By Jasna Cameron

All babies follow a similar “developmental plan” that can be monitored through specific milestones. These milestones can be used as a guideline to track their progress. For example, some babies move faster, while others take more time to reach these milestones. If you are concerned your child is not reaching their stage-appropriate milestones, please reach out to your pediatrician. 

Baby Milestones

Almost all major life events are measured in terms of how many years it takes to reach them. However, in the baby world, time is measured in weeks and months. You often hear new moms talking about their 13-month baby boy or 6-week newborn. And for good reason, too! Baby development is an absolute wonder!  One minute they are just sleeping and crying, and the next, they are crawling across the room at the speed of light. And when we talk about months, we talk about big achievements and milestones of babyhood.

Four Month Milestones

And the four-month milestones are, in fact, quite significant in the baby world. But then again, everything seems significant in the baby world because babies are just so precious and tiny.

At four months, it is the end of the newborn era and the beginning of the infant age! Four-month milestones are a lot of fun to follow and explore, so stay informed but also remember to enjoy this journey with your baby.

Some giant leaps happen around the 4th month of cognitive and physical development. These are very closely correlated, so the advances in one spark off the development in the other and vice versa.

The best part about the four-month milestone is the emergence of your baby’s personality. So now is the time to really get to know each other! 

Cognitive

Florencia Segura, MD, FAAP, a pediatrician at Einstein Pediatrics in Vienna, Virginia, points out that some crucial brain development leads to improved eyesight at this time, which, in turn, further facilitates improved motor and cognitive development. 

By seeing better, your baby can focus on specific facial features and start recognizing people. She can also follow the objects moving around in her vicinity within a few yards now and enjoys looking at different shapes and colors. As her interest grows, she will reach for things she wants because she can coordinate her vision with her movement. Her depth perception strengthens through this exercise. As she keeps exploring the world around her with her eyes and hands, many objects will land in her mouth. This is still her most advanced method of perception.

Her ability to focus on specific things for a significant amount of time initiates even more learning and development. She even starts to recognize and remember her favorite people and her favorite things.

Dr. Segura explains how the baby’s brain grows through developing countless connections at a rapid pace during this time. Her favorite people help her brain develop rapidly through a “serve and return” concept. This is how babies learn communication. She “serves” a smile or a sound and gets a smile or a sound in return from her “person.” She begins experimenting with more and more sounds, and your house is soon full of the most adorable baby babbling and cooing.

This is when your baby learns to differentiate between people, things, and feelings. She becomes adept at responding to the world around her as she connects the dots and learns how to express her feelings and desires. You will also begin to understand her expressions by recognizing the different cries she uses to express hunger, hurt, or frustration.

On a funny note, your baby will discover her own feet soon! And you might catch her playing peacefully alone (especially with her feet). What bliss! Read to your baby as this develops his cognitive skills; now is the time to let him see colorful images and let him touch them,

Physical

Eating is well-established by this stage. Your baby can go longer between feeds as the newborn stage is over, and the intense growth has slowed down. She will, however, eat a lot more at each meal. Babies at this stage need about 24 to 36 ounces of breast milk a day. Your baby is getting fed 4 to 5 ounces of milk every three to four or even 5 hours which helps her double her birth weight by this time. It also means you must change her diaper five to six times daily.

Four-month-olds can put on about 1 pound, if not more, and grow up to 0,5 inches in a month!

As she is happier with fewer feeding sessions, this means you have more time to play (and sleep, as we will see later in the article).

The fun part is lots of activity and playfulness:

• She has learned to go for and grab the objects she likes and even shuffle between her hands. 

• She can also happily roll over from her tummy onto her back. This means lots of fun tummy time where she will start pushing herself up on her elbows to examine the world around her while she looks in different directions holding her head up firmly. 

• Some babies can even sit up briefly with their mom’s support. 

• You can also help her stand on a flat surface where she pushes down with her legs to build strength in her legs.

The more you play with her, the more she will want to play with people. She may reward you with many smiles and even fall in love with her expression in the mirror. This is such a precious time so enjoy it with her as much as you can.

Sleep

At this age, your baby has learned that it is time to go to bed at night. The good news is that she will go to bed on time and can go for 8 hours without being fed. Because she needs about 14 hours of sleep daily, she will take about three or four naps. Her naps can be about 90 minutes long.

The bad news is that she might start getting fussy at about 6 p.m. It is the so-called witching hour, just before you start getting her ready for the long 8-hour haul. Some babies also go through a four-month sleep regression. It is an unwelcome change in your baby’s sleeping patterns where she wakes up often at night and refuses to go back to sleep. It happens for different reasons, and she may be hungry or teething. It can last anywhere between 2 to 4 weeks.  You may also be one of the lucky ones whose baby does not experience this dreaded sleep regression.

Conclusion

There is so much to look forward to at this stage.  Your baby is eager to learn about the world around her and to respond in turn. You get to enjoy the smiles she gives you when you tickle her. You get more sleep as she starts sleeping longer. You get to know her likes and dislikes as she starts expressing her moods. But the most rewarding experience is seeing her excitement grow as she starts recognizing you. She starts developing her identity and learns to respond to her name. Her personality is emerging, and you get to know the person she will become.