Mack - 12 Weeks

At 12 weeks Mack is not quite 3 months (well at least until February 23rd). 


Physical Development

Conventional wisdom has it that most babies sleep through the night--loosely defined as six to eight hours--by 12 weeks of age. Lucky for us Mack has been sleeping through the night since 7 weeks.  At 12 weeks we are working to extend his 8 hours to 9-10 hours.  I've been noticing that he's having a hard time staying up to finish his last feeding so maybe it's time to increase the size of an earlier feeding. We've also found that Mack does quite well if we lay him down in his crib and let him fall asleep by himself.  This also helps if he does wake in the night (as everyone wakes several times during the night) he is able to drift back asleep on his own.  

Social Development

As Mack has been sleeping more consistently, he's also crying a lot less when he's awake. There are several reasons for this miraculous change:

We've learned to anticipate and meet many of his needs, making crying less necessary.

His nervous system is maturing, and with it, the ability to cope with stress.

He is finding new ways to communicate: squeals of frustration, joyous giggles, whimpering when he's tired.

Experts agree that the more promptly and consistently you respond to your child during the first six months of his life, the less demanding he is likely to be when he is older. Once he is completely secure in your affections, he'll be able to separate from you over time and become a happy, independent person.

Intellectual DevelopmentIt's been said that, for babies and toddlers, "repetition is the soul of wit". In addition to amusement, the repetition of simple activities has another important function: It helps build memory. The more an act is performed, the more likely it is to be remembered and a memory trace established in the brain. Once a baby can remember things from one day to the next, he'll be able to add new behaviors to his existing repertoire rather than "reinventing the wheel".

It is so cute how Mack loves to mimic our facial expressions as well as our sounds.  His new favorite is gurgling. I've tried to get a video of it but he seems to get shy every time. Mack has also discovered his hands and he's quite fascinated with them.

A study by the Educational Testing Service suggests that 3-month-olds have developed short-term memory--they're able to recall repeated signals well enough to become bored by them. At the same time, it's clear that your baby remembers you well enough to brighten when you enter the room. From this point on, he'll be constantly enhancing his memory skills.

Well I won't keep this too long this time but here are a few of our favorite pictures.