Newborn Physical Development: First Three Months

With your newborn in your lap now, you must be celebrating the bliss of motherhood. Giving birth to a healthy baby is an accomplishment and you can help your baby grow even stronger and healthier if you know how he is expected to develop during the first three months.

After waiting eagerly for nine months, a new life is finally in your arms. It is a magical moment which is hard to forget. You would certainly cherish watching your baby’s new activities in the first three months. From his divine smile to his first struggles for raising his head lying on his stomach, you are going to witness many pleasant moments during these three months. This phase is also crucial to develop a strong mother-baby bond too.

Let’s see how your little one is expected to be growing and developing physically, day-by-day during the first 3 months.

Newborn Weight Gain

Healthy weight gain is the first thing that is of concern to the parents and the baby’s pediatrician. It is vital for the baby’s growth that she gains strength through proper weight gain. However, your baby could lose 5% to 7% of his birth-weight during the first week, which is completely normal and quite expected. Soon enough most babies start gaining 4oz to 8oz weight per week and grow tall by about 1 in. to 1.5 in. This weight gain depends on many factors like the baby’s birth weight, his appetite, frequency of stools etc. As long as your newborn does not lose any weight in the following weeks and keeps gaining some weight within the range, there is no reason to be concerned.

Control Over Movements

Newborns do not have any control over their bodies and their movements. For the first few weeks, they randomly flail their limbs around. By the end of 3 months, they can be expected to try to lift their heads and turn their heads in a particular direction in an attempt to look at some object or your face. Your baby may try to move hands in coordination to grasp your finger or a toy. His hands and legs will still remain curled up except when he is kicking and waving them.

Newborn Language Development

While your baby is not ready to raise a toast at a party yet, he can certainly try to respond to your ‘Parentese’ by cooing and smiling. That means he is trying to record your baby talks, so that he can learn and reproduce it later. Although remember that not all babies can smile by the time they are 3 months old, some babies do take their time.

Newborn Sensory Development

Your baby has all 5 senses from the birth, just that they are yet to reach their full potential. Babies can recognize touch very well; they also can recognize tastes and tend to like sweet taste more. Their hearing is still improving. They may try to turn their head towards a loud noise, may start crying after hearing a startling noise and can be soothed with a gentle crooning of a lullaby.
Your newborn’s sight sense is the last to develop. Initially he can see the objects that are closest to him.

Gradually throughout the first 3 months, his eyes start recording, remembering and differentiating between objects. He will try to look at one particular object, but not for more than a few seconds. Your baby’s sight is attracted at bright, bold objects and colors the most, but he also starts noticing less prominent objects by the end of 3 months. Your baby being able to look into your eyes, finally, could feel very rewarding for you.

How You Can Encourage Your Newborn’s Development?

• Interact with your baby as much as you can. Talk, sing, cuddle, play, massage and listen to the music.
• Hang a colorful mobile over your baby’s crib. Show him different objects and say the names of those objects.
• Look into his eyes when you talk to him and show various kinds of expressions on your face.
• Let your baby play with rattles that make different sounds.
• Let him touch his toys, your car keys, his feeding bottle, his blanket.

It is a fact that the more you interact with your baby, the faster he develops. This doesn’t have to be a teaching experience for you. You will tap into many amazing skills within yourself as you see your baby develop all the important life skills for himself.