Chloe's Trying to Sit

I've been meaning to write a post about Chloe's sitting workouts for quite a while but I never seem to have a photographer around when I work with her. It's amazing to me how much time and energy we've put in to get her sitting. I don't even remember working with Solana at all. She just....did it! Chloe has weak upper body muscles so we do lots of exercises to develop her muscles and build coordination. Who knew so many muscles came into play when sitting?!? Here's just a sampling of what we do.

Chloe's PT lent us a big red exercise ball. I put a blanket on top so you can't really see its cherry red color in these pictures. We already gave it back and I don't really miss it in our living room. :-) I also do these same exercises by sitting on the floor with my legs out in front of me and placing Chloe on my knees.

1. I set her on top of the ball and roll the ball a few inches toward me. Chloe is forced to use her back muscles to hold herself up. Notice her "wings" are out. She uses her arms to help maintain her balance. She should stop doing this eventually - once she gains strength.

2. Now I roll the ball away from myself and Chloe is forced to use her abdominal muscles to sit up straight. She's in the process of pulling herself up here. It almost looks like she's doing a situp - you can really see those abs working!

3. Now I put her on her belly. I work for a while to make her straighten her arms. I push the ball away from me and she's forced to use the muscles across the top of her back. We find lots of creative ways to get her into this position around the house. Those muscles (between her shoulders) need lots of strengthening so she can use her arms to help her sit.


She's able to sit for a little while. We have a few great toys that are motivation enough to keep her up.

I think she enjoys sitting up.

She looks proud of herself but I don't think she realizes...

She's beginning to lose her balance.

She doesn't yet know how to use her hands to catch herself. Once her balance is lost it's all over.

She didn't even cry. She just laid there for a moment before rolling over. Then I sat her up and she tried again.

Her progress is very VERY slow. We're used to slow progress with Chloe and take what we can get. She'll get there soon enough. Sitting by herself behind the piano for even a minute is tremendously better than what she could do a month ago.