5 Happy Milestones You Reach as a Parent
Along the tenuous, never-ending journey as a parent, there are certain milestones that you will encounter. These momentous occasions are not only great stepping-stones for your child, but they should feel amazing to see as a parent. Be sure to celebrate these moments as a victory for the entire family! Here are six happy milestones you will reach as a parent:
Smile
How fitting of a “happy” milestones list to start off with a smile! Your infant becomes capable of producing what’s called a social smile around the age of about eight weeks old. This is due to the development needed in their nervous system and vision enough to see you and crack that first smile. When your child realizes they’re happy, you’ll know and this will be a happy milestone for you too.
Grabbing
After a few months have passed, babies are able to begin gauging where items are in space. From this, they begin their attempts to start grabbing, dropping, and picking up certain things around them. The ability to grab things means they can engage in play and activities more effectively.
Hugging
Your child will learn around the five month mark that hugging Mom, Dad, and others that they feel comfortable with is very possible! This will certainly depend on the temperament of the child and how affectionate they are towards others at this very young age. During different times of the day this will vary as well, where you may find your little one to be extra affectionate before bedtime.
Sitting Up
The ability of a baby to sit up on their own is dependent on the strength in their arms, head, and neck, and the balance they have at this young age of about eight months old. With his/her vision getting better and better, they’ll begin to try grabbing at different objects to help pull them up. If you want to help, try dangling a toy in front of them or to their side to encourage them to sit up.
First Steps
Between the 10 and 18-month mark of your child’s development, you may be able to experience their first steps! This is quite possibly one of the happiest milestones as a new parent. Walking for the first time is no easy task however; it requires muscle strength, coordination, and balance, which is something a baby has yet to master. That moment when you get to see your child take their very first awkward, yet magical steps will be pure bliss!
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Written by Stephanie Parker from Sleepingbaby.com, inventor of the Zipadee-Zip
The motto for Sleeping Baby, makers of the Zipadee-Zip, is: "Inspiring Dreams One Night at A time," and that, in a nutshell, is how it all started…with one little dream that has since become the Parker family's reality. When Brett and Stephanie Parker's daughter, Charlotte, was born, the feeling that welled up inside of them was indescribable; they never realized until first looking into those baby blues of hers that they were even capable of that kind of love.
When it was time to transition baby from swaddling, the Parkers tried every sleep sack on the market and every swaddle weaning trick they could find for nearly two weeks and nothing worked to get baby Charlotte to fall and stay asleep.
Stephanie became determined to restore sleep and sanity to their household and set out to find a solution that would soothe Charlotte's startle reflex and provide her the cozy womb-like environment she loved so much but still give her the freedom to roll over and wiggle around in her crib safely. Out of sheer desperation and exhaustion, the Zipadee-Zip was born. The first Zipadee-Zip(R) Stephanie put together on her little sewing machine worked like magic!
To date tens of thousands of Zipadee-Zips have been sold and all from word-of-mouth marketing. It is so rewarding for the Parkers to see other parents and babies getting the sleep they both need and deserve!
For more information, visit sleepingbaby.com.
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