Mobility-Eddie's and Mine

It has been an exciting week to be Eddie's mom. Last Sunday (May 6-his ten-month birthday) Eddie finally started using his ability to creep (pull himself along the floor on his stomach) to get himself around the house. He is a walker. He always wants to hold my hands and walk around the house. If something he wanted was more than a foot away, he wanted me to help him walk to it. He still likes to walk. However, most of the time he won't even think to ask for my help.

Last Tuesday he started crawling! Only two days after he became independently mobile at all! He is still pretty shaky at it. He crawls for the first few paces. Then he loses upper body strength and falls flat on his stomach. He creeps the rest of the way (which he is really fast at now). It is amazing how you hope for these developments forever. You begin to think they are never going to come. Then all of a sudden, they've arrived! He will never regress.

Some people told me that my baby's independent mobility would be a trial for me. I totally disagree. I have so much more freedom than I have had for the past ten months. I can get so much more done in a day. I can go to the bathroom virtually whenever I want! I guess if I had been the kind of mom that allowed my baby to cry while I did things around the house, I would dislike his ability to get around. Until now, Eddie has never not been either in my arms or holding my hands. When he would sit to play with something, he would get upset if I wasn't right next to him. So my life has really changed.

This is not the end of my exciting news, though. On Saturday, May 5, I was able to leave Eddie while he napped for the first time. In the past he has only gone to sleep by breastfeeding. He would only stay asleep as long as I stayed with him. So naptime was never Melanietime. He is now learning to fall asleep by himself. This isn't seamless yet. Every time is different. But almost always the end result is that he falls asleep, and I can leave him to do whatever I want! It is thrilling. He is benefiting as much as I am.

I know a lot of mothers (even first-time mothers) figure out these things long before I did. I think I definitely have been slow to catch on. However, I think Edison has benefited by the way I have mothered him. He has always made it clear when he is ready to be more independent. I have never pushed him. Yet he has always eventually learned to do things in the more socially "normal" way. I believe he is and will be a healthy, stable individual as a direct result of this.