Finger/hand movement

Hi everyone

I'm a little concerned that my 11 week old dd's finger and hand movements are a little unusual and may signal a developmental problem.....or am I being a paranoid first time mom? Her hands seem to be opening and closing almost all the time, or her fingers are moving randomly. Like when I hold her against my shoulder I can feel her hands opening and closing on my shoulder. Most of the time when she does it she is not looking at her hands so I'm not sure if its just something new she learned to do and is practising or if she just does it without realising that she is doing it. Since I noticed it its all I can see when I look at her, but looking back at some older photos and video I can see that she's been doing it to some extent since she was a week or so old. Lately she also brings her hands together in sort of a wringing fashion. She also grabs (accidentally I think) her shirt or pyjamas in the front of her chest. I guess I'm just nervous because I've never really noticed other babies' hands doing this. Did anyone else's baby do anything like this?

Thanks
Stephanie

Tallons always doing something with his hands. I always thought it was normal for them to use their hands a lot. I would think if her hands do the grabbing reflex on your finger she'd be fine. But I don't really know! I don't know when they discover their hands and purposefully move/use them.

Hi - Alex is 4.5 months and does this all the time too, especially taking a handful of skin when he's feeding - ouch !

They must be just discovering that they have something useful at the end of their arms. I think I would be more concerned if baby wasn't opening their hands.

Completely normal Stephanie. they do it without even realising it. Quite often Lindsay would pull his dummy out when his finger got in the handle, and then would get cranky when he could see it, but couldn't get it in his mouth because it was like he didn't know his hands were his IYKWIM?

Thanks for the reassurance ladies. I think I just get freaked out because of her hand movements in combination with some other things. I have to confess to being an internet junkie....when something is wrong, I Google, and one of the sites I was led to in a google search talked about a syndrome caused by a chromosonal malformation, and my Abbie has some of the symptoms/traits that they mentioned. Many of the traits on their own are probably quite normal, like the fingering movements and hand wringing.....but I got a little freaked out because she had several of the symptoms, including being a "good" baby who has slept through the night from an early age and who rarely cries, in fact I have to wake her most mornings to feed her....not sure when she'd wake up if I let her wake up on her own but once she's been asleep 10 or 11 hours I give up and wake her. Anyhow, thanks again for your reassurance....I should probably get my husband to block Google on my computer so that I can stop worrying myself!