Top Ten Milestones of Baby's First Year
A baby's first year of life is certainly a busy one! The transformation from a tiny, helpless newborn, to an on-the-move One Year Old, is truly amazing.Make sure you keep track of all your Little One's milestones as they happen, even if you don't have time to do it in a fancy and formal way. (My daughter's are jotted down on a scrap of paper in my desk drawer, waiting to be put into her baby book when I find the time.)
Here's our list of Baby's biggest milestones during that precious first year, plus a little information on when you can expect these milestones to occur. (But remember, every baby is different and there is often a fairly wide range of what's considered normal. If you have any concerns about your baby's development, speak to your Pediatrician.)
1) The Smile - one of every parent's favorite milestones, that precious gummy smile! "Social Smiling" refers to when an infant smiles in reaction to someone smiling at them, and signals further development in both their cognition, and bonding. This typically occurs anywhere between 6 weeks and 3 months. Prior to 6 weeks, smiling is typically a reflex action, and not a response to any specific cognition or stimuli.
2) Rolling over - this first sign of mobility is a big accomplishment for your baby. Rolling from tummy to back comes first, typically around 2 or 3 months. Giving your baby plenty of 'tummy time' on the floor will help your child develop the head control and muscle strength needed to accomplish this task. Rolling from back to tummy is significantly more difficult, and usually doesn't occur until around 5 or 6 months.
3) Sitting up - after months of only being able to lay down, or be held, learning to sit on their own is a wonderful accomplishment for your baby! Enjoy this one while you can - very soon, your baby sitting STILL will be a distant memory. Typically, Sitting occurs sometime between 5 and 8 months.
4) First Tooth - the timing of this milestone varies greatly. Although very rare, some babies are even born with teeth! Most babies sport their first pearly white sometime between 4 and 7 months. Usually, the bottom front teeth appear first, often at the same time.
5) Crawling - Look out! Life will never be the same once your baby learns to crawl. Time to look around and make sure you've completed ALL your baby proofing. Even if you think your baby can't get to it, it's best to be ahead of the game, and make sure your house is baby-proofed even for a walking and climbing baby. Most babies start to crawl sometime between 6 and 10 months. Some babies prefer to roll, or scoot on their bottoms instead of crawling, and some babies even skip this step and go straight to walking!
6) Pulling to Standing - by around 8 months, your baby will have the strength and muscle control to try this new trick out. Often, they will just like to stand without attempting to move around or walk. They will probably need assistance in sitting back down, until they learn to bend their knees to sit.
7) First Word - Your baby has probably been cooing and babbling since birth, but hearing that first actual word is a special moment for every parent. "Mama" and "Dada" are often babies first words, probably because they hear them often, and they have a special fondness for the people these words relate to. Some experts say to expect to hear 'Dada' first, since the "D" consonant is easier to pronounce. There is a wide variance in when babies speak their first word, but it typically occurs sometime between 10 and 14 months.
8) Walking - you'll probably remember the moment this milestone occurs, for years to come. There's nothing like seeing your baby take those first wobbly steps towards you, arms reached out, face beaming! This can occur any time between 10 and 16 months.
9) Waving, Kissing, High-Fiving, etc. - not a specific milestone, but I've always loved when my babies started to mimic these actions, and use them in appropriate situations. By 12 months, babies typically have several of these social skills down-pat, depending on what types of behaviors they've been exposed to.
10) Sleeping through the night - it's hard to target or predict this milestone, but since it's one that's looked forward to by every parent I know, I think it deserves inclusion here. Unfortunately, there's also no guarantee this milestone will occur during the first 12 months, but on the bright side, some babies are sleeping 6-8 hours a night by the time they are 3 months old. Every baby is different in this aspect - my son didn't sleep through the night until well after 12 months. But my daughter was sleeping 6 hours straight by 7 weeks old.
Watching your child achieve all these great accomplishments in such a relatively short period of time is truly amazing. Remember to document these milestones in writing, and with plenty of photos, and you'll be able to relive these joyous moments for years to come!
