Cerys & Development

It was unclear how well I would/wouldn’t develop at first. My parents had to monitor me against key benchmarks for healthy babies.

Key Benchmarks

  • Lifting Head – This is something I was quite good at. I started properly getting good control of my head at about 2 ½ – 3 months of age.
  • Smiling – I never really smiled. I did give my parents a lovely smile on my last day, but that was the only one.
  • Laughing/Cooing/Making ‘Baby’  Noises – This is not something I did.
  • Responding to Sound – I liked music, and would be very content whenever I heard it, but I never ‘responded to sound’..i.e. looking if someone made a sound, or following where it might have come from.
  • Bears Weight on legs – This was not something I was able to do.
  • Seeing black & white patterns – I used to love looking at the blinds when they were open in my house, I liked the contrast of dark and light.
  • Grasping toys – I was never able to grasp a toy, although at 4 months when I was in my baby bouncer, I would lift my head to look at the toys Mummy had dangling down from it.

My parents tried hard to do things which might assist with my development right from the start. They talked to me constantly to try and stimulate me, even when I was in the incubator they would open the side panels and talk to me all the time.

They would also try to move my limbs whenever they were changing my nappy. They would rotate them, and push them in towards me and back out again gently. They also tried to unclench my fists as much as they could, and stretch out my hands and fingers.

Sometimes they would put me on a mat to see if I would wriggle about and roll over. Most of the time I just cried, but they let me try!! Mummy would also use some of the toys in the treasure basket to help me with different senses. She would use this brush and gently tickle my skin which was nice, and there was an orange scarf she used to gently move over me. I liked that.

I do not know, but doubt if I would ever have been able to walk or talk properly. I do know that if I could have talked my first word would have been ‘cuddle’.

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