Laurel is so much happier being able to move. Each morning I put her on the floor and she gets this intrepid look in her eye, rolls over, and takes aim at her first object. She’ll do a few little swimming motions and then scoot, scoot, scoot over to whatever it is. She can’t get enough of movement.
But these new skills come with a big downside: she’s hurting herself a lot more. She doesn’t seem to be at all aware of where her head is, so she constantly bonks it into things — table legs, the couch, etc. Unlike some babies we know, who shrug off injuries and keep going, Laurel will start crying at the slightest head-bonk, and will want a cuddle. It’s sweet, but sometimes she hits her head several times in the course of a scoot session and eventually I begin thinking about getting her a helmet or something.
Some of these encounters have shown us places where we need to babyproof. For example, last weekend during a nap she woke up and scooted right off the bed. Fortunately, she landed on a soft pillow and was completely unharmed, just very startled. The next morning, she managed to pull the fireplace grate down on top of herself. And today, the worst yet, she pulled the Playstation 3 over onto her face, resulting in the red marks on her nose and cheeks you can see above. It was pretty scary, and resulted in lots of cuddling. At that point, we both needed it. :-/
We can’t possibly swaddle every item of furniture in bubble wrap, despite the temptation. We’ll probably get something to soften the corners of our few square-edged tables, and we’re borrowing a bed rail from a friend — probably a stopgap until we put the mattresses on the floor for a while, I’m guessing. She’s already trying to pull herself up to standing, and that’s not going to go over well in a bed as high off the ground as ours.
It’s so hard watching her go through this. Until now, the world was a relatively safe and gentle place, and now that she’s going at her own pace she’s discovering that it’s a hard and unpredictable one. We can only protect her so much. Devin’s pretty easygoing about it, but for me, it’s difficult.
– Beth
Réka said,
September 18, 2009 at 1:17 am
I’m sorry you’re finding it difficult to watch Laurel bang about as she learns to move by herself, but I think it’s a very good thing that you’re letting her try nonetheless, with all the bumps and bruises. I think it’s an extremely important learning experience for babies and children to find their own limits, and that sometimes results in some banged heads. I see moms at the playground who are SO protective of their children, they will prevent any and all bumps and mishaps, and/or assist their kids in activities that the kids would not be able to do by themselves. I really do worry for those children because I think THEY are the ones who will get really hurt someday, because they don’t know what it is they can and cannot do by themselves. If they’re always protected from the hurt and always assisted in what they’re trying to do, they won’t know what they can safely do.
mooseloon said,
October 4, 2009 at 3:56 pm
I really agree that learning natural concequences is super important for kid development. Its much better she learn these things early when overall she bounces quite well and is physically designed to fall/bonk/bang into things.
Alyse said,
October 5, 2009 at 9:02 am
I have to agree with the above posters. My children both have had their share of conked heads. In both the little and now bigger stages. My daughter in particular seems to be fond of using her head NOW as a test to see if she will fit into someplace. I think a few scrapes, bonks and such are VERY healthy for children. They need to learn that corners are more painful to run into then a solid surface, and that climbing up on tables in socks and falling off hurts a lot and that is why we tell them NOT to do it! Hahaha.