Although every baby is different, most babies tend to achieve certain developmental milestones during their early infancy. By the end of her first three months, your infant will be quite different from how she was during her first day or week of life. She'll exhibit more control over her body, have sharper senses and interact more with the world around her.
Motor Skills
Over the first few months of life, your infant will begin to develop the motor control he lacked at birth. Newborns learn to hold up their own head when sitting upright, without being supported at the neck, and learn to raise their head when lying on their stomach. The hands that were clenched into fists at birth start to move around and work together, and babies' legs and feet are kicking.
Senses
At birth, your infant will have four fully developed senses--hearing, touch, taste and smell--but will have limited vision. The youngest babies can see only 8 to 12 inches in front of them, and they respond most to high-contrast patterns. Gradually, the Mayo Clinic reports, infants begin to see more complex patterns and can differentiate colors. Better eye-muscle control means that older newborns can follow moving objects with their eyes, according to MedlinePlus. Older newborns also begin to react more to sounds and other stimuli.
Behavior
In the first few weeks of life, your baby may sleep more in the daytime and be more wakeful at night, sleep for only a couple of hours at a time before waking again, and have irregular feeding patterns and bowel habits. As the weeks and months progress, however, babies begin to develop more predictable behavioral patterns. Sleeping cycles become more regular around the third month, according to MedlinePlus.
Language
Your baby will communicate by crying right from the start. Over the first few weeks of life, babies develop different cries for hunger and pain, and parents develop the ability to differentiate these cries. Soon, newborns develop another type of language: cooing. Cooing may sound like nothing more than noise, but according to MedlinePlus it's one step along the path to full language development.
Other Types of Communication
As your baby matures, he'll become more responsive to you, not just cooing and gurgling but also starting to smile at you on purpose and blow bubbles. Your baby may begin to reach out to you when he wants comfort or attention. You can encourage your baby's socialization and language development by talking to him and interacting with him one-on-one.
