Milestones: Month 3

Your baby should be starting to get a lot bigger! They should also start noticing you more and things around them more. By now, you should be able to start getting a schedule down for your baby. This will create more rest for the both of you! This month they will be meeting more milestones! Here are general milestones for month 3.

1) Your baby's spastic/jerky movements should be very minimal or gone by now. Their movements will start to become more smooth.

2) They should have good head support. When you hold them up, they should be able to hold their head on their own and have good neck strength. I would recommend keeping your hand behind their head during this just in case they have a head bobble.

3) You should start to see early signs of hand-eye coordination. Your baby’s hands should be able to open and shut, come together, swipe at colorful dangling toys, briefly grab a toy or rattle, and go straight into their mouth. Make sure you keep things clean and an eye on what goes in their mouth to try and help prevent some sickness.

4) During this month your baby's nervous system is maturing very much. This will allow for more milk to be in them and to hopefully sleep for longer periods of time! Yahoo! Get some much needed sleep mommy! They should be able to go for 6-7 hours.

5) Start letting your baby cry it out just a little. This is whatI mean: that you should not go to your baby's crib the instant they cry. Many times they will cry and go back to sleep quickly. If you go to their crib the instant they cry, they cannot learn to put themselves back to sleep. By doing this, it is also teaching them that night time is for sleeping only. They should also be taking several 1 1/2 - 2 hour naps daily.

6) Your baby's hearing and vision is much better by now. They like bright colored objects and to look at your face. So smile and talk to them often!

7) Your baby should start smiling more. They no longer communicate mainly through crying at this age. If your baby cries more than 1 hour a day, see your pediatrician. They should start smiling at you more often! They will also make more noises, coos, sounds, etc. Talk to them and tell them what you are doing. They may not understand the words but this is helping their development of speech.

8) Call your pediatrician if your baby is not doing any following: responding to noises, following people or objects with his/her eyes, smiling, reaching for objects.

Again, remember that not all babies reach milestones at the exact same time. Call your doctor if you are concerned and they can assess them to determine if there is a problem or not. These are general milestones.

Thanks for reading and until next time,