Your tiny infant will grow up at an amazing pace. In no time you’ll hear a faint coo, a wide smile or even see her attempting to get up on her own. In fact within just a year your baby will undergo series of transformations.

How do you know that your baby is growing up?

Most mothers are confused what to expect next when these incredible changes take place so in this article BabySpace wishes to help you keep track of the baby developmental milestones but you’ll have to remember that babies differ from one another. As they are pretty unique in the way they develop, babies will take their own time to achieve each milestone.

Also keep in mind that these are merely guidelines and it is not necessary for your baby to do things in the exact time and exact way as it is said. If your baby does one task faster than the other she will take time to achieve the next because she will be taking her time to learn the other.

What can your baby achieve in the first three months?

During the first three months, your baby is familiarizing with the outside world. Her body and brain is learning to survive in the open air.

  • She will learn to raise her head and chest when on her tummy
  • She will try to smile, mostly to herself and gradually learn to smile in response to yours
  • Track objects with her eyes
  • Do little movements with her hands and bring the hand to her mouth
  • Cry to express displeasure
  • Visually search for sounds
  • Locate sound and turn her head to look at the same object that produced the sound.
  • At this age she can coo and make little sounds

What can you baby by the fourth month?

Does your 4 month old baby drool a lot? That is indeed a good sign.

  • Drooling will begin on the fourth month. During this time your baby will spit bubbles
  • As has good head control, she will explore
  • Start to play with her hands and grasp objects with both hands
  • She will be able to sit up with support and bear some weight on legs when held upright
  • In addition, this will be the time eye-hand coordination begins

Did you ever wonder when your baby will be ready to enjoy being rocked tenderly, swung and bounced? Well, after the fourth month your baby is ready to like all those little things and laugh as she takes pleasure in them.

To this point, you will be used to leaving your baby and attend to other things.

What can you look forward to in the fifth month?

Well, after the first four months you will have to pay more attention and remain more by your infant’s side because when your baby attends the fifth month she will develop “separation anxiety.” She will reach for her mom and dad and cry when they are out of her sight.

Let’s see the other stages your infant will learn on her fifth month.

  • She will roll over in one or other direction
  • When lying on her back she will put her feet to mouth
  • Also take objects directly to the mouth
  • Distinguish between bold colours
  • Recognize her name when spoken
  • Distinguish family members from strangers. Thus she will develop “stranger anxiety”. In short when a stranger tries to approach her she will cry or get uneasy

What will you baby achieve during the sixth month?

During the sixth month, your baby is all ready for her solid food. On this month chewing and biting starts. In addition to that:

  • She will roll over in both sides
  • Grasp and control small objects
  • She will be able to hold her bottle
  • Adjust body to see an object that attracts her interest
  • She will also learn to wave bye-bye

Did you know that at this month your baby tries to communicate using advanced sounds? Your baby will be able to say one syllable sounds like ‘ma’, ‘pa’ and ‘da’ and recognize her parents separately.

After getting a drift of how to move by rolling over, after the sixth month your baby will learn to move forwards and backwards.

What can your baby achieve during seventh to ninth months?

Now let us see the baby developmental milestones in the seven to nine months of your baby.

  • At this time your baby will learn to crawl. This will include dragging herself, propel around on his bottom
  • She will sit up on her own and recover balance easily while sitting.
  • Also learn to pull up and stand
  • She will clap and play little games such as pat-the-cake.
  • Bang object and make sound
  • Also awareness of depth and space begin, while
  • She starts to have a taste preference
  • She will also start to respond to simple verbal commands and understand ‘no’ and ‘bye’
  • She will also say words in addition to ‘ma’ and ‘da’

What can your baby achieve by the final months of the first year?

Now let us concentrate on the last two months. By now your baby has reached most of the developmental stages. In fact how your child is almost a toddler. At any time she will take her first step unaided.

During the eleventh month your child will:

  • Cruise around the room using furniture as aid
  • Start to do mealtime games such as dropping the spoon, pushing food away and playing with food
  • Drop objects and reach out to pick them
  • Curiosity increases and investigates objects with great interest
  •  Rolls a ball back to you when you ask
  • Find excitement in every task mastered
  • Shows frustration when asked not to do something

On the twelfth month of her first year, your baby will walk, grasp in two fingers, call for ‘amma’ and ‘thatha’ and imitate her parents.

Did you know that by now your baby learns to show affection? Yes, your little darling is growing up. She will also,

  • Understand the meaning of several different words
  • Recognize names of some objects
  • Imitate different sounds
  • Repeat words
  • Turn pages of books
  • Rapidly follow moving objects
  • Cling to parent when agitated
  • Look for objects where she saw them last

Tips for helping your to baby achieve those milestones

It is indeed interesting to keep track of your baby within the first short year as it is the most challenging year of your baby. Professionals say that playing with your baby will help it grow and learn things. It’ll also strength the parent baby bond.

As it gets more mobile and starts to notice its surroundings it will be best to teach the baby sign language as an alternative outlet rather than screaming and crying.

In addition, some facts you should know about your baby is that during the first year its head grows fast reaching about 80% of the adult head size. You’ll always have to ensure that your baby’s head is protected as it is fragile.

Also the weight of your baby will double by the fourth and sixth month while it’ll triple at the end of the first year.

Again, remember that each baby is unique and will take different times to achieve some of these steps but if you feel that, there is something wrong you can consult a doctor to help you because if you detect a problem sooner it will help to put it right.

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