3 Week Old Baby Milestones 👶
How Skin-to-Skin Time Grows Baby’s Brain!
As you hold your precious newborn, exciting things are unfolding right before your eyes! Did you know that your touch, social interactions, and response to his hunger cues are actually helping your baby’s brain to grow and form vital connections for life? Skin-to-skin touch is so important in helping neural connections to form. Check out how to maximize skin-to-skin time here!
Baby’s Senses
At this time, baby’s vision is sharp for short distances, but eye muscles are still developing. He can see in black and white, but won’t be able to see long distances or distinguish colors until he’s a few months old. (Red will be the first color he recognizes!)
But that doesn’t mean baby isn’t soaking it all up! Baby can hear, and relies on sound to help better understand the world around him. (Fun fact: Babies can even recognize the sound of their mom’s voice inside the womb!)
How to Play With Baby
You may be wondering what to do with baby besides feed, rock, and change his diaper. We made a fun video all about “playing” with a newborn. The most important thing is to keep the love flowing with lots of skin-to-skin time and soothing sounds from mama and papa’s voice!
3 week old baby Adeline Mama Natural Baby Tracker Reader photo of 3 week old baby Adeline.
You at 3 Weeks Postpartum 👩
Do you feel like a feeding machine? Or, if you’re formula-feeding, are you constantly making bottles? In a word (or two): cluster feeding. Babies usually go through a growth spurt right around now, which explains the constant need for food. This is all good, mama–it’s just a sign that your baby is putting on weight and growing like crazy.
But, it doesn’t mean it’s easy, especially if you’re breastfeeding. As your body tries to regulate milk supply, you might bump into some not so fun aspects of nursing, such as sore nipples and clogged milk ducts.
Though common, these issues can be super painful! Check out our tips on how to care for a clogged milk duct naturally. If not caught quickly, a clogged milk duct can lead to mastitis, a painful bacterial infection of the mammary gland. If your breast becomes red, inflamed, and painful to the touch, it’s time to check in with your doctor.
Thrush is another common (but not so fun!) experience a breastfeeding mama may encounter. The tricky part is thrush can be passed to mama’s breast during breastfeeding and then back to baby. Check out this post on how to treat it naturally.
You may also be wondering if your milk supply is low or if your letdown is too fast. Know that many issues regulate as you and baby work together. If you do need to supplement, check out some healthy formula options here.
Finally, now would be a great time to pump once a day to build up a little stash in your freezer. Trust me, your future self will thank you—this simple act will give you more freedom in the months to come (think date night or a ladies’ spa afternoon). After my baby went down for his/her first morning nap, I would pump for 15-20 minutes and store the milk in freezer. I found the morning was the best time, since my milk supply was highest then. (Here is a pumping how-to post for your reference.) Just food for thought, mama... have a great week!