Information on Baby Milestones

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Baby Milestones

Even though nursing, sleeping, and crying may dominate the landscape duringthe first several weeks, you'll be happy to know that your baby will also be takingin all kinds of information and learning new ways to respond to it. Young babiesmanifest six different levels of consciousness: quiet sleep, active sleep, drowsiness,quiet alertness, active alertness, and crying.

Quiet alertness occupies about 10 percent of your baby's time at first, butyou will want to watch for these moments of calm attentiveness, during whichyou can begin to have some genuine interaction. Enjoy them, file them in yourmemory bank, and if you have time, you may want to jot your impressions in a personal journal. As the weeks pass, you will begin to notice that your baby isApo..
ling more time in calm and active alertness, during which you will see sev-eonderful developments in a variety of areas:

During the first few weeks, a baby focuses best on objects eight to fifteennc-_.ts from her face. You may find her staring intently at the fist at the end of her,wretched arm, which happens to be in her focusing range. She will prefer to plain, high-contrast, black-and-white images such as stripes, checks, or spi-ral, or a simple drawing of a face. She may gaze intently into a small, unbreak-aizie mirror attached to the inside of her crib. But her favorite subject towzratinize will be the face of another person, about a foot away from hers. SheRst.fi not respond directly to a smile for a few weeks, but a lot of smiles are whatmime should see.

Your baby will be able to follow an object with her eyes only momentarily attin, You can give her some practice at this ability by moving your face or a witty colored object slowly from side to side across her field of vision. Aroundtwo months of age she will be able to coordinate her eye movements to staylinard on an interesting visual target that passes through a semicircle in front ofkr.. She will also he interested in more complex shapes and patterns and will bein to hold her head steady enough to fixate on simple, high-contrast objects}rune front a mobile over her crib. By three months of age her distant vision willhe increased to the point that she will recognize you halfway across a room.

Responses to color also develop over the first several weeks. At first she willpa±r attention to objects with bright, strongly contrasting colors. Ironically, thesine colors that are so often used in decorating a baby's room won't be particu-kis- interesting to her at first. It will take a few months before her color visionbas matured enough to distinguish a full palette and varieties of shades.

From time to time all babies will briefly cross their eyes as they develop theirmarking skills. But if she frequently appears to have crossed eyes as she ap-proaches the age of six months, she should be checked by her physician and anapht hal mologist.

Hearing. Newborns will vary in their sensitivity to sounds. Some infants seem ca-7.kle of sleeping through a violent thunderstorm, while others appear to startleomen a cat crosses the street a block away. If a young infant is placed in a verynoisy environment, he may appear to "shut down," markedly reducing his activ-icr level. This is a protective mechanism, an internal withdrawal from a situationthat is overloading hint. While you don't need to maintain a hushed silencearound your newborn, you should try to keep the noise level around him at a comfortable level—no more than, for example, the intensity of pleasant conver-sation between two or three people. If you want to go to a ball game or a conceitwhere the crowds and sounds are pumped up, leave the baby at home.

Within a few weeks, he will appear to pay attention to certain sounds, espe-cially the voices of those who regularly care for hint. By two months of age, hemay begin to shift his eyes and head toward your voice. He may also show somemovements and expressions indicating that he recognizes this familiar and com-forting sound. As he continues toward three months of age, you will notice himstarting to turn toward other interesting sounds, such as a tinkling hell. If thesound is repeated over and over, however, he will tune it out and stop respond-ing to it.

Smell. A very young baby is capable of responding to a variety of smells and candistinguish the smell of his mother's breast from those of other nursing mothersby the end of the first week of life.

Touch. All of us are strongly affected by touch, but babies are particularly sensi-tive. They will startle in response to scratchy surfaces, rough handling, or suddentemperature changes—especially when their skin makes contact with somethingcold. Cuddling, caressing, and stroking may help calm a crying episode, but theseshouldn't be used merely to stop tears. Touch is an important expression of loveand will nourish her emotions before she can understand any words. It should beas routine a part of her day as her feedings.

These developments set the stage for your baby's first true socializing, whichwill probably begin just as you are starting to wonder whether all the nursing anddiapers and nonstop caregiving are worth it. You may first notice a brief flickerof a grin after a feeding. Was that a smile or a gas pain? Maybe it was both ormaybe neither, but it felt like a puff of fresh air on a hot day. Suddenly—at aboutthe age of four to six weeks—it will be unmistakable: You will lock eyes with yourbaby, and a big grin will flash across her face. It will be an unforgettable moment,and the next time she smiles will be equally rewarding because you'll know thatthis milestone was for real.

Over the next month, you will catch smiles in response to your own grin-ning, cooing, talking, or singing to your baby. You may notice special enthusias-tic body movements in response to familiar voices and the turning of eyes andhead to seek them out. Even more pleasant are your first "conversations." Atabout two months your baby will begin to coo, often in response to your speak-ing to her in soft, soothing tones. At this age, she will not understand the wordsyou speak, but the tone of your voice will communicate volumes.

Even at this young age, your baby may show some selectivity in her re-ponses. Not everyone will necessarily receive the big grin and happy sounds.More often than not, it will go to the toast familiar faces and voices. Your baby is'treacly starting to sort out who is important in her life, and so whoever wants toYr included in that category will need to log some time with her. This is particu-larly important for fathers, who may find it harder to interact with a squirmywo-month-old than an older child who likes to "wrestle" on the carpet or playetch. Mothers who are weighing decisions about work outside the home alsoTeed to ponder how much time the baby should spend with other caregivers.

Growth and movement. Babies lose and then regain several ounces (about a tenth)1 their birth weight) during the first ten days of life. From then on, you can an-icipate a weight gain of about two-thirds to one ounce per day, or one to twosounds per month. Your baby will add between one and one and a half inches inieight each month as well. These amounts will vary, of course, depending onpour baby's feeding patterns and on genetics, which will affect whether this grow-ng body will ultimately resemble a ballerina or a fullback. During each medicaltheckup, your baby's height, weight, and head circumference will be measuredend then plotted on a growth chart. Tracking your baby's growth will be an im-yortant tool for her health-care provider to confirm how well she is doing.

During the first three months, you will see dramatic changes in your baby'snovement patterns. At birth her arms and legs flail and jerk, her chin may twitch,and her hands may tremble. Many of her movements are reflexes, such as root-ing, sucking, and grasping. In addition, you may see her do a "fencing" maneu-,er known as the tonic neck reflex: If her head is turned in one direction, younay see the arm on that side straighten and the other arm flex, as if she wereabout to enter a sword fight. In addition, if you gently hold her body upright,supporting her head, and then lower her gently until her feet touch a firm sur-face, she will begin stepping motions. This has nothing to do with how soon she will begin walking, and this so-called stepping reflex will be gone by the age ofwo months. However, she will kick her legs quite vigorously when awake and ac-ive while lying on her back or stomach.

Hand and arm movements will gradually become less jerky and almost ap-year purposeful. Between two and three months, she will begin to spend moreime with her hands open rather than clenched and will bring them toward heryouth or in front of her face, where she may appear to study them. She still won'tlave the coordination to reach directly for something that interests her, although,he will tightly grasp a small object placed in her hand. In fact, you may have totelp her let it go.

At two months she will have developed enough control of her neck musclesto hold her head in one position while lying on her back. When lying on herstomach, she will be able to raise her head briefly, just long enough to turn itfrom one side to another. But her head control overall will not be secure untilthree to four months of age, so you must support her head whenever you holdor carry her.

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