Your 3 Months Old Baby Growth and Development

Isn’t it a bit hard to believe that your tiny little baby is already three months old now? Single-handedly she has managed to transform your life and has given it a new meaning altogether. Not only is she growing at a rapid pace but springs so many surprises every single day. You will be completely glued to every single milestone your little one achieves since it provides a reliable graph of your child’s growth. To understand infant development at 3 months in a better way, read on to find out the various parameters mentioned in this article.

Growth of Baby

At three months in its new world, your baby has now grown in length and seems larger too. Shopping for a larger size of baby clothes will become a priority for most mothers as your visibly-round baby won’t seem to fit in new-born clothes anymore. Indian summers, however, can spare you these expenses as a nappy and a soft singlet can be the perfect attire for your baby. Remember that your baby will grow in weight and length, so make sure you use all those clothes you’ve bought instead of saving them for later.

Baby Development

Below are some of the weekly developments your baby goes through:

12 Week Old Baby Development

Your 12 week old will be sleeping more and wake up only once or twice, and there is a pattern emerging slowly but surely. Make sure your baby sleeps for a few hours during the day as this will help her to sleep well at night. Her eyes will be well-coordinated, and depth perception will be better too. If your baby seems like squinting, take your doctor’s advice since it could mean vision issues later.

13 Week Old Baby Development

A steadily improving vision helps your child to track movement up to 20 feet and makes her perceptive to colour. It is the right time to give your baby a whiff of fresh flowers or a sweet-smelling fruit. She will turn her head towards music and other interesting sounds. At week 13, your baby will learn the use of her hands to pull, grab and grip at things near her, your hair included. Her motor-skills and hand-eye coordination will get better when she enters week 13. Shrieking sounds will be common at this stage, and you will often find your little one cooing to herself.

14 Week Old Baby Development

Your baby’s world is now at its fullest, colourful glory as she can now differentiate between hues and bold colours. Her world is suddenly a new one with fresh and vibrant colours being infused into it. She will begin to respond more enthusiastically to your presence in the room and give a more pronounced reaction to your voice. She will smile more when she spots another baby in her favourite storybook and will love to stare into the mirror. She may probably not understand that it is her image she is looking at, but she will love the kid who is smiling back at her.

15 Week Old Baby Development

Expect your little infant to roll over. This is a major milestone for her, though she will need support to come back to her original position. As the neck and abdominal muscles grow stronger, she will do the back-to-belly flip, but that is still some time away. Help your baby to strengthen these muscles by propping up pillows behind her or by adopting a slightly-upright position in the stroller. Expect a few cries during the night when she attempts to roll over, and gets stuck doing so. It is best to put your baby on her tummy as early as possible so that she gets used to it.

Baby Health

Adults can always communicate to the doctor when they are afflicted with a disease. With a 3-month-old baby, this is obviously difficult. However, they have another way of communicating with people: crying. Always be on the lookout for unwarranted crying. If this is followed by weakness and reduced mobility, take them to a paediatrician immediately.

Baby Milestones – 3 Months

Your baby’s development at three months will revolve around three areas viz. physical, cognitive and emotional. These milestones will signify the baby’s growth and can be measured accordingly.

• Improvement in gross motor skills: The baby will be able to lift her head up to a 45 degree angle and the growing strength in the baby’s neck muscles allows her to lift her head when she is on her tummy.
• Response to sounds: Your baby will start to turn her head towards a source of sound which indicates that the baby’s capability of using its audio senses are developing. Familiar sounds, like your voice or the phone rings, will elicit such responses.
• Increase in vocal communication: During this phase, watch out as your baby babbles in response to what she hears. Although the babbling and actions will not resemble the real thing, this will be an important milestone for your baby.

Behaviour

Your bundle of joy will surely live up to this moniker at 3 months and announce her presence in the house with squeals and high-pitched sounds. Her sounds of delight will keep the entire household on its toes as she will try out newer (and not necessarily pleasant) vocal skills. Your baby may be slightly scared of her own voice so ensure your feedback is a positive one that says those sounds are okay.

3 Months Old Baby Activities

If you want to know what activities to do when your baby is growing up, check the following ideas for a great time with your child:

• Provide toys: Put your baby on her back or tummy and let her reach out for toys that you hold out for her. Provide toys of various shapes and sizes that she can hold and grip. Remember that your little one will put these toys in her mouth, so choose accordingly.
• Practice head support: Put your baby on your lap in such a manner that she faces you, while ensuring enough support to her back and neck region. Attract her attention by making noises, giggling, and calling out to her, so she looks up to you.
• Tummy time: Turn your baby on to her stomach and place a few brightly coloured toys or objects in front of her. Encourage her to grasp them. You can lie in front of her so that she uses her arms to take a look at you. By doing so, you will help strengthen her upper body and your bond too.
• Tracking toys: Put the baby on the floor and roll a ball or a toy car in front of her. This will encourage her to follow the toy and track its movement. Use a rattle to grab her attention if she doesn’t show any interest initially.
• Using the baby’s name: Use your baby’s name as often as possible as her name will be the first word she will connect to. Use it while singing songs, lullabies and while having a conversation with her. While singing to her, vary your voice and pitch to keep her interested.

3 Months Old Baby Care

Follow the below-mentioned tips to keep your infant healthy and safe during this period:

• Breastfeeding is essential: Breast milk is the most important part of a baby’s diet so make sure you continue breastfeeding your three-month-old. This will also help you create a feeding schedule. Avoid any kind of solid food, cow’s milk or juice, as breast milk is the healthiest food for your little one.
• Sleep is important: Your baby will be sleeping for 4 to 5 hours at a stretch. Do not rock her if she is going off to sleep on her own. She will get up a couple of times in the night but will drift off to sleep on her own, or may need to be fed to get to sleep.
• Communicate well: At three months, your baby’s responsiveness to sounds and gestures is high, and it will be more expressive too. Play peek-a-boo games with your child (all babies love it), use gestures to make your baby laugh, and smile and keep talking to her. Place soft toys or balls near her to encourage her to grab and play with them.
• Use safety precautions: You will have to be extra careful regarding your baby’s safety now, since her movements and activities have increased. She will be anxious to put all that is in her sight into her mouth, and this could be a risk. Keep the baby’s bed away from open windows and medicines, and ensure that pointed and small objects are out of her reach.
• Promote development changes: Many important development changes like drooling, chewing and sucking will occur during the third month. Use teethers to good effect here since babies like to chomp on things and it can be an amusement for them. Spend some time outdoors in the park to give them a taste of their surroundings.

Feeding

By month three, you and your baby will have managed to create a fairly-settled feeding routine between yourselves. Your baby’s skills at feeding will have improved dramatically, and your ability too will have improved tremendously. As a mother, you will now be able to distinguish between your baby’s hunger cry and the cry that has boredom written all over it. Your baby’s sleep duration will increase so you will find a bit of relief if you are breastfeeding. If your baby is bottle-fed, expect the sleeping hours to increase slightly earlier.

Sleeping

Typically, your 3-month-old will sleep for 14-15 hours in the day, which includes the short naps during the day and night-time sleep. Since night-feeds have reduced to a minimum, expect your child to sleep for 4-5 hour stretches. This happens because your baby’s nervous system is maturing, which allows her stomach to accommodate a larger quantity of milk or baby food. However, don’t just expect her to sleep throughout the night just yet; you will still need to be available on-call for feeds a couple of times.

Tips for Parents

Parenting is a hands-on learning experience for most, although a bit of support from experienced and well-meaning friends and relatives is useful. Here are a few tips to go through this phase with ease:

• Irrespective of all the advice you may hear, do not start with solids at this stage. Your baby should be at least 4-6 months old before you do it. Till that time, breast milk is the ideal food for your little one as she receives all the necessary nourishment through it.
• Create a routine of feeding, sleeping and playtime with your baby. This ensures that your tiny tot will get used to a schedule and will fall off to sleep at night without much of a fuss. 7 pm to 9 pm will be the ideal time for your baby to sleep and this will encourage longer sleep durations during the night.
• Get the baby’s check-up done and schedule one for the next month as well.
• Parents are often anxious about the ideal 3-month-old baby’s weight. Though your doctor will be the right person to speak to, if it’s a boy, he should weigh between 6 and 6.5 kg while a baby girl should weigh between 5.5 to 5.8 kg.

It is important to understand that every baby will have his/her own development speed and milestones may come early or late. Your apprehensions about your baby’s growth are justified but can be easily put to rest. Keep a watch on the developments and report any abnormal activity to your doctor as that’s the best way of going forward.

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