Baby Week 6

BABY WEEK 6

Music appreciation

Now that your baby's awake for longer periods during the day, you can use these times to support his sensory development. Try singing your favorite lullabies by holding your baby firmly under her arms and dance her on a soft surface or playing music. You don't have limit yourself to children's songs. Fill the house with the sounds of music and watch as your baby expresses his pleasure through coos, lip smacks, and jerking arm and leg movements. Don't feel like you need to bombard your baby with music all the time, though. Babies need quiet time, too. An over stimulated child may cry, look away, tense up, arch his back, and become irritable. Try giving your little one time to regroup before moving on to more play.

Self-expression

Your baby may not be able to talk yet, but his face is sure telling you a lot. He's experimenting with different facial expressions — pursing his lips, raising his eyebrows, widening his eyes.

Baby on Schedule

Experts agree that routines keep the day dependable and calm, providing the structure and consistency many babies (and moms) crave. If your child can count on certain regular occurrences day in and day out, navigating her strange new world will be a lot less stressful for her. Here's how you can get baby on a schedule that's right for you and your child.

Let it be baby first. Study your daughter's she may already be following some sort of routine without you knowing. She probably wakes — hungry — at about the same time every morning, there's time to play before a nap, followed by lunch, playtime, and another nap before more playtime, dinner, bath, and bedtime.  Sounds like a routine, doesn't it? If you try to follow her pattern of eating, sleeping, and waking, soon you'll have your baby on a schedule.

Bedtime. If your baby's waking, sleeping, and eating are more random, you can still bring some order to her day without imposing a strict schedule. A bedtime routine is easy to establish, Start with a warm bath, dim the lights while you're putting on her pajamas, settle down with her in a comfortable chair (and if she needs one last feeding, now's a good time), read a simple story in a soft voice, sing a lullaby, share a good-night cuddle, and leave the room. A routine lets your baby know that there's an order to bedtime — and encourages her to fall asleep like clockwork.

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