Tummy Time

One thing I learned in school that always stuck with me is the way a babies brain works. Synapses occur in the brain regularly throughout life. An explosion of synapses can occur in the early years of life if nurtured. Every time your baby experiences something new like textures, smells, sounds etc. the brain creates new synapses. This is why I will try to incorporate a lot of sensory into everything I do with Jolene. Some may think it's pretty wacky but in reality it supports healthy brain development.

Tummy Time! We all know how important tummy time is with an infant. Now that babies everywhere are being put to sleep on their backs tummy time is as crucial as ever. While babies lay on their stomach they are building muscles in their core, neck and head area. Lots of little babies are not a fan of tummy time. Jolene isn't either but she's getting there. They say about 15 minutes of tummy time a day is sufficient. Break that up into 5 minute increments and your baby will get enough.

You can do tummy time in so many ways. Jolene's favorite way is laying on my chest when I lay on the floor or bed. She can look at my face and be comforted by the sound of my voice.

I went to the dollar store and got a whole bunch of random materials with different textures to make a tummy time board for Jolene. I got out the hot glue gun and went to work. This one has faux fur, marbles, an unraveled loofah, pipe cleaner with jingle bells, popsicle sticks and scratchy glitter foam. I also added pictures of me and my husband for her to look at. I covered 3 of the 5 senses; sight, sound and texture.

It's important to provide language for your baby while they experience different textures and use their senses. For example you can say "You're touching the marbles, they are shiny and bumpy. Do you hear that? Those are jingle bells". When they show emotion talk about that too. "You're looking at a picture of daddy, does that make you happy? I see you smiling." Or "I hear that you're crying, does too much tummy time make you sad?"

I also used some of my dollar store materials to make a gel bag. I filled a freezer zip lock bag with hair gel, glitter and random things I found like fake snow, Christmas erasers and giant snow flakes. We use the gel bag for tummy time. Making these are lots of fun because you can put so many different items in here. In the past I would laminate pictures of baby or their family members to put inside.

Not all tummy time has to be so complicated and involve trips to the dollar store. I threw this one together using wrapping paper scraps. The crinkling of the paper was new and just as entertaining to her as anything I could have bought in a store.

What things have you thrown together to make tummy time more interesting? I would love to hear everyone else's ideas too!