Your Babywise Baby: First Year Overview

Overview of the your Babywise baby's first year. What to expect in the first year. Know how many feedings to have, when to drop feedings, how many naps baby should have, and how long to expect naps to be.

Sometimes you just need a snapshot--the ability to step back and look at the big picture. This post has a breakdown of the book On Becoming Babywise (affiliate link) and what to expect your whole first year when you use that program.

Even when you have several children, it is easy to forget when to expect certain milestones. Here is a timeline of your baby's first year and what to expect when, along with what to implement when. This is just a guideline, not a set-in-stone rule sheet (yeah, "stone" and "sheet" aren't really compatible, but it gets my point across). There is a wide range of when babies sleep through the night, for example. There are so many factors that will influence, the least of which is not your baby's individual personality. This post contains affiliate links.

I will list the youngest age you can possibly expect something to happen. There are a lot of babies who do these things at older ages. Information is from On Becoming Baby Wise book one and On Becoming Babywise Book Two.

First, baby is born.

Babywise suggests starting off for two weeks not worrying about feeding times or anything other than getting used to your new baby and getting things like feedings totally down. 

Baby Whisperer: Developmental Olympics

"...I don't want my readers to enter into what I call the 'developmental Olympics,' comparing one child's progress or problems with another child's, or to become anxious if their little boy or girl doesn't fit a particular age profile" (The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems, page 12).

Hogg is urging readers to not compare their babies to the babies of others and to also not freak out when baby doesn't reach a particular milestone that is listed in a book. This is an excellent topic for us all to be mindful of. I can't count the number of times I have gotten a question similar to this:

"My baby is [8-11] weeks old and still not sleeping through the night. What am I doing wrong?"

First, Babywise points out that 15% of babies don't STTN until 12 weeks of age. Second, from my interactions with parents, the numbers and ages of the STTN milestone are typically a lot older than those listed in the book.

As soon as baby doesn't go by the book, parents start to worry what is wrong with themselves and/or their baby. Remember that the ages listed in books are "typical" or "averages," not absolutes. Analyze your baby and do what is best for your baby. Compare your baby to his own abilities. Neither of my children STTN by 12 weeks, not even perfect-sleeper Kaitlyn. She wasn't long after 12 weeks, but she had definite reflux issues that warranted no messing with what was happening at night. We started late with Brayden, so his late STTN is understandable there.

Avoiding developmental Olympics applies both to Babywise milestones as well as those physical milestones like walking, talking, etc. This doesn't mean you don't ever evaluate the reasons for these "lates." But first understand what an average is. Very few fall into "average." The fact that a number is an average means there were a lot who were doing it earlier and a lot doing it later. Percentages can be more helpful in evaluating where your baby is.

If your baby isn't reaching a milestone when he "should," think through reasons for it. If it is a Babywise milestone, have you been consistent? Are there medical reasons? Is your baby just hungry? If there is a reason you can fix, attend to it. Otherwise, don't worry about it. If ever you are worrying, come to this blog and look at the poll results . You will see that there are babies who did things later, some earlier, and some at "normal" times. Then you will know your baby is not alone :)

The same applies to physical milestones. Gross motor skills are often recognized more than the fine motor skills and even verbal skills (until baby is about 18 months). If your baby isn't sitting up at 6 months, is she extra attentive to her fine motor skills or verbal skills? Brayden was always very focused on his gross motor skills. Verbal skills were also high. Fine motor skills were low on his priority list. Once Kaitlyn reached 5 months old, she was more interested in fine motor skills and her verbal skills for quite some time. They did different things at different times.

Also, are you providing her with opportunity to practice? A baby who is strapped in and confined all day isn't going to reach gross motor skills as early. This principle applies as the child gets older. A child who is never taught the names of colors isn't going to just know them. You must teach your child the things you want her to know and provide opportunities for practice. If there is anything you are concerned about, always bring it to the attention of your pediatrician.

So please, try to remain calm and patient as you parent your little one.

Related Posts:

• baby whisperer
• babywise milestones
• personality

How To Calculate Baby's Age

How To Calculate Baby's Age. How to know how many weeks translate to the number of months old a baby is.

Many new moms find calculating the age of your baby slightly confusing. Your friend's baby is 16 weeks old, while your cousins is 4 months old, yet that isn't the same age. This post is just to quickly clarify that for anyone who needs to know.

You can count your baby's age by days, weeks, and months. At some point, you move on to years, though I am still not there with Brayden, who is currently almost three. There are not only 4 weeks in a month (except February), so every 4 weeks of your baby's life does not equal one month. Here is a quick chart reference:

• 4 Weeks = a couple of days shy of 1 month (it will depend on which month your child was born in)
• 8 Weeks = almost a week shy of 2 months
• 12 Weeks = one week shy of 3 months
• 13 Weeks = 3 Months old
• 16 Weeks = about a week and a half shy of 4 months old
• 17.5 Weeks = 4 months old
• 20 Weeks = about 2 weeks shy of 5 months old
• 22 Weeks = 5 months old
• 24 Weeks = 2-2.5 weeks shy of 6 months old
• 26 Weeks = 6 months old

You can see from this list that 4 weeks does not equal one month. Both ages can indicate developmental milestones for you, so be sure you are comparing correct ages when looking at developmental milestones as well as Babywise milestones.

So at what ages do you give people when they ask? I think that depends on your audience. When Brayden was a baby, I kept track of his weeks until he was a year old, then I moved to months until he was two. Then I did just turned two, almost 2.5, 2.5, close to three, almost three.

With Kaitlyn, I have made things easier on myself. I kept track of weeks until she was about 4 months old, then I did months. I am already moving to years, though she is 13 months old.

If someone who doesn't have young children asks how old my baby is, I do months. Weeks usually mean nothing to them. If it is a nurse or a doctor, I do weeks up to 4-6-ish months. If it is another mother who also has young children, I do weeks up to 3-4 months then do months.

My reasoning behind this is to give the person the answer they are looking for. A childless person usually don't know how to equate months with weeks, and before I had kids, I always wondered why my friend wouldn't just tell me how many months her child was instead of weeks. A doctor or nurse knows what needs to be happening with your child down to the week, so that is why I do weeks much longer. A week really can make a difference in the accomplishments of your child. Another mother with young children has a point of reference with weeks, so that is why I do that with her for a while. That is what I do--but you do what you want :).

Reader Comments:

• brisnicki said...
  This is a funny post that I can _so_ relate to :)My DD will be 7 months next week. I stopped counting weeks at around the 3 to 4 month mark as I kept losing count of the week. She was born right at the beginning of the month so it was much easier to look at current date and work out her age from that.I remember a friend once telling me her daughter was now 27 months old.. I paused to count how many years that was when she explained '2 years and 3 months'. Oh of course... I would have got there eventually, I am just slow at my 12 times tables :)Child ages are similar to pregnancy gestation. As mother I counted off the weeks one at a time, but while '20 weeks' meant alot to me (first ultrasound) it did not mean much to the lay person. They'd rather hear it in months so they know how far you're along based on '9 months' :)
  May 31, 2008 8:24 AM
  Plowmanators said...
  So true Brinsnicki :)
  June 1, 2008 8:27 PM

Reader Questions:

• bradysmom said...
  So is 28 weeks really 7 months old?
  August 19, 2008 6:25 AM
  Plowmanators said...
  No, that would still be 6 months old.
  August 19, 2008 9:23 PM

Babywise Milestones

Babywise Milestones you can expect in the first two years when you follow On Becoming Babywise. When to expect sleeping through the night, naps dropped, a four hour schedule, and other milestones.

In this post, I list the different "milestones" you can reach through using On Becoming Babywise. I list this with the caution that many of these are averages. To create an average, you add together a lot of numbers. The average is a number that was created out of smaller and larger numbers. That means your baby might fall on the larger size of average. Do not be discouraged if that is the case nor thing something is wrong. Remember, you are the parent. Look at the averages and asses where your baby falls in the spectrum of expectation. She may be higher and she may be lower.

I also want to remind you that these are numbers based on babies who did Babywise from birth. If you started late, you might be behind on some for a while (see my Starting Babywise Late Guide for more on this). I started late with my oldest, Brayden. I was behind with Brayden until he was 6 months old (we started at 9 weeks).

Also, if you don't follow all Babywise principles, you might not receive all Babywise benefits. You are the parent, so you get to decide what to do, but don't expect all benefits unless you practice all principles.

On to the milestones.