Six-Weeks Already?!

Wow, time flies doesn’t it…especially when you have a six-week-old baby at home! Have you noticed that this week your little one appears to have a constant hunger that can’t be satisfied or a sleep schedule that seems to have gone out of the window? If the answer is yes, it could be that your bundle of joy is experiencing a bit of a growth spurt, in which cluster feeding and fussing are the norm for a couple of days. Continue to meet your baby’s needs and give them lots of cuddles. Remember to be kind to yourself over the coming days, this is a phase which will soon feel like a distant memory. It might be that by the end of this growth spurt that your baby’s arms and legs are too long for their favourite babygrow, so you might want to have some clothes in the next size up ready in the drawer.

Despite having a couple of unsettled days this week, there is much to look forward to and celebrate! It is usually around the six-week mark that babies begin to show truly social smiles in response to people and situations that make them happy. So, use playtime games like peek-a-boo and raspberry blowing in the coming weeks to encourage lots of those beautiful smiles. Your baby’s vision will also be continuing to improve, meaning that they can see further away than ever before. This makes for lots of gazing and head turning during tummy time as they take in the world around them. You may also have noticed that your baby has developed a recent obsession with their hands; gazing at them, holding them close to their face, opening and closing fists and perhaps even trying to fit them whole into their mouth! This is a great sign that they are continuing to learn about their amazing body and what it can do.

At six-weeks, you might now be ready to begin looking for baby classes that you can attend together to support their development, meet new parents and have a regular fixture in your week that lets you leave the house! Baby massage is a great way to dip your toes into the world of baby classes and has huge benefits for you both. Just a few of these big benefits are, that regular baby massage helps your baby to sleep more deeply and for longer intervals. It activiates their digestive system and can relieve those painful symptoms of trapped wind, constipation and colic. The final big benefit that I want to share with you is that it helps strengthen that beautiful bond you share with your baby and enables you to understand eachother better. If you live in the Leeds, Wetherby, Harrogate or York area of the UK I would love to be able to guide you through baby massage. Find our booking page here.

Whilst it’s lovely to know that some babies may be starting to do what has been described, you should also know that there will be lots of babies who aren’t yet, and that’s ok! Every little cherub is wonderfully unique and develops at their own pace, so don’t worry if you haven’t got smiles just yet…they’ll be on their way soon.