rocking to crawling -- how long?

[Dov'sMom]

My four month old (well, nearly four and a half) is up on hands and knees and rocking back and forth. My other two didn't do that at all -- just started army crawling and then eventually moved to their knees.

Please tell me about babies who spent months and months rocking on their hands and knees before they crawled, because this house just isn't ready for a crawler!

[Spiralshell]

Nate was up on his knees rocking at about 5.5 months... then more rocking, then rollingrollingrolling, then pulling up on everything and standing, then a weird roll - sit up - pivot - roll thing, then FINALLY real crawling at about 8 months. So from first rocking to really crawling was 3 months. (Though mind all that standing up in the middle there -- a little "out of order"!)

[Abraisme]

My DD started rocking on her hands and knees at 6mo, but never crawled. She skipped crawling entirely and started walking at 9.5mo.. I have known babies that were crawling perfectly by 5mo, so they were probably rocking on their hands and knees by 4.5mo.. Who knows, each baby is so different.

[Dov'sMom]

Thank you!

Not so happy to hear about the 5 month crawlers, but glad to hear that rocking doesn't necessarily mean crawling is imminent.

Spiral, my baby loves to stand on my lap and can stand himself for chunks of time if he's holding on to something - like if I'm holding him up outside the exersaucer beuase he loves the toys and I don't really like the way it holds him, when he grabs on, I can let go of him for quite a while (keeping my hands nearby for when he starts to fall). So I wouldn't be at all surprised if he pulled to standing before he crawled. His brother did, too, at about the same age...maybe 5 months? In fact, I'm pretty sure it'll come very close on the heels of real independent sitting.

[carmel23]

My lo was army crawling since 4 months, and always really physical.
He was about 5.5 months old when he got on all 4s, rocked, and then crawled. He was cross crawling within days of that. So it may mean crawling soon! Not to freak you out, but baby-proofing might happen sooner then later