Baby’s First Year: Grab the Camera to Record All Those Precious Milestones

Now that you are settling in with your new bundle of joy, there’s so much to look forward to besides all those diaper changes. In fact, just when that exhaustion really starts to kick in, you’ll be rewarded with some of their firsts as they hit those crucial developmental milestones.

These behaviors and physical skills will have you grabbing your camera to record those moments. Years down the road, they will still make you cry tears of pure joy as you reminisce about the first year.

Here’s a quick rundown of what you can expect, month by month!

1^st Month

As you grow weary of the tiny human’s pooping, eating, and sleeping schedule, you’ll soon discover:

• Reflexes like flinching or blinking
• Looking toward familiar sounds
• Hands and fists moving toward the mouth

2^nd Month

More like a baby, by the end of month 2, you get some more excitement:

• Adorable cooing sounds
• More eye coordination
• Better ability to hold head up

3^rd Month

This month tends to get easier and more fun with these new developments:

• Smiling, especially at you
• More vowel sounds
• Recognition of familiar faces and things
• Imitating the faces you make

4^th Month

Here’s where coordination really begins:

• Interaction with rattles and baby toys
• Rolling onto back
• Better tracking on movements

5^th Month

Beware! Baby is starting to prep for bigger movements:

• Rolling back and forth from tummy to back and back to tummy
• Grabbing feet and attempting to taste them
• Moving things from hand to hand

6^th Month

This is a big one! Are you ready for:

• Sitting up on their own
• Making consonant sounds
• Expressing forms of emotions
• Trying to grab anything within their reach
• Understanding and responding to their name

7^th Month

All the other skills continue to improve, but now you’ve got:

• Definite response when being told “no”
• Raking grasp
• Responding to your expressions
• Combining more sounds together during babbling

8^th Month

Where did the time go?!? Little one is now:

• Preparing to crawl
• Pulling into a standing position
• Drooling and perhaps sprouting teeth

9^th Month

Rest as much as you can because by the end of this month:

• Crawling (and likely faster than you’d expect)
• Engaging in peekaboo
• Using the pincer grasp
• Pointing to signal what they want

10^th Month

And curiouser and curiouser they become:

• Crawling and standing turns to cruising
• Banging things together to make noise
• Poking at things
• Feeding themselves with soft bite-sized foods
• Shaking head “no” and waving “bye”

11^th Month

You’re almost at the end of the first year, and now you’ll see:

• Saying “mama,” “dada” or even “uh oh”
• Understanding your simple commands
• Mimicking your behaviors

12^th Month

And now, officially a toddler, you can expect:

• Baby may start walking now (though if not, it is COMPLETELY normal!)
• Challenging items by throwing, dropping, or banging them
• Saying very simple words like “hi” or “no”
• Using a spoon, even if a little on the clumsy side

Remember though, milestones are not golden commandments that every child MUST achieve by that specific time. Keep up with your scheduled pediatric appointments and express any concerns to the doctor. It’s usually nothing to worry about. Some babies walk by 9 months while others don’t start until after the 12^th month. As long as your doctor says everything is on track, try not to worry and keep your camera ready to record the big moment!