Conference moira::parenting_v3

    Well, like any developmental milestone, there will be lots of variance
    on this answer.....I remember starting to get nervous when my
    sister-in-law said that her daughter rolled over at 3 months. Caroline
    didn't show much interest at that point. But, she finally started at
    4.5 months. And hasn't stopped since. After she started rolling over, I
    had a follow-up conversation with my S-I-L and it turns out that her
    baby rolled over ONCE at 3 months and didn't do it again for quite
    awhile. So, I would guess that your daughter will roll and keep
    rolling, when she's ready.

    
    One of the guys here recently had a boy, and I noticed the other day his
    personal name in mail was "rolled over at 18 days", so, for what it's 
    worth...

    I remember this one distinctly, he rolled over on his Christening Day,
    May 30, 1987!  Now that made him a couple days shy of 5 months, but we
    subtract the 7 weeks of prematurity which in reality means he rolled
    over at 3.5 months, which sounds just about in line with average.
    
    Lyn

    Just to add a slightly different version - I remember it taking
    forever.  She probably rolled over once at 4 months, but did not do it
    repeatedly until 8 or 9 months old!  And at that it was only one way -
    back to stomach?  I really forget.
    
    She crawled at 9.5 months, so I just think it was somehing she wasn't
    very interested in trying.
    
    Mary

    My daughter rolled over at 4 months. She was a chubby baby so I thought
    it would take longer. She did not do it repeatedly until she was about
    5 1/2 months.
    
    
    Sandy

    
    
    My daughter rolled over at 4 months.  She did it repeatedly at that
    time too!  She is not 7 months and loves to do the army crawl!!!!
    What a scream when I first saw her do it!  Don't worry thought she 
    will be doing it soon!
    
    Kim
    
    

    We were anxiously wondering when our son would roll over.
    Well, we observed him a VERY few times when he rolled over
    from left to right, a VERY few times when he rolled
    over from right to left, and otherwise not at all.  He simply
    didn't roll, even though he showed us he could.  Apparently
    he wasn't interested. Tobias is now 5&1/2, and we see no evidence
    of his non-rolling carrying over into later development.
    

    
    I ask our pedi because Emily is 5 months old, and he said that babies
    roll when they want, Emily has just started to roll over.  She rolled
    twice at 4 months and then not again until this past monday.  It will
    happen when she is ready.  
    
    Lisa

    Jackie rolled over from tummy to back at 2.5 months (this woke up her
    up at night so we would have to roll her back).  She did not roll from
    her back to her stomach until about 4 (I think).  The doctor said 
    something about her having strong leg muscles which is why she rolled
    over early.  Who knows.  As pointed out, each child is different.  (I
    know of newborns rolling over!).
    
    Mary
    

    Andrew rolled over for the first time on Thanksgiving (3+ mos.) and has been
    steady motion from then on.  Sam, however, rolled over at 3+ mos. and
    he hasn't done it again since.  He's 4+ mos. old now.  He's right on
    the edge of going over then, he stops.
    
    We're not in a rush to see him grow up; it all happens too fast as it
    is!
    
    Nancy
    
    
    

    
      Jeremy is almost 6 months old and has only rolled over once.  Our son
      Matthew started at 4 months and never stopped.  However, even though
      Jeremy doesn't roll over, he's all over the house in his walker so
      I try not to worry that there is some sort of muscular problem or 
      something.
    
    

    Oh, I know nothing is wrong with Holly's coordination/etc. -- like
    your Jeremy, you should see her motoring around in the walker!
    And she has excellent control of her head and upper back.  If she's
    on your lap, and you take her hands, she'll brace her feet against
    you and try to pull herself to a standing position.  So I think
    her development is on target.

My son, Collin, is 5 months old today and has been rolling over *occasionally*
since two weeks ago.  He's most likely to do it when I put him on his tummy
on a blanket on the floor and put a toy somewhere where he can see it, but
just out of his reach.  He gets "frustrated" enough to try to find a new po-
sition, then one arm gets tucked under him and one hip raises up, then *FLIP*
onto his back.  It's pretty funny to see, since he looks surprised for a few
seconds, but then seems pleased to have a new view of things. I don't know
if it's relative, but he also started sitting up around the same time, so it
could be the muscle strength reached the "right" level for these new feats...

The point is to give them the opportunity to build up the strength
for the movement, and they will do it when they're physically ready.

I've read that it can depend on many things - sometimes a very "wiry" (that's
the term the book used) baby will roll over early, while some of the more
laid back ones aren't searching as much for a new position.  This may or may
not have any truth to it...

I have a friend who's daughter is one day older than mine and she has been
rolling since somewhere around 2 months (first time was off the couch!!! so
definitely watch them closely even when you don't expect movement) so it does
vary quite a bit.

Have fun with each of these milestones - they do seem to happen so magically!!

-Cori

Vanessa was an occasional roller starting @ 2 months.  We thought it was a bit
early but then we realized that she wasn't doing it intentionally.

By coincidence, sometimes she had her arms close enough in front of her and her
head high enough that the weight of her head on one side or the other would 
make her roll over her upper body.  Then she'd have to figure a way to make the
legs follow.  Most of the time, this is where we had to chip in and help her 
out.

She started doing it at will at about 3.5/4 months.

Mario

    Both my kids (3 yr and 1 yr) rolled over at 4 months.  I remember
    my pedi said that rolling should occur between 3 - 6 months. 
    
    Wendy 

    My son Brian is 7 months old and he has only rolled over maybe 20 times
    total. He always is on the brink of rolling but he seems to fall back
    to the way he came. Our peditrician told us that the bigger they are
    the more it takes. Brian is a big little guy.

We certainly noticed the difference between our twins rolling. Our daughter
rolled about 18 weeks and very quickly learnt to roll back, our son has only
recently learnt to roll back (31 weeks) and only started rolling at 25 weeks.
Catherine has a distinct advantage though as she's lightly built, Stewart
struggles a bit more with his buddha-style belly.

Catherine is just beginning to crawl. Stewart just lies there doing a
fish-out-of-water impression, balanced on his stomach :)

Eric

    
    Michael started rolling over around 8 weeks. At first it seemed to
    happen only when he was on his belly and started crying for one reason
    or another, he'd get mad enough to push himself over. But now he's
    doing it more often and is in a good mood when he does it. He's had
    really strong head/neck strength since birth, and just jacks that head
    UP and pushes over with one foot. One day he got on a roll and did it
    5 times in 10 mins. It was a riot!   
    
    He's growing so fast already!
    
    Chris
    

    
    
    	Spencer is close to 3 and 1/2 months old and shows absolutely NO
    signs of rolling over, in fact, when I put him to sleep at night he
    doesn't change position save for his head turning.
    
    	I figure that it has lots to do with his size (very large apx 17
    lbs.) and that when he gets the muscular strength, he'll do these
    things in  due time.
    
    			Wendy

    My son, Brandon, has rolled over a few times at night. When he rolls
    over it wakes him up and he can't go back to sleep until we place him
    back on his tummy. Does anyone else have this problem?
                      
    
    Robin                    

    Hi Robin,

    Boy does that bring back memories!  Brent would roll over and wake
    himself up, about every 1/2 hour..... we would go in and turn him, he
    would fall back to sleep, roll over, wake up, go in turn him, fall back
    to sleep, on and on and on.....

    We finally started rolling up receiving blankets (or you can us bath
    towels), and placing them along his sides.  Nothing real big, but
    enough so that he couldn't turn in his sleep.  When he was awake he
    could still roll over them.  It really helped!

    Try it, who knows... it could give you a few more hours of sleep!

    M-L

    PS  He is a real cutie!!!  Nancy showed me his picture!