Baby Week12

Your Baby Development: 12 Weeks Old

How big is your baby? This week your baby will be weighing around 12 pounds and measuring 23 1/4 inches if he/she was of average size at birth. By now your baby should be able to easily lift his/her her head, and when you hold baby he/she may push away. to look over your shoulder. As baby’s vision becomes sharper, he/she will be able to see your face much more clearly now, especially all the details. Your baby may spend a lot of time watching his/her hands. He/She enjoys watching his/her fingers move. Baby may grab with one hand while sucking on the other. You may also notice that baby will want to touch anything he/she can reach, but if he/she drops and object he/she wont search for it. At this stage your baby needs about 15 hours sleep per day, with about 10 of those being at night, with two or three short naps during the day.

Baby Development Milestones This Week

Pets and Your Baby You may have had a pet which was your “baby” until your child was born, and so when baby comes home from the hospital it means a change in lifestyle for you baby as well. Your pet is sensitive to routine, so making changes slowly before baby is born will be easier for your pet. Here are something’s you may want to do:

• Decrease the time you spend with your pet
• Change and adapt your pets feeding, exercise or play time schedule
• Make change to the area where your pet will be kept
• Evaluate your dogs obedience training.

Introducing Your Dog to Baby After your baby is born, and before you bring baby home, have someone bring a piece of baby’s clothing to your pet to sniff. This basically lets your pet get used to baby’s smell before he/she comes home. When you get home, go to the house alone and pet your dog. Place a leash on your dog before your bring baby in. Sit in a chair with baby on your lap, and cover baby’s head with your hand to show that you are protective of this new addition. DON’T place baby on the floor or above your dog head! And don’t let your dog lick your baby. If your dog shows unacceptable behavior, say “NO!”. If your dog does not back down, remove the dog from the room. To be safe keep your dog on a leash for the first few weeks when around baby. Introducing Your Cat to Baby Cats can be unpredictable pets, and it is best to keep cats away from baby when possible. Let the cat watch from a distance. If your baby shows any sign of aggression, such as hissing, biting, nipping, slinking, flattening ears, pointing its tail or spraying remove the cat from the area. Baby Care Bronchiolitis (Respitory Syncytial Virus) Bronchiolitis is a lung infection that occurs primarily in the winter and spring months, and is rare in children older than 2 years. It usually begins as a cold and then develops into respiratory distress, with rapid breathing, coughing irritability and possible wheezing. What to Do Use a cool mist humidifier in his/her room, give lots of fluids and try keep baby quite. Keep baby away from others as the virus is easily spread by hand to nose or hand to eye contact. Contact your pediatrician if baby’s coughing increases, or if he/she wheezes, breaths more than 70 breaths a minute, or if the skin between the underneath of the ribs is pulled taught, or if baby’s skin become a blue grey color. Toys and Play As your baby is beginning to reach for and swat things hang a “gym toy” above him/her. Objects are firmly attached to a bar that hangs above baby’s head. Your baby will enjoy looking at the objects and swipe at them. This will improve his/her muscle control, as well as hand eye coordination. Push Ups Place baby on his/her stomach with his/her arms stretched out in front of him/her. Shake a rattle above him/her to encourage him/her to look up, then below him/her so he/she looks down. Do this a few times. This will help develop upper body strength. Quick Tips For This Week