This month’s references are also from what we have learned via the Wonder Weeks books (which I will link at the end of the post).
At 2 months (which would have been October 8th) Jesse was just recovering from his first road trip up to Cumbria to visit his family. Jesse was comfortably fitting into size 0-3 months and was getting a lot stronger with holding himself up in a sitting position- with adult support.
I just had to include this other picture of Jesse’s adorable (and rather hilarious) little pout! I managed to capture it just before he erupted into full blown meltdown. He has us giggling every time he does this, bless him- sometimes he doesn’t even cry, he just randomly pulls this face!
When Jesse was around the 10 week mark, it was almost time for us to get back on the road again to visit our Cumbrian relatives once again in aid of his Christening! Before we went home though, we had our final class at the Fourth Trimester course, which we were sad to leave, but we have gained so much from and I have credited a lot in my earlier Baby Development posts.
We carried on with Rhythm Time and meeting our new friends for coffee and chats. Jesse was showing a lot of progress in the Rhythm Time classes and we even had a Halloween fancy dress session where Jesse got to wear his adorable bat costume! Daddy was very proud and the teacher couldn’t stop complimenting it!
Towards the end of the fourth trimester, the 3rd month, your baby’s inherent reflexes in which they were born with begin to disappear as the baby’s mental and physical development progresses!
The startle reflex always had Dean and I giggling in the early days as it look like Jesse was doing “jazz hands”.
The 12 week development leap is definitely the biggest Jesse has had so far! Not only did we notice significant changes in his fussiness/ clingyness, but he also made some amazing discoveries. This leap began at around week 11 for Jesse (as he was overdue, he tends to hit the official milestone a little earlier than the book says).
He seemed to naturally start winding down and cluster fed from about 6-8pm and fall asleep for the night sometime before 9pm. He would often wake at around 11pm or midnight for one more feed before sleeping right through until morning. This happened for a while, until the 12 week leap hit him! We had a few unpredictable nights, up until now where he had got back into the wind-down routine in the evening again, but this time waking at 5am for a feed and sometimes wants to stay up and play!
This leap involved him feeding like a new born for a few days once again, resulting in me needing to express more once again! When I last visited the clinic in the first week of November, he was over the 14 lb mark! He physically looks taller now and is now in 3-6 months sizes!
The main highlight of this period was definitely taking Jesse up home for his Christening, which my Grandparents had kindly arranged for us. Here, he got to meet so much more of his family and spend even more time in the home town of his roots!
Jesse has been a sociable baby for as long as he’s been able to interact with people, which was from around 6-8 weeks, however, we’ve now got a full on social schedule! From the Fourth Trimester group which introduced us into the wonderful world of being new parents, to the musical madness of Rhythm Time. We now also do Baby Massage, Move it Mums (fitness for mother and baby) and post natal Yoga as well as play group!
There are lots of activities available for Mums to socialise with their babies! This includes classes, which involve a charge as well as free meet-ups, breastfeeding support groups and play group! Ask your Health Visitor for information on local activities in your area!
Socialising with other Mums can help boost your confidence, get free advice from Mums who’ve done it all before and of course help your baby to socialise from a young age.
We found that Jesse is very interested in people and we think that taking advantage of the activities recommended by our Health Visitor, he just thrives in a chaotic environment!
Being a Nature’s Child myself, there is nothing I feel more important than introducing children to our natural world. Autumn is the perfect time to do this as the colours are so beautiful and Jesse has been in awe of the leaves falling around him and the patterns of the canopies as we walk through woodland and he peers up from his sling.
Grabbing: The latest thing Jesse has learned to do is grabbing and picking up objects (including hair grabbing!) It is so adorable watching him spot something, reach for it and then home in on it making his grumbling “processing noise” (as we call it). He is definitely an observation baby- taking everything in before he plans to grab it, although since he’s developed, he seem to be more confident reaching out for something almost as soon as it’s got his attention now!
Smiles to Laughs: Jesse laughed properly for the first time only a couple of days ago! I was just making silly noises when his adorable smile turned into a chuckle. He’s been making random burst of excitement noises for a while, but this sounds had a little giggle to it and it was so beautiful!
We can’t wait for the next update, which may not be until after Christmas now! I think it’s about time I admitted the real challenge of these monthly updates and that they won’t be every month all the time! We are so excited about Jesse’s first Christmas and spending some much needed rest time with our family up North once again and give Jesse the best first Christmas!