Hiya! my dh was doing computer maintainence so of course its been working sporadically at best!
i know EXACTLY what you guys are going through! Ethan is on the verge of a breakthrough and has done a couple of good crawl movements with both hands and both legs only to flop back onto his trusted tummy to navigate the floor
BTW, he STILL can't get himself up into a sitting position if he thinks about it!!! (sometimes it just happens from hands and knees and he can get up onto his hands and knees so all the pieces are there, i am just waiting until they click!!!) The other thing he DOES do is to get up onto hands and knees after comando crawling to me so i can pick him up more easily (really cute!)
here's what i think has helped get this far tho... first of all, crawling forward is the HARDEST way to crawl! we spend some time on hands and knees (with me holding him in hands and knees position with my hands around his thighs if necessary- he doesn't seem to mind this and i find that using his thighs i can tip his hips to get his knees right underneath him) just moving ANYTHING!
-reaching with one hand is a good way to do weightshifting (weight has to go through the other side of the body).
-sometimes i can get Ethan to think about moving his legs himself if he has to turn to get something (as he is a proficient tummy turner and understands the mechanics of this) just slightly to the side of him so he can turn pretty well but not crawl forward yet.
-Ethan also enjoys a good tummy tickle and will get onto hands and knees right quick to get away from tummy tickling -in a "stop it, i love it" kind of way!
-if you are feeling brave hold lo's legs and get them on hands and knees... when they move one arm move the oposite leg using your other hand to try to steady their hips and keep them from flopping. a modified version of this can be done when your lo reaches out to climb up onto your lap, when ethan's hands are on my lap i help him back into the hands and knes position and help him into high kneeling close to me by alternately unweighting one side and moving the opposite leg
like i said, i can't claim any HUGE victory here but i think that Ethan is getting the idea and starting to see that actually being higher up means you get poked in the eye less at nursery AND that crawling can be fast... given that he is a big fan of comando crawling is easy tho, i am not certain when/if any crawling will happen!
one other thing- i have noticed with Ethan that he tends to want to do hands and feet or push with feet whenever it looks remotely doable... so i have stopped standing him up on my lap (SO HARD- he LOVES this) or encouraging any kind of standing at all. i hope that this will reinforce knees as a good place to be and i am encouraging high kneeling when it happens.
phew! enough about us! HTH tho!
