3 to 6 Months

3 TO 6 MONTHS

What a time of wonder these first few months are! From a sleeping and eating machine to a smiling, responsive infant, your baby will grow by leaps and bounds in many ways, including physically.
HOW MUCH SHOULD MY BABY GROW?

After losing some of his birth weight during the first few days of life, your baby will be starting to grow steadily. By the middle of his first month, he will probably be gaining about 300gm to 600gm per month.
After the first month, weight gain may average 0.9kg to 1.2 kg and length may increase 2.5cm to 3.75cm per month. These are just averages; as long as your baby is staying on his own growth curve, you should have no concerns about his progress. Your paediatrician will measure his weight, length, and head circumference and plot your baby's own growth path on a chart, so any growth problems can be spotted early.

THE SENSES: SIGHT
By the end of this period, your infant's distance vision should improve dramatically. He'll be able to recognise you as you enter a room, well before you have picked him up. You'll catch him gazing out a window or at a picture on the other side of the room. Human faces are still one of his favourite things to look at, especially his parents' and his own.

THE SENSES: HEARING
Your baby loves to hear your voice. So talk, babble, sing and coo away during these first few months. Take special advantage of your baby's own 'talking' to have a `conversation'. If you hear him make a sound, repeat it and wait for him to make another. You are teaching your baby valuable lessons about tone, pacing and taking turns when talking to someone else.
Besides voices, your infant will enjoy listening to music (try out a variety and see which one he likes best). He'll be fascinated by the routine sounds of life as well. Keep him nearby as you rattle pans while making dinner, for instance.

THE SENSES: TOUCH
Between one and three months, your baby is depending on you to bring touch to him. Infants know they are loved and cared
for when they are held, caressed, massaged and kissed.

LEARNING AND PLAY
Your 1-3 month old is more alert and aware of his surroundings than he was as a newborn. He already recognises his parents' voices and faces, and he might be ready to respond to them with smiles. Your baby is ready to be an active participant in play.

WHAT WILL MY BABY LEARN?
Your baby will carefully watch your facial expressions and listen to your voice. By listening to you, he is learning the importance of speech before he understands or repeats any words himself. He'll also learn during this period that he has the ability to vocalise, too; make sure to answer his coos and gurgles with your own sounds, and he will be more willing to express himself.
Now that your baby's hands are open (and he's discovered them), he'll begin to use them to learn about the world. He'll play with his fingers, bring his hands to his mouth, and try to swing at things within view. In this way, he is learning hand-eye coordination. When lying down, he'll stretch out his arms and legs - soon he will learn to grasp and kick!
You will learn to recognise when your baby is alert and ready to learn and play, and when he'd rather be left alone. Sometimes your baby will need to protect himself from overstimulation by 'shutting down' for a bit.

WHAT SHOULD I DO?
Remember that play is not just 'play' to babies and children. Play is how they learn, so be enthusiastic when your baby shows interest in playing. Take every opportunity to interact with him - provided he's in the mood. Don't overstimulate him with too many activities at once, and let him tell you when he's bored.
Your baby will enjoy listening to music, the sounds his toys make, and your singing - and he won't care whether or not you 're any good. His eyesight is improving, so he'll be fascinated by brightly coloured pictures in books and the mobile above his crib. And he won't be able to take his eyes off himself if he has an unbreakable crib mirror.
As your baby's hands open, offer him a rattle to hold, and watch his search for the source of the rattle 's sounds. Give him safe objects of different textures, shapes, sizes, colours, and weights to hold. Dangle objects above your baby and let him swat at them.
To get his hands moving, clap them together. Move his legs like a bicycle with your hands. These body games will help him learn to control his movements.
Once your baby can hold his head up, introduce these classic games, or make up your own:
Elevator: Lie on your back and lift your baby up over you. Say, 'I'm going to kiss you! ' while you lower him down and give him a kiss.
Bouncing rides: Place your baby on your lap and hold him under his arms. Move forward until you 're at the edge of the seat, then raise and lower your heels to give him a gentle bounce. Reciting rhymes while you do this will add to the fun and encourage language development.

MOVEMENT AND COORDINATION
Your infant is now on his way toward more voluntary movement as some of the initial reflexes noticeable after birth begin to disappear. By the end of the second month, most infants should be able to lift their heads 45 degrees off the crib mattress while lying on their stomachs; some may even be able to lift up further. By the end of this period, he should be able to bring his head up and look around.
You'll notice increasing neck strength as you hold your baby, too; he'll be able to control his head more and more on his own, although he'll still depend on you to watch that he has proper head support. While it will still be difficult for him to lift his head while lying flat on his back, you'll notice that his neck is less floppy if you lift him by the arms. Baby's legs will gradually straighten out, and his leg strength will become more apparent with each kick. Although his kicks may still be mostly reflexive, he may soon be strong enough to push himself over from his front to his back with his leg. This is why you should never leave your baby unattended on a changing table, bed, or other high surface. You never know when your baby will decide that he wants to roll over!
Your infant will grow increasingly aware of his own hands during this period. Although he has been able to grasp your finger or a light object reflexively since birth, during these months he'll learn how to control that grasp: how to open and shut his hand and how to bring a hand (or an object it is holding) to his mouth. He can swipe his hands at objects hung above him. He can shake a rattle or other toy placed in his hand - and drop it when he loses interest in it. He may continually attempt to get his own hand into his mouth during these months, but may fall short of this goal until about the fourth month. Then he'll get that thumb where he wants it and will be able to keep it there!

COMMUNICATION
Your baby will recognise Mummy and Daddy, laugh, squeal and smile spontaneously. His personality begins to become evident. Crying will continue to be your baby's primary means of communication for many months. Aside from letting you know that he needs something (and perhaps even what he needs by the way he cries), your baby may cry when he is overwhelmed by all the sights and sounds of the world. sometimes he may cry for no apparent reason at all.
Your baby will respond to the sound of your voice by becoming quiet, smiling or getting excited, and moving his arms and legs. He will begin smiling regularly at you at this point. He probably won't smile and be friendly to strangers, but he may warm up to them with coos and baby talk - or at least a curious stare.
Babies this age discover that they have the ability to vocalise; soon you'll have a cooing and gurgling machine! Some babies begin to repeat some vowel sounds, like'ah-ah' or'ooh-ooh' at about two months. Your baby will 'talk' to you with a variety of sounds; he'll also smile at you and wait for your response, and respond to your smiles with his own. His arms and legs will move, and his hands will open up. He may even mimic your facial expressions.

SLEEP
Now your baby will probably begin to stay awake longer during the day and sleep more at night than he did when he was born. Since your baby is more alert and aware of his surroundings during the daylight hours, he will be more inclined to sleep during the night, especially if you fight the urge to play or talk to him during night-time feedings or diaper changes.
Your baby is adapting to the sleep-wake cycle that his parents favour, and his stomach is growing and holding more breast milk or formula. That means he might even be sleeping up to seven or eight hours without waking up because of hunger. At about three months, if you feed your infant and put him to bed at 10pm, you may find yourself actually sleeping until dawn! Again, not all infants keep to the same timetable.