Your 13-week-old baby has reached an important milestone: At the end of their 12th week, your baby officially “graduates” from the newborn stage to the infant stage.
What exactly does that mean? It means that over the next couple of weeks, your baby will gradually move from the anything-goes newborn stage to developing more consistent sleep and wake patterns and eating schedules.
It may not happen overnight, but soon, everything from longer stretches of sleep to more active play and wake times, to (gasp) actual predictable nap schedules are on the horizon. Here's more about what to expect with your new 13-week-old baby.
How to Create the Best Baby Nap Schedule
13-Week-Old Baby Development
As your baby moves from the newborn to infant stage, they will undergo a tremendous amount of growth and development.
Here's a peek at what's going on with a 13-week-old baby's development, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
Developing senses
Amazingly, at just 3 months, your baby's senses have developed almost to their adult levels. Their vision is steadily improving and in addition to seeing farther, your baby also has:
Better depth perceptionThe ability to track movement from as far as 20 feet awayFull-color vision
From a sound perspective, your 13-week-old baby has also made some major advancements. A 3-month-old baby can:
Turn their head toward noisesRecognize familiar sounds and voicesImitate some sounds
Quick Tip
Help your baby explore other senses by introducing new scents, like a flower from the garden or a fresh tomato. To check out different textures, have your baby do some supervised tummy time atop some satiny pajamas or a wool blanket.
Fine motor skill development
Your baby is increasingly obsessed with their hands these days, opening and closing them and inspecting every one of their tiny fingers. Part of the fascination is that your baby now understands that their hands are an extension of themselves, with unique capabilities such as grabbing, gripping, and pulling.
As your baby hones their hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, they might start to bat at a toy or clutch at your hair. If you haven't already, it might be a good time to introduce some new toys, like a play mat with dangling toys or a rattle they can hold and shake.
The Best Baby Play Mats and Gyms for Tummy Time, Crawling, and More
Baby babble
At 13 weeks, your baby reaches a very exciting milestone: It's the start of baby babble! Your baby may be full of coos, squeals, and giggles as they discover that making these noises is a great way to get attention.
Even when no one's around, your baby will love hearing their own voice. You might even find your baby happily cooing away in their crib first thing in the morning, which is undoubtedly the most adorable way to start the day.
Decoding Your Baby's Funny Little Noises and Sounds
Taking Care of Your 13-Week-Old Baby
Now that your baby is moving into the infant stage of life, some of your baby care routines may start to shift. Here are some ways your current routine may change.
Feeding
Your baby will most likely shift from newborn cluster feeding to being able to go longer stretches between meals. That shift means that they will most likely also increase the amount they are taking in at each feeding.
However, babies still go through growth spurts around this age as well, so frequent feedings aren't quite a thing of the past just yet.
An Age-by-Age Feeding Chart for Newborns and Babies
Sleep and awake times
Full sleep-wake patterns probably won't develop until closer to 6 months old, but your baby will also begin to start showing more consistency with their sleep and wake times. They will also be awake longer between daytime naps and be much more alert and active during those wake times.
This is a great time to start to establish a bedtime routine if you don't have one already, as well as healthy sleep habits like laying your baby down drowsy but awake to encourage self-soothing.
8 Sleep Changes to Expect Between 4 and 6 Months
Skincare
If you live in a dry climate, or if the humidity drops off during fall or winter, your baby's normally soft skin might become dry and flaky. To combat dry-skin woes:
Bathe your baby less often.Use a moisturizing soap.Pat their skin dry with a soft towel after bath time instead of rubbing it.Slather their skin with some fragrance-free baby lotion right after bathtime.Use a cool-mist humidifier in the nursery.
A little extra care should make their skin satiny-smooth again. But if red, scaly patches set in or if the condition fails to improve within a week or so, it could be eczema, so talk to your pediatrician.
5 Common Baby Skin Care Issues and What to Do About Them
Thrush
Another skin condition to watch out for is thrush, a yeast infection of the mouth that's common in infants. The telltale signs are small, white patches on your baby's gums, tongue, inside cheeks, or lips.
While it shouldn't bother your baby too much, if you're breastfeeding or chestfeeding, thrush can be passed onto you—and that can be unpleasant, making your nipples feel itchy, prickly, sore, or even painful.
If you see signs of thrush, talk to your pediatrician, who can prescribe an oral anti-fungal medication for your baby.
Parenting a 13-Week-Old Baby
You're not the only one adjusting to your baby's new stage of life. If you're the first new parent among your set of friends, for instance, chances are you've left some slightly mystified friends in your wake.
And it's not hard to understand why: One minute you could be gabbing over lunch and the next, canceling plans ("The baby is screaming!" "The sitter is sick!") or describing in glorious detail how well your baby is eating/sleeping/pooping these days.
Without kids of their own, some of your friends just might not get it—and that's certainly understandable for both of you. But you are a person outside of your baby too, so if your friendships would help support you in this season, it may be worthwhile to brainstorm some ways you can reconnect.
Maybe you could suggest a Saturday afternoon trip to Target with your baby in their carrier, or set up a quick evening check-in text message so you don't lose touch.
The important thing to remember is that every stage with your child is brand-new, and you might need different things in each stage. Whether that's time with friends or just time alone, if it fills your cup, it can be worth it to find a way to make it work.
Key Takeaways
Your 13-week-old baby is moving from a newborn to an infant and reaching many exciting new milestones and developments. At 13 weeks, babies can start to imitate sounds, babble in baby talk, and are beginning to use their hands more. Your baby is also moving closer to adult wake-and-sleep patterns which translates into more predictable sleeping and feeding schedules for you.
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