Baby Milestones Remembered: Sitting Up

My daughter Ally was just shy of eight months when she conquered a huge baby milestone and sat up on her own for the first time. My partner, Earl, and I had known for a while that our baby was getting close: for a few months leading up to that moment, we’d been able to prop her up with the support of our hands or against the couch, and we could tell she was getting stronger with each passing day.

The actual “first” happened on one of the rare times I wasn’t with Ally in those early months. I was only working part-time during the evenings -- otherwise, I was with her all the time. It turned out to be the only major baby milestone I missed.

Instead of seeing it with my own eyes, I heard about our baby sitting up from Earl when he called me at work.

Apparently he’d had Ally propped up in one of those reclining pumpkin seats that has toys hanging over them. Earl had briefly left the room and when he came back, she had pulled herself fully upright using the toy bar and was sitting up all on her own. According to her father, Ally was knocking those toys around like a little boxer, because she was so excited to be sitting up on her own. Of course it only lasted 10 seconds before she fell over, but she had proved to herself, and to us, that she could conquer this baby development step easily.

Slowly, Ally began to increase how long she could sit up by herself: for the first couple weeks, it was just for a minute or two before she’d fall over. Soon, she was doing it all the time. As a new mom, this made life a lot easier. I didn’t have to worry about her as much: instead of rolling all over the place, Ally now could sit up and play on her own, content to stay in one spot.

As disappointed as I was to have missed seeing my baby sitting up for the first time, it was really special that Ally’s father -- who missed many baby milestones because of his work schedule -- got this one all to himself. He was so cute and proud when he described it over the phone. It’s a memory I know Earl will always treasure, the same way I treasure the other important “firsts” I was able to personally witness.