



Wonder Week 5 - The World of Changing Sensations

Previous to this leap, your baby's perspective of the outside world is soft and undefined - in other words, it hasn't changed much in his mind from life in the womb. Suddenly, he is able to make more sense of this new world, and this is very overwhelming to him.

How does this affect sleep? This is the age where the evening fussy period begins to develop. A big cause of this evening fussy time is overstimulation from the day, and overtiredness. The evening is often the busiest time of the day in a family's household - dinner is being prepared, older kids have activities and need to do their homework, mom or dad is just coming home from work. That means that sometimes baby can be kept up awake much longer than he should be (remember, at this age it shouldn't be any more than 1 hour max). To help combat this fussy time, make sure baby is still soothed to sleep every hour, even during this busy time. Try to keep the house as calm and relaxed as possible, to make the transition from day to night easier on baby.

Wonder Week 8 - The World of Patterns

Babies at this age are now experiencing the world in a whole new way. They start to recognize simple patterns (not just visually, but things like 'I have 2 hands!' or 'I can move my leg like this!') Baby starts to be able to focus on things for longer periods of time, and becomes more curious about the world around her.

How does this affect sleep? This increasing alertness makes it all the more important that baby's environment is conducive to sleep. If her sleeping area is too bright, she may have trouble shutting off her brain. If it's too loud and chaotic, she may have a hard time powering down for sleep. Ideally, baby's bedroom should be pitch black, and playing white noise can help reduce stress and help baby sleep better.

Wonder Week 12 - The World of Smooth Transitions

One of the big physical milestones that baby will have hit around the 8 week mark is the ability to bat at and kick objects with her arms and legs. These movements were often very jerky and clumsy - which is normal for a baby who is just learning how these limbs work! But approaching Wonder Week 12, baby's movements become smoother, more precise. As well, baby is also starting to perceive more changes in the world around him - how moms voice goes higher when she's singing a song, how the room becomes dim when the sun goes behind the clouds, how the dog always barks when the doorbell rings. The world is becoming a more organized place to baby!

How does this affect sleep? Around this age, as baby becomes stronger, he may start to break out of his swaddle. Many parents take this as a sign that baby no longer wants to be swaddled, but at this age most babies still do have at least a touch of the startle reflex and thus swaddling is still necessary. Oftentimes, we need to switch up our swaddling technique so that baby isn't able to break-free. Check out this video below for the most amazing swaddling technique out there (and trust me, my baby was a Houdini and I tried everything!)