Big Victory in Small Movement

Hunter is now crawling.  To many this is a chance to think "Uh oh.....now the fun really begins.  Now I have to chase around an on the move infant"  But not me.  To me, this is a huge, great, happy, exciting thing.

Hunter was on bypass for 70 minutes.  He had a seizure.  He was in cardiac arrest.  He received 3 minutes of CPR.  Each of these things INDIVIDUALLY could have caused issues for Hunter.  He had all of them, in the same day, at 5 weeks old when his brain was still developing.  Sure, the MRI showed no brain injury, but that didn't mean he was/is safe from developmental delays.

I am a worrier.  I think of the worst case scenario to attempt to prepare myself for the path that may be ahead.  I am always concerned with Hunter's development.  He has hit all of his milestones on the average or maybe TINY bit late level.  He can roll, sit up, has completely age appropriate fine motor skills, but I still was worried about his gross motor skills. The doctor told me on average babies crawl around 8-9 months.  Corben crawled at 5.5 months. I know to not compare but he's my only reference point.  Hunter turns 9 months at the end of this week and sees the doctor on the 15th.  I am so incredibly proud and excited that I get to tell her that he is now CRAWLING!

Of course, I wasn't here for it.  I teach ballet 3 hours a week this year.... that is literally the only time I spend away from my kids.  We had a big competition/convention all weekend and I was gone pretty much all of Friday and Saturday.  Friday afternoon.....Hunter took his first crawls.  SO happy Steve recorded it.

He was going after Corben.  I love that C was his target.  The two of them are so sweet together.

Ever since then, he has been on the move.  He found the toy area while following Corben around.  He even is starting to pull up on things.

 I know what is in store for me.  A year and a half ago I was redirecting my 6 month old C from getting into everything.  I am so excited to be doing it now with Hunter.  I am so proud of him and he is super proud of himself.

Super excited he found the puzzles

Life changes when they become mobile.  To me, this is a very welcome change.  I am pretty confident that he will walk in the nearish future and won't have any problems with that.  I will continue to look for red flags of any mental development delays/issues.  I pray he doesn't have any, but I can't know for sure.  I want to be right on top of it and getting him the help he needs.

But for now I am going to just sit back and smile.  My boy has come a long way.... plus, let's face it... he's HUGE so he has a lot of weight to pull!