Before I had Bodie I was familiar with the term "wonder weeks" but I honestly didn't know much about it. I assumed it was only one week long and it had something to do with development. It wasn't until Bodie hit a two week sleep regression that I started wondering what the heck was going on.
I know some Mom's aren't all about baby books, but for me it helps immensely to understand what is going on with Bodie. Otherwise I will spend hours obsessing over what I could be doing wrong. Why is my sweet baby who was sleeping great last week all of a sudden cranky and waking up a ton at night? I was literally playing the guessing game...is he too hot? does he hate his swaddle? is he too cold? is he hungry? overtired? when I decided to get it together and do some research. To my dismay it was none of these things and we were in a major developmental leap.
I thought I would share what I had learned to hopefully help any new moms, moms-to-be, or just anyone who might have kids and didn't know about wonder weeks.
Here's the background:
What are mental leaps (Wonder Weeks)?
TIMED FUSSINESS: THE TRUE REASONIt’s not your imagination– all babies go through a difficult period around the same age. Research has shown that babies make 10 major, predictable, age-linked changes – or leaps – during their first 20 months of their lives. During this time, they will learn more than in any other time. With each leap comes a drastic change in your baby’s mental development, which affects not only his mood, but also his health, intelligence, sleeping patterns and the “three C’s” (crying, clinging and crankiness).
Babies cry during a leap because they’ve reached a radical new step in their mental development. That is good: it gives them the opportunity to learn new things. The “difficult” behavior is actually a signal that great progress is underway.
Like the physical growth spurts that a child makes, the mental development of children is also made with leaps. Neurological research has shown that such leaps are accompanied by changes in the brain. The Wonder Weeks, by Dutch authors Hetty van de Rijt and Frans X. Plooij, describes in easy to understand terms the incredible developmental changes that all babies go through during their first 20 months of life.
There is a great app that allows you to put in your child's info and it gives you a chart of when to expect your "wonder weeks." Here's what mine looks like:
Babies cry during a leap because they’ve reached a radical new step in their mental development. That is good: it gives them the opportunity to learn new things. The “difficult” behavior is actually a signal that great progress is underway.
Like the physical growth spurts that a child makes, the mental development of children is also made with leaps. Neurological research has shown that such leaps are accompanied by changes in the brain. The Wonder Weeks, by Dutch authors Hetty van de Rijt and Frans X. Plooij, describes in easy to understand terms the incredible developmental changes that all babies go through during their first 20 months of life.
There is a great app that allows you to put in your child's info and it gives you a chart of when to expect your "wonder weeks." Here's what mine looks like:
That little smiling face is Bodie. Except we are not smiling, we are sleep deprived and headed into a storm. The good news is that before the storm cloud is supposed to be the worst. So hopefully we will be out of this soon and back into the sunshine!
Happy Tuesday Friends!!!
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