1 Month Old Baby Development & Milestones

The 1st month milestone is a crucial mark for both the mom and the baby. While you would be settling into your new life as a mom, your baby would be adjusting to life outside of the womb. The past 1 month was just that, lots of changes and adjustments for both of you. While it is still tough with sleepless night, frequent feedings, nappy change for you, your baby has come a long way with some new exciting milestones and a lot more things to look forward to.

Before we dive into the 1 month mark milestones, pat your back mama you are doing great, hang in there and things will definitely get better from here on. Over the coming few weeks your baby will sleep longer through nights and feeds get bigger meaning lesser feeding and more sleep for you. Let us look at the baby development milestones this month.

1st Month Milestones:

There are so many new developments and changes in the past one month in your baby's life. While a few remain the same there are a lot that have changed, let us look at the 1 month milestones for babies:

Newborn Reflexes

While many of the reflexes would still be noticeable like rooting, sucking, startling, grasping, they would gradually over the next few weeks start to disappear and in most babies by 3 months of age they die down.

Improved Eyesight

Your baby's vision is getting better with time and now can see your face when 8-12 inches away, they love to observe things that move and contrast patterns. Investing in a crib mobile at this stage is a good idea.

Occasional eye crossing over is normal at this age and usually nothing to worry about. The eyes stay fixed sometime at 4 -6 months of age and any crossing over post that is a cause for concern and should be brought up to your doctor if seen beyond 6 months of age.

Expressions

They start making funny faces - pursing lips together, raising eyebrows, squinting eyes and slowly beginning to make cooing and gurgling noises. They also start communicating more through crying when hungry or uncomfortable (soiled nappy), look for the hunger cues (like fist to mouth, smacking lips) to avoid a cranky baby.

Head Control

Your child will be able to lift their head up briefly for a few seconds. Keep giving them the much needed tummy time to improve build their muscle strength that would come in handy for the future milestones.

Hearing

Their hearing is as good as yours now. They can turn towards the voice now and love listening to familiar voices like yours or your partners. Spend a lot of time talking to your baby as they would love listening to you.

You would also see that they get startled and cry on hearing loud noises like dogs barking or doors closing with a thud, observe if your baby never gets startled or seems to be bothered with noises, bring it up to your doctor at the 1st month visit.

Feeding Routine

Your baby might now be able to drink about 4 ounces of milk at every 3-4 hours of intervals if breastmilk bottle fed or formula fed, usually formula fed babies go longer between feeds. Exclusively breast fed babies might be having 8-12 feeds every 2-3 hours based on the amount of time they have nursed for during each feed.

Gradually your baby will start to feed lesser in the nights and sleep longer and can go even 4-5 hours at a stretch without feeds giving you the much needed sleep.

Your doctor would have recommended you to use Vit D drops, don't stop them until your doctor says so. In most cases it is not until your baby is 1 year old.

Popular Breastfeeding Positions

Sleep Pattern

There may not be a lot of change in the number sleep hours yet, they may still be clocking anywhere between 14 to 17hours of sleep each day but the wake time would be going up during day and sleep time getting longer at nights at a stretch.

Don't expect any set pattern or schedule for the baby to follow yet, they can still be quite erratic and change every few days or weeks. Its too early but eventually in a few months you can slowly work on the schedule based on your babies cues that work for both of you.

Related: Swaddling How Why and When

Height & Weight

The average weight for one month old baby girl is around 4.2kg and height of 21inches.

The average weight of one month old boy is around 4.5kg and height of about 21.5inches.

On an average babies grow 2 pounds or around 1kg in weight and about an inch in height each month until 6 months of age. Every child is unique and so is their growth rate so don't be alarmed if they are not close to these numbers as some babies may be above the average numbers and some take longer based on how much they feed, how often they feed, if they had a low birth weight or were premature or had any illnesses. Know that it is normal to fluctuate a little from the normal at this age, talk to your doctor about your concerns.

Fussiness & Colic

Your baby might for no reason be crying for hours on end or seem irritable and more fussy than usual more so during the evenings and late nights. It could be signs of colic setting in, which usually starts at around this age and lasts till your baby is 4-5months old. While it is very frustrating and there is no known cause as to why this happens, many believe it is due to digestive distress as their system is still developing.

You could try burping your baby often, rubbing their back and bouncing them and walking around the house, gently rubbing around their belly button in circular strokes to release gas. While there is not a lot you can do than to wait it out, be patient and hang in there as this shall to pass in a few months.

3 Month old Baby Development & Milestones

4 Month old Baby Development & Milestones

1 Month Doctor Visit:

Doctors perform a thorough physical exam at the 1 month mark along with administering a Hepatitis B vaccine 2nd dose to your baby as most receive the first dose at birth.

Head: Doctors will measure you baby's head to track progress month on month, check the soft spots (fontanels) and shape of the head.
Eyes: Will check for any blocked tear ducts, issues with the eye or any congenital defects.
Ears: Looks for signs of infection or any issues with hearing.
Mouth: Looks for any signs of thrush or infections, any issues with structure of the mouth.
Lungs and Heart: Listens to the heart and lungs with stethoscope to look for any heart murmurs, chest congestions, heavy breathing.
Legs and Hip: Looks for any signs of leg / hip issues by moving the legs around and also checks the muscle tone.
Body: Checks for any rashes, birthmarks, muscle tone, jaundice, reflexes to make sure there is nothing wrong.
Belly Button: Checks to see if the stump has dried out and fallen off and there are no signs of any infections. Slightly presses around the navel to see if stomach is fine and no enlarged organs.
Genitals: Checks the area for any signs of infections, rashes or redness. In case of male babies, doctors also check to see if the testicles have descended and if the penis size looks normal. They may also check if the penis has healed in cases of circumcision.

Apart from these the doctor will also check the babies height, weight, head circumference, ask questions about the baby is feeding pattern, sleep, bowl movements, any signs of fussiness or distress. Now would be the right time for you to bring up all your concerns however small so you can be at peace knowing everything is fine.

Talk to your doctor if you are having any issues with latching or not sure if your baby is feeding enough, they may refer you to a lactation consultant based on where you live.

They may also talk to you about your health and mental well being to look for any signs of postpartum depression so you can get the necessarily help.