Welcome To Month Two With Your Baby!
Month 2 With Your Baby!
At 2 months old your baby is interacting with the world around her more and more, including objects, sounds and people. You’ll delight in every smile and waving of the hands, as she shows her excitement for the people she loves or activities in her routine. If you’re luckily, sleeping at night may be starting increase to longer stretches, but if not, try not to despair or compare your baby with others. Sleep improvement will come in time.
Month 2 Of What To Expect From Your Baby
Physically, baby is far more in control of herself than she was last month. That means she can look up and hold her head up without your help while being placed down on her tummy. Some babies can even arch their back but it’s still a little too early for pushing up onto their arms or rolling over.
She is probably holding her own head up when you are carrying her even if you do not support her neck, although in some babies this neck strength takes a little longer. A lot of interest in his hands are going on right now, so expect to see lots of fists in mouths and curling fingers around objects.
Try this: encourage baby’s motor skills by putting your fingers inside his and gently rock him from side to side. Gently prop up baby with some soft cushions and place colorful objects within view and let him play and grab at them with his hands.
Baby’s sight is not perfect yet but he can see things about two feet away and hear things pretty well too. Grunts, coos and gurgles are baby’s way of talking to you and he is learning to smile more and more too. Show him how much you like it when he smiles and he will be encouraged to do it more often. Basically, the more you talk to baby at this stage, the better!
At around 6 weeks old, your baby has his first immunisation. While this can be nerve wracking for parents and does unsettle babies momentarily, they’ll be back to their smiling selves within minutes.
Month 2 Of What To Expect From Yourself
Expect baby to sleep about 15 to 16 hours every day but a full night’s uninterrupted sleep is still a while away at this point. Night feedings are very normal and required at this stage.
You may have heard some advice from others about feeding baby formula to help them sleep longer, or doing a ‘dream feed’ late at night to encourage a longer stretch of sleep. This advice is not scientifically validated and stressing over trying to force baby to do something that they are not naturally designed to do at this stage is not going to help either mom or baby. Stick with a good bedtime routine, which is setting up baby for a good habit now, and make a point of going to bed early to get some extra shut eye before baby’s first night wake up. Everything aside, listen to your mommy gut instinct about what is best for you and your family.
It’s completely normal as a first time parent to worry and fuss over your sleeping baby, jumping up to every grunt or noise. Follow these safe sleeping practices as outlined by American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to help ease your worry and know that in situations where SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) occurs, the risk increases when unsafe sleeping practices are in place. Also, you can check with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission for information about crib safety if you’re unsure.
Safe sleeping practices for your baby
- place baby to sleep on their back
- use a firm and flat sleep surface (finger print indentations should not be left in mattress when pressed)
- use a fitted sheet
- do not place any soft toys or loose bedding in the cot or crib
- share your room with baby for the first 6 months, in a separate safe sleeping surface (crib or basinet)
- do not let baby get too hot during sleep
