Activities for Mommy and Baby

Jen Houck:  Hi there fellow parents of babies this is Jennifer Houck coming from www.ilovebeingamom.com I wanted to start a series with you about baby activities with the different age groups.  This week I wanted to talk about what activities you can do with your baby zero to three months.  When your baby is first born, their eyesight is not fully capable of seeing colors so what babies like is anything like black and white, if it’s checkered, a pattern, as long as it’s black and white. 

With my babies, I always printed out a black and white design from the internet and I would usually frame it or put it in something where they couldn’t tear it up.  Or even you could buy a black and white pattern at the store but you know most moms we do our stuff homemade, or at least I did.  I would put the baby on my lap facing me and I would hold that paper and let their eyes go side to side with it and they would just cackle at that and smile.  You could just see that it really kept their attention and what I have read is that the black and white just really starts working their brain. 

And also with babies at this age, I loved using the boppy pillow, I’m not sure if you all are familiar with the boppy pillow but it’s like a U shaped pillow and you could put the baby in the middle of the U shape.  I had a black and white bar that went over the bobby pillow and at this age they can’t really play with the toys but they can sit there and watch, you can push the toys back and forth but the black and white bars is what always got their attention for the first three months.  Anything pattern like black and white really helps them to start focusing more and you get the interaction with the baby and the parent because they are seeing your face and that’s what they are going to start growing with because they will recognize your face with your voice eventually as the months keep going on further and further. 

Also, with the babies say one to two months, I would start putting them on the bed on their bellies on the boppy pillow.  Since the boppy pillow is raised at a certain level then their chest is not completely on the floor, they are not flat on the floor,  they are up like a little bit.  You can do your voice side to side so they can start following you and they can start gaining neck strength so they can start playing with their toys and looking up at their toys.  Also with the boppy pillow, if you are nursing, I always would use the boppy pillow to nurse, even if you bottle fed you can put the boppy pillow around your waste and put the baby on the pillow and feed them their bottles. 

Boppy pillows I just 100% recommend them because you can use them for so many activities and my girls, one of my little girls is not 10 months old now and she just loves to sit on it.  It’s just like her own idea.  I hope this gave you some helpful hints on what to do with your baby age zero to three months.  Listen next week for the age group of four to six months.  Thank you and have a good day.