Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Coming to terms with a "Do it on his own schedual" Child.

I wont lie (seems like I say that a lot) but its really hard for me to watch all the other babies Elliott's age I know crawling, walking, clapping hands together, feeding themselves, dancing, even talking. My little blob baby enjoys sitting on his own, just learned how to bang two things in his hands together, knows how to get to his belly from sitting and scootch around on his bum. He isn't behind on his milestones or anything. There is no worry there. Every time I complain about it to my doctor I get "There are two factors at play with Elliott." His head is HUGE! 97 percentile. He also was stunted in his growth from 4-6.5 months by my breast milk. So the doctor goes on "He needs more muscle development to do things like rolling, crawling, sitting, standing, and walking then other babies because he has a huge melon" (Yes my doctor refers to my son's head as a melon. Remember, I am dealing with an undiagnosed illness. I see the guy once every month so we are "friends") What I am further told is that he is going to fall behind and behind until one day his body hits a nice balance between head size and muscle development and WHAM! He will do a bunch of things all at once.
Okay, so here is where I say STILL FRUSTRATED! I HATE having to answer peoples questions "Oh he must be into everything now that he is crawling" No he doesn't crawl. "Is he walking yet?" Nope. "Well he can stand right?" Nope. Then I always feel compelled to explain why... which makes me feel like I am making excuses.
Two weeks ago we went to our first mommy and me Aquasize class. For those of you unfamiliar, its exercise in water, and your child in a flotation device. I came away from the first class EXTREMELY happy. I thought it was just the act of being in the water that had really made me happy. I love swimming, even though this was not swimming...lol. Then I figured it out after I had bragged for the 10th time to my husband about how wonderful Elliott did. He was splashing, kicking, squealing, trying to swim and giggling like a maniac. He really enjoys the water and wanted to kick kick kick all over the place. The other babies in the group fell into one of the three following categories: Scared/upset. Board. Or cautiously happy. Elliott was the only one going nuts almost the whole class. The second class show other babies just as pumped as Elliott was. But it was really really wonderful to say that Elliott finally excelled at something other then eating or sleeping! (and yes I know how lucky I am there!)