Crawling!!!

Last Wednesday during Caden's PT session, he crawled for the 1st time! I have to say that was one of the most exciting days of my life. His therapist sat him down and helped him transition into a quadruped position. I was sitting about 2-3 feet in front of him. Once he was on all fours, he actually started moving toward me completely on his own without assistance. In the past, he has done some “crawling” with assistance from someone helping move his legs forward. But on Wednesday he did it entirely ON HIS OWN! He did it repeatedly throughout the duration of his session. Now don't get me wrong, he cried and complained about it the whole time. He did not enjoy the experience. But I was so excited that he did it at all.

The only way he would crawl is if the PT helped him into quadruped position and if I was sitting in front of him. He would then crawl to me and climb up on me in order for me to “save” him. I gave him a hug, he stopped crying, and then I handed him back to the PT to do it all over again.

I have been unable to get him to do it at home because if I move him onto all fours facing away from me, he has no motivation to move forward. He doesn't try to get to toys. But if I put him on all fours facing me I can't keep him in that position, he just pushes back to sitting. So, it's hard. I really need two people in order to practice at home. He has PT tomorrow morning again and I am really hoping he will crawl some more. Maybe the more he does it, the more he will like it and will start to do it on his own.

It's all a process. But we really want him to crawl because there are so many long-term benefits that come from it. It helps with motor planning, coordinating movements between the right and left sides of the body. Weight bearing on the arms helps develop the arches in the hands which promotes better fine motor skills. For normally developing children these things happen naturally so it is taken for granted. But there are so many things that need to happen for development further down the road. We are really working on getting him to crawl because we want him to have the benefits that come from that. In the meantime, we are praising God for every little baby step Caden takes forward. He is truly amazing!