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The 3rd month has been completed and you and your baby are well on in proceeding ahead towards the further months. As it so happens, your baby will start learning a lot from you as he progresses and you might start seeing shades of you or your spouse, even more, evident than before. All of these together make the entire journey of growing up as a child extremely wonderful.
13 Week Old Baby Development
Over time, your baby will start getting comfortable with you as well as with other faces that he encounters. The sociability aspect of your baby begins to develop as he realizes how much it is to interact with others. The smile on his face will be the most welcoming one you’ve ever seen and resisting giving him a kiss would be almost impossible. Making sounds and carrying on lengthy conversations will become second nature to him. Most mothers encounter the blessing of an undisturbed night’s sleep as their baby tends to doze off through the night as well. If you are not one of those, fret not as that will soon happen. But do make sure that your sleep quota is achieved nevertheless, especially if your baby is an afternoon slumber person.
Thirteen Week Old Baby Milestones
All it requires is a period of around 3 months or so, for your baby to develop most of his senses at par to that of an adult. It might take some more time, but with the 13 week old baby growth spurt, most of them start having a better vision by this age. Your baby will be able to focus better, begin to understand the perception of depth and see how near or far something is. If sitting upright, he will be able to track your movement even if you are moving around further away from him. The hues of various colours will start getting more vivid than before and your baby might prefer certain colours over others. Play some music in a corner and your baby will start turning his head and try to see where the music is coming from. Use that nice baby lotion with the smell of flowers, and you will see a haze of recognition on your baby’s face when he smells it.
Along with the senses, your baby’s limbs will also begin to improve over the days. This is the time when your baby will realize that he has fingers on his hand which can be controlled individually. Though he might not be able to point or grip things the right way, his fingers and palms will keep moving around as he starts exploring them. The coordination of hands and eyes is much better than before, and you will spot a lot more of the hair grabbing or hitting you with their toy and so on.
Discovering his own voice is also an activity that will interest your baby quite a lot. Having long conversations and experimenting with different tones and modulations will keep him engaged for a better part of the day. While playing games, he might make a loud cry when you’re hiding and then laugh satisfactorily when you reveal yourself. Many babies wake up early in the morning and, if their stomach is full, will continue lying around and looking at their feet, and making cooing sounds. These are wonderful to wake up to, as a mother.
Feeding
With some patterns and routines doing their best to set in, a 13 week old baby feeding will become a tad easier and comfortable for both of you. His feeding will be more efficient and you would be able to tell when he wants food and when he doesn’t in a much better manner. The cry of hunger and the cry of wanting to cuddle will be recognizable.
Sleeping
The growth spurts might need you to feed your baby at erratic times of the night. Breastfeeding babies tend to require milk at night a little more than babies who have been bottle-fed. Nevertheless, most babies do not sleep throughout. The longest they might sleep without a break is for about 6-7 hours at the most.
Routine
Until 3 months, both you and the baby have been figuring out how the entire process of parenting and feeding and sleeping works. But having spent about 13 weeks together, this can be a good time to start enforcing a routine of sorts for the both of you. Some lucky parents do end up with babies who inevitably fall into a predictable routine pretty early in life. For the rest of us, it is time to start building that up now.
As they grow up, most babies choose when they want to feed or not. There might be a specific timing that you must feed your baby, but over time, your baby might refuse certain feeds just because he isn’t hungry. As long as their weight gain doesn’t fall down, this should be fine. As he grows up and enters another phase of rapid growth, his hunger will increase and he will start demanding food a lot more than usual.
For babies who feed with quite lengthy intervals between each feed, this can be a good idea to start enforcing a schedule of say 3-hours to 4-hours between each feed. This allows you to shape your own routine, get some rest, and keep your baby well fed and rested, too. A lot of change can disturb the baby, so once it knows that after a feed, the next feed is going to be after a few hours, he can go off to sleep without being disturbed. Even at night, your baby might not sleep as long as you do, or you need to. In these cases, it is important to ensure that your baby does not sleep off at other times. Most mothers observe that their baby tends to sleep while they are bathing him or while he is feeding in the afternoon or so. Wake up your baby if that happens and complete the activity. He might get cranky and not sleep, which might continue for a couple of days. After that, he will understand the timings and begin to fall asleep accordingly.
13 Week Old Baby Care Tips
- Take care of your baby’s skin by making sure it doesn’t get too dry. Make use of moisturisers and humidifiers if dry skin persists.
- Take your baby out in the park or garden, or let him interact with other babies when you go for a morning or evening walk.
- Let your baby sleep at fixed times and gently try creating a fixed schedule for all activities so that your baby can start looking forward to them, too.
Tests and Vaccinations
Having completed 3 months fully, and entering the later phases, it is time to administer another round of vaccinations. These could be done either via injections or by giving oral medications.
One of the first injections for these is the DTaP/IPV/Hib vaccine, which takes care of polio and many other diseases, like diphtheria. Another vaccine that is administered via injection is the MenC vaccine. This takes care of meningococcal viruses and prevents them from attacking the child.
Finally, the next round of rotavirus vaccine is given, but this is mostly given orally instead of via an injection.
Games and Activities
The auditory sense of your baby grows quite a lot. Understanding sounds, music, and tonality, they begin to notice how the same sound can be emitted in different notes as well. But instead of simply using music, you can take your baby to the kitchen for a change of environment and give him a drumming 101 session. Make use of utensils around the house, plastic boxes, cardboard boxes, or anything that is in a different material than others. Putting them all together in one place, grab a small stick or a ladle and whack each object to make a sound. The different sounds will get your baby intrigued and excited. Start playing something musical and your baby may start clapping away, too. Then, turn your baby around to look at his face and use your mouth to create those same drumbeat sounds. This entire activity will keep your little one engaged for many days to come.
Babies love water and playing around with it. If you have a bathtub or even a smaller tub, fill it with water and gently put your baby in it. Make sure his head is always above the water, and use your hand to support him with that. Then splash some water using your hands and then grab his feet to create the splashes as well. Let your baby take some time in figuring out how his feet can make the water splash. Once that is done, your bathroom will turn into a water park within no time.
Consult A Doctor If
Around this age, babies tend to suffer from thrush, which is mostly a yeast related infection. This manifests in the form of white spots or patches on the inner areas of the mouth, including the cheeks and lips. This can be passed on to the mother as well during breastfeeding and make your nipples hurt. Talk to your doctor if such a condition exists.
Heading speedily towards month 4, your baby will start picking up so many activities and learn so many new things, his own growth will astound you. Keep all those memories intact and make sure to spend as much time with the baby as possible.
