Darius has been doing assisted flipping since 4th months old. I flipped him to the side first and he would use his legs to propel himself to slowly flip over. One of his hands will sometimes get stuck which I have to help him pull out.

Hubby and I waited and waited, waited and waited for Darius to surprise us with his independent first flip. Many parents have recorded their child’s first flip as between 3-5mths. It never happened for Darius at four months. Then, it never happened when he turned five months either. He’s going to be six months soon…That was starting to worry and all excitement seemed to have fled as we begin to think he would never flip.

We were resigned into thinking that maybe he does not need to flip at all, since he could already sit, stand and walk a little with help. There was no incentive for him to flip too.

Today, he was a bit cranky in the afternoon as usual. I left him on the playmat and finished up my work on the computer as he cried away. Suddenly, he was all quiet. I quickly went to check on him and found him on his tummy, slightly out of the playmat! I even stared and stared as I couldn’t believe it was possible.

I asked him, “Darius, you turned over ah! How did you do it?”  He just smiled at me. Quickly took a couple of pictures with him being very happy and excited. Felt regretful that I didn’t get to see the flip being done.

"I just flipped over and I'm so proud of myself!"

"Hahaha... Dun tell you how I did it!"

I then turned him back lying down while I went to the kitchen to make his milk. He didn’t like the position again and cried. Suddenly, he was all quiet again and going ‘ack’, ‘ack’. I came out the the kitchen and there he was again on his tummy!

I was very excited, kept smiling and asking him how he did it? Can show mummy again? But he did not want to flip at all and just kept laughing and smiling at me.

It was as if he was telling me, “heh heh, don’t tell you my secret.” Arghh.

All the earlier crankiness had disappeared. Maybe he was disliking the lying down position so much that he decided to try flipping to see if he could get out of it.

I then placed him on his mattress and was marking on something beside him when out of the corner of my eye, I noticed movement and caught him do a slow turn towards his right! Finally I got to see it! But then he conked the top of his head on the wooden structure used to hang his mobile. I quickly adjusted him back to lying down and moved him a bit further towards the other side.

I went back to my sheets again and the moment I turned away from him, he attempted a flip towards his left side and landed up on the floor from the higher mattress with his hands slightly supporting himself. His face was quite flat on the floor so maybe he bumped his nose. This roll over shocked him into tears and I took some time cuddling him before he calmed down.

Oh dear, it seemed that he likes to flip whenever my eyes are not on him! And the mattress is not safe anymore! Will have to monitor him closely from now on.

I placed him back on the playmat again for safety and later on, he attempted a flip again when I was looking at him from a distance.  He just turned his face towards me and then he started turning his body. I saw how he slowly turned his body over and ended up easily and immediately supported on his arms when usually, he would be stuck. It’s hard to see exactly which hand landed or how it’s done. It’s like a blink of an eye! wow.

He doesn’t know how to flip onto his back again however so I have to help him turn back or he’ll be too tired on his tummy. Wah… one more thing to do now.

Looks like we also have to think carefully about where we are placing him from now on. I’m actually used to putting him on the edge of the bed as sometimes I’m in a rush to prepare his bath water.

I told hubby immediately and he was so excited but disappointed that he didn’t get to see it because we went over to my in-law’s place and by the time we came back, it was time for bed.

"I like to hold my legs. Maybe that helped me flip?"

It’s more troublesome if he flips but we are really happy that he has finally achieved a milestone. From now on, he’ll learn to crawl, stand, cruise, walk and run on his own. I think I prefer him to be independent. He’s getting too heavy.

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