip. We tried this for about 2, 3 weeks before she turned 5 months as learning how to flip is one of the key milestones for that stage.

So on that faithful night, Sophie was lying on our bed when she just arched her body and then turned on her side and finally landed on her tummy! This Mummy was so happy, amused that I just laughed and laughed. I don't know if she was taken aback by my reaction or that she was suddenly not facing the ceiling but on all fours, she looked so blur that it made me laugh even louder.

Arching her back, preparing for the turn...

And she's up!

Since then she's been trying to turn whenever she cans.

Put her down on the playmat, flip goes Sophie.

Put her down on the changing mat, flip goes Sophie.

Put her down on her cot, flip goes Sophie.

Even when she's sitting in her swing, she'll attempt to turn by arching her back and leaning to one side.

Flipping Sophie in action

The next step, is for her to learn how to flip back on her back so that she'll not get stuck. She gets awfully frustrated when she cant get back on her back or crawl forward so she'll do a "nose dive" like she's trying to bury her head into the mattress. Needless to say, it will be accompanied by a lot of whining and complaining as she cries out for help.

The nose dive position

And for the first time last night, I found her on her tummy in the cot in the middle of the night. Well not so much middle of the night since it was 4am. But I have a feeling that this will be the first of many nights ahead when she'll flip and flip in her sleep too! And the best part was even when I put her down after feeding her, she still wanted to flip on her tummy! So I had to pick her up again and "guan zui" her with milk.

Looking back, I'm just so amazed by the development and growth of a 5 months, 3 weeks baby. Like Alexis says, there's no hurry what a baby can do, because at the right time, Sophie will automatically learn how to flip. And I know that goes the same for other things like sitting, crawling, walking, talking too. So I'll just be an encouraging mummy and not get too stress comparing Sophie's development with other babies and enjoy each of her growing up milestones with her.