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A Quickie Guide of Baby's First Year
A new baby brought so many new emotions and joys for parents. You are expected to feel excited, scared, overwhelmed, and overjoyed - and you're likely to be filled with questions. The key for any new parent is to not become a victim to your worries about the unfamiliar. There are loads of resources available to you as a new parent. Of course, there is no time quite so filled with wonder and questions as your baby's first year.
This quickie guide will clue you in on what to expect from your baby over the next 12 months, so you can just sit back and fall in love with being a parent.
There are three things you generally expect your child to accomplish during the first 12 months of their life, according to experts.
1. By the time he is 12 months old, your child will likely to be able to feed itself. For some children, this will mean picking up small bites of food and placing them in their mouth, and for some children this will mean they are able to use utensils to a small degree.
2. Your child will plausibly be making stabs at walking. For some children, this will mean pulling themselves up with the help of some furniture and moving around while some other kids will be steadier on their feet.
3. The last big event you can expect within the first 12 months is a cognitive ability to distinguish things and associate them to other things. For instance, you child may be able to see someone with blonde hair and recognize that their sister has that some hair color.
Everything else that happens during the first year of your baby's life is leading up to these events. For instance, by month three, your baby will probably be able to push themselves up on their elbows while they're lying on their stomach. By month four, your baby will probably recognize your face and the faces of other people they see every day. By month five, your baby will be trying to start to crawl and will be able to hold their very own cups. By month ten, your baby will become cautious about people they don’t know and they will begin to understand the meaning of the things you are saying by the tone of your voice. By month 11, your child will probably be crawling around dizzying speed.
Any doctor will tell you, however, that these are guidelines and not rules. Try not to mark your calendar according to where your baby “should” be. They are where they are, and observing them make new discoveries is exciting no matter when it comes about on the time table. Your baby's first year will be as unique as your baby itself.