Your baby is starting to transform from a precious-but-super-sleepy newborn to an near full-fledged infant. And with all that growth and evolution happening, there are some big changes and milestones coming down the pike.

So become excited! Payback for the sleep deprivation you're probably dealing with is on its way. Here's what y'all can look forrad to this week.

Your 3-week-former infant's development

At a Glance

Sleeping basics

Newborns up to 3 or 4 months erstwhile demand fourteen to 17 hours of slumber in a 24-hour flow, usually waking every two to four hours to swallow.

Feeding basics

Breastfed babies should eat as much as they want at this age, simply a general rule of thumb is roughly 16 to 24 ounces of chest milk or formula in 24 hours.

Did you know?

Your trivial ane is gaining muscle control, so those movements and reflexes will become less jerky and more graceful this week.

Your little i is getting stronger every solar day — and you can encourage baby to flex those muscles past providing ample supervised tummy fourth dimension during the mean solar day so she tin practice lifting that cute head.

Some 3-weekers will be able to lift their heads 45 degrees when on the tummy, and the more practice infant gets, the meliorate.

Breadbasket time will besides assist preclude caput flattening, something more than common in babies who spend all 24-hour interval and night lying on their backs or propped in bouncers and car seats.

In encephalon-related news, your baby is ready for more than circuitous shapes (bye-farewell circles, hello zigzags!) as vision, the ability to focus, and concentration improve quickly. She may really honey gazing at a mobile or a  soft toy you concord up close enough so she can come across it.

Of class, when she's not in the mood to play, she might exist in the mood to cry (and weep). All babies cry, but some babies wail more than others.

In fact, there are newborns who sob inconsolably for hours. Doctors will mostly diagnose such crying as colic when it lasts for at to the lowest degree three hours at a fourth dimension, at least three days a calendar week, over the course of at least three weeks.

Your 3-week-old infant'south growth

Your cutie is surely packing on the pounds and ounces now that she's iii weeks old. Only when taking note of your little one's weight, finish yourself from comparing it to your BFF'south infant'south weight, or your sister's, or ... you lot go the idea.

That's because the about important measure of your baby'south growth isn't how she stacks up to other babies, but rather how she stacks up to her own weight and peak bend.

The pediatrician will want to follow your baby'south growth trends over time. The doctor volition expect closely to brand certain your little one is trending on relatively the same curve she's been on (whether that's the 15th percentile, the 50th percentile or the 90th percentile).

A large jump (say, from the 20th percentile to the 50th percentile) can mean that baby's gaining too fast. A large dip can mean she isn't getting plenty to eat.

Your baby's doctor volition help y'all make sense of these percentiles and how your infant is growing.

Your 3-week-old baby's health

In that location are no well-baby visits or shots this week (hurray!), only there's still plenty going on with your baby's health.

Spitting-upwards infant

Don't be alarmed if baby is spitting upward a lot. What looks like her entire lunch is probably no more than a tablespoon of milk. Things should calm down in a month or two. Read More than

Baby fevers

A mild fever under 100.four degrees Fahrenheit in babies this age is usually nothing to worry near, merely a temp of 100.4 degrees F or higher warrants a call to the doctor right away. Read More

The scoop on poop

If your babe is breastfed, her bowel movements will probably exist mustard-colored, loose and sometimes seedy. In formula-fed babies, the stool will be probably be soft, and can range anywhere from pale yellow to yellowish brown, light brown or brownish dark-green. Read More than

Crib safety

Your baby volition be spending a lot of time in that crib, so you'll want to make certain it's prophylactic. A crib should run into the latest standards prepare past the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Read More

Vitamin D for baby

Newborns (and older babies) need 400 IUs of vitamin D each twenty-four hour period. If your baby is breastfed, she'll demand to have vitamin D drops. While formula is already supplemented with vitamin D, ask your pediatrician if you should add vitamin D drops to your formula-fed baby'southward bottle. Read More

Postpartum & new baby tips

If you're non able to breastfeed, and your babe has a medical status that requires human milk (including prematurity, failure to thrive, an intolerance to formula or allergies), in that location are means to become donated breast milk from other moms through a milk banking concern.

Here's what yous'll desire to keep in mind as yous begin your search:

  1. As tempting as it may be, best friends (or even casual ones) shouldn't get chest friends. The American University of Pediatrics (AAP), La Leche League and other experts frown on moms casually breastfeeding i another's babies and for good reason: There's always a gamble that your pal could unwittingly laissez passer on a virus for certain illnesses similar Lyme disease or hepatitis. There's likewise the chance that the shared milk could incorporate medications if your friend is taking any.
  2. Do consider buying from a milk bank. Unlike an breezy arrangement betwixt moms, the milk banks in the U.Southward. accept strict guidelines — guidelines that were set up past the Human Milk Cyberbanking Association of North America (HMBANA), an organization of pediatricians and other health care workers. The guidelines regulate donors as well as the way milk is nerveless and stored.
  3. Calculate the costs and get some financial help if you lot demand it. Buying donated milk is expensive. Although nursing moms donate their milk for free, the milk, which the guidelines state can exist obtained only with a prescription from your doctor, costs about $3 an ounce.

While older babies are known for their smoothen complexions, iii-calendar week-olds definitely aren't.

Among the weather that may be keeping the skin your baby's in colorful but less-than-flawless: red pimples and whiteheads (didn't expect those until heart schoolhouse at to the lowest degree?), pinkish diaper rashes, flaky cradle cap and purplish mottling (not to worry — it's just a sign of your infant's young circulation).

Fortunately, all these infant skin imperfections are temporary. Some, like the pimples and mottling, will go away on their own; others, similar diaper rash and cradle cap, will respond well to treatment. Articulate babe peel is just effectually the corner.

Labor and delivery, as you might have noticed, are actually crude on your body — especially "down there." Your perineum muscles and fretfulness may be stretched or damaged, making it difficult for you to command how and when digested nutrient leaves your body.

Postpartum fecal incontinence commonly takes intendance of itself as your trunk returns to normal. Until then, here are a few steps you can take to alleviate this problem:

  1. Consume a gas-conscious diet. Skip hard-to-digest foods for at present (zippo fried, no beans, no cabbage), and avoid overeating or eating on the run.
  2. Do your Kegels. Then practice them again…and again. Kegels are just the ticket for tightening up those muscles, as well every bit the ones that control urine, which may also be leaking these days.
  3. Don't be shy. Talk to your practitioner if the problem persists. Your health care provider might suggest a heed-trunk technique chosen biofeedback or possibly surgery if the situation is particularly bad, which it rarely is.

Newborn care during outings

It pays to be extra careful for the beginning calendar month — the younger your baby, the less time that tiny immune organisation has had to strengthen. (That goes double for infants born prematurely or with other health concerns.)

So in those early weeks, avert crowded areas. Inside or out, keep your baby in a stroller, sling or carrier. And after whatever outing, make clean your baby's hands with a wipe or moisture, soapy cloth.

Baby mixing upward mean solar day and night?

If your little 1 keeps mixing upwards day and night, try these tips:

  1. Limit daytime snoozes to three-hr stretches. That fashion she won't get into the addiction of bunching up sleep during the 24-hour interval. Even though your newborn doesn't have a naptime routine nevertheless, you probably will want to wake your baby up to eat every 3 to four hours or so anyway at this historic period. If you accept problem rousing your drowsy darling, effort these tactics: Hold your baby upright, unswaddle your little one, strip off some dress, tickle those little anxiety or hands, stroke that cute face, move babe's arms and legs, or put a absurd washcloth on the brow. If all else fails, endeavor irresolute infant's diaper — that's usually a surefire way to wake up a little sleepyhead. In one case she'southward awake, keep your footling one alert by singing upbeat songs and dangling toys in front of baby's confront.
  2. Make your newborn's naptime routine slightly different from the nighttime i to aid your babe distinguish between the two. Though you'll want to institute a air current-down routine for naps that'due south similar to the i you lot use at bedtime, adjusting it a flake during the twenty-four hours tin clue your baby in that information technology'south non time to turn in for the nighttime. Keep a shade or curtain open a little, for instance, and then the nursery'south not pitch-dark. And don't get overboard in terms of tiptoeing effectually while she's napping, either (though you should do the opposite at night). Hearing some ordinary sounds while she's snoozing, within reason, tin assist reinforce the departure between 24-hour interval and night.
  3. Don't ditch naps. While it is important to teach your sleeping affections that dark is the best time for snoozing in long stretches, she'll still need to fit in some close-centre during the twenty-four hour period. The boilerplate baby sleeps at least 14 to 17 hours in a 24-hour flow, then lots of that infant rest needs to happen during the day. And be grateful that your baby seems to know how to ability-nap at all — it's a good sign that she'll learn how to slumber through the night in the not-also-distant time to come.

Your friends and family are probably as excited to run into your newborn as you are to evidence your little bundle off.

Simply be sure to ready and enforce this simple ground rule: All admirers who want to bear on or concord your infant must wash their hands get-go — and anyone who is clearly sick or has a rash should stay (far) abroad.

Arraign your pediatrician or your ain paranoia, but get your bulletin across. Be especially careful with small children, who could exist conveying all sorts of contagious stuff.

Teach them to gently pat your infant's back or touch her tiny toes, merely never the hands or face. And after whatsoever outing or social scene, make clean your infant'southward easily with a wipe or wet, soapy material.

Most babies option a fussy menses during the afternoon or early evening as their "witching hour" to let it all out and cry for a while.

If the crying is colic (which it isn't always), it may seem like those babies are in pain. One theory is that colicky babies are also gassy babies, though they might be gassy because they're swallowing a lot of air from all that crying or considering newborns ofttimes struggle with gas hurting because of their immature digestive systems.

Colicky babies also often seem to want to eat all the time — only sometimes that'due south because the sucking is soothing, not because they're hungry. Using a pacifier tin can help.

Your infant's bawling bouts could be a sign that she's overstimulated. Babies this age oft need to unwind with a proficient cry at the terminate of the solar day.

She could also be hungry more than often because she's going through a growth spurt or for some other reason. Cheque with your pediatrician if you suspect hunger is the cause.

If your baby does seem to be in hurting, check for fever and call the physician. It's possible that she'south coming down with something.

But if information technology'southward colic that she'southward coming downwardly with, it's probably here to stay, to some degree, for the side by side few weeks or months. And if it'southward hunger, work with your pediatrician to figure out whether any adjustments in the feeding department are in society.

From the What to Look editorial team and Heidi Murkoff, author ofWhat to Wait When Y'all're Expecting. What to Expect follows strict reporting guidelines and uses merely credible sources, such every bit peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions and highly respected health organizations. Acquire how we keep our content accurate and upward-to-date by reading our medical review and editorial policy.

  • What to Expect the First Year, tertiary edition, Heidi Murkoff.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Colic in Babies: Signs, Causes and Tips for Parents, November 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Understanding Infant Growth Charts, December 2018.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Crib Safety, August 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, What to Do if Your Baby or Toddler Has a Fever, October 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Spitting Up Baby, December 2018.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Newborn and Baby Poop, August 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Vitamin D for Babies, October 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, How Much Should My Baby Eat?, April 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Here'southward How Much Slumber Babies Need, June 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Newborn and Baby Sleep Basics, May 2020.
  • American Academy of Pediatrics, Back to Sleep, Tum to Play, January 2017.
  • American Academy of Pediatrics, How to Read a Growth Chart: Percentiles Explained, September 2015.
  • Mayo Dispensary, Colic, February 2020.
  • American University of Pediatrics,Pediatrics in Review, Colic, July 2012.

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