At eight months old, your baby is starting to make some amazingly cute noises throughout the day. She’s busy discovering her vocal chords and experimenting with the sounds she can make. She’s also busy working out to build her strength ready for the mobility she’s working so hard to achieve. Your baby is busy developing a personality and is probably quite fun to be around these days. Here are some of the 8 month milestones your baby might reach this month:

Splat

Your baby has been working on her hand control and dexterity this month and, unfortunately for you, she’s likely to discover the endless fun of dropping things. You should expect to spend most of this month bent double picking things up from the floor. The good news is, your baby is not only learning to improve her hand control, she’s also figuring out a little bit more about object permanence. If she starts playing this game with her dinner, try not to get too frustrated. It’ll be a short phase and she’ll soon figure out that dropped food doesn’t make it’s way back to her plate. To protect your floors, put down some wipe clean mats before each meal.

On the move

Your eight month old is probably desperate to be on the move. She’s been working hard at developing her strength and is busy plotting her escape routes. Your baby may already be crawling but if she’s not, don’t worry. Your baby will master these skills in her own time. At around this time, your baby may start using her upper body strength to pull herself up whilst holding onto bits of furniture. She’s probably not ready for cruising just yet, but she’s thinking about it.

Coordinated attack

Your baby’s hand-eye coordination is constantly improving and you can help her to develop this skill further by offering her finger foods to eat at mealtimes. Small foods like peas or beans may be a challenge at first, but your baby will soon master the pincer grip necessary for eating smaller foods.

Hold me

Your baby may develop separation anxiety at around this time. Thanks to her newfound understanding of object permanence, she now knows you exist even when you’re not in front of her. You may notice she’s clingier than usual and cries when you leave the room. It can be frustrating, but it won’t last forever (even if it feels like it will). Remember, this too shall pass.

Eight months is a pretty cute age. What’s your favorite thing about eight month olds?

Written by Fiona (@Fiona_Peacock), mother, writer and lover of all things baby related.

This information is not intended to replace the advice of a trained medical doctor. Health & Parenting Ltd disclaims any liability for the decisions you make based on this information, which is provided to you on a general information basis only and not as a substitute for personalized medical advice. All contents copyright © Health & Parenting Ltd 2016. All rights reserved.

Inevitably at your baby shower, someone probably gave you a baby book. And as you flipped through the pages, you oohed and awed and promised not to miss a thing. You would be committed to documenting baby’s milestones, the doctor’s appointments, and everything in between.

Unfortunately, if you’re like a lot of new moms with the best of intentions, you may have recently stumbled across that baby album for the first time since that fateful shower—realizing only now that you haven’t documented a thing. No remembrance of any of baby’s milestones to be found.

Don’t fret! There is still totally hope!

First of all, if the baby album just feels too overwhelming to you (there are SO many questions to answer, and you can start to feel a bit bad if you don’t remember all the answers)—toss it. You don’t need a baby album to document your baby’s milestones. Some people like them, because they are already organized and they can guide you through what to memorialize, but you are by no means locked into that book.

A very simple alternative can be to pick up a blank notebook—one you use to write in every night (or every week) before bed as you document your baby’s journey from this point forward.

Another idea is to begin a photo album. Even if you haven’t done anything with your baby’s photos up to this point, you likely still have them (maybe they’re even still on your camera) and you can easily upload them to any online printing company and either have them turn it into a book for you, or take the time to organize those photos yourself and add text memorializing the milestones you remember.

The good news is, most of the biggest milestones are still yet to come! You can keep that notebook (or baby album) handy now so that you are ready and waiting to write down your baby’s first words, the date of his or her first steps, and even funny sentences and phrases that your little one may utter in years to come.

Pssst… We’ve got one great piece of advice for you: our baby app allows you to document these things on your phone, thus, you have plenty of options to document your baby’s milestones. It’s all just about finding what works best for you!

Written by Leah Campbell, infertility advocate, adoptive mama, writer and editor. Find me @sifinalaska on Twitter.

This information is not intended to replace the advice of a trained medical doctor. Health & Parenting Ltd disclaims any liability for the decisions you make based on this information, which is provided to you on a general informational basis only and not as a substitute for personalized medical advice. All contents copyright Health & Parenting Ltd 2016. All rights reserved.

One of the most exciting things about new parenthood is watching your baby grow and change. Seeing those daily developments, and being able to witness your baby’s ever-growing skillset can produce so many celebratory firsts at this age. And you are enjoying every second of it; even as you mourn just how fast it is all going by.

But a lot of the times, parents also wonder how their baby’s development stacks up against other little ones. It’s easy to do. You have friends with babies around the same age, or you spend some time observing the other little ones at your child’s daycare, and you start to notice that there are some differences in skills—likely some areas where your baby seems to be ahead, and others where he or she may seem to not have caught up just yet.

This comparing can leave you wondering where your baby should be, but one thing to keep in mind at this age is that many of the standard milestones have a pretty wide range for “normal,” and even if your baby seems to fall at the end of that range, there is likely nothing at all to worry about.

Still, what milestones should you expect to see in the coming months?

Well for starters, by 4 months old, your baby should have come near to doubling his or her birth weight. If that weight gain hasn’t occurred just yet, your pediatrician is probably monitoring the situation and working with you to ensure your little one is getting the nutrition he or she needs.

You’ve also probably noticed that your baby is using his or her hands more often these days, picking up and moving toys, shaking rattles, and grabbing at just about anything within reach—including your hair! Around this age, babies put plenty of those items straight into their mouths, so it’s important to keep anything too small or dangerous out of reach.

By this 4^th month, your baby should have good head control when being held and when doing tummy time. He or she should also be kicking and pushing with their feet. And in the next few months, if it hasn’t happened yet, they will start rolling from tummy to back and back to tummy.

One of the best milestones around this age is sleep. Hopefully by now, your little one is sleeping for stretches of seven to eight hours at night. If you aren’t yet enjoying those restful periods, you should be soon. And your baby should be sleeping for 14 to 16 hours a day total, with their two daytime naps included.

Over the next few months, your baby will begin responding to his or her name, searching for and finding partially hidden objects, and sitting up with support, and eventually on his or her own!

If you ever have any concerns about where your baby is on milestone development, you can always consult with your pediatrician. But don’t get too caught up in comparing your baby to others around the same age. These milestones will all come fast and furious before you know it!

Written by Leah Campbell, infertility advocate, adoptive mama, writer and editor. Find me @sifinalaska on Twitter.

This information is not intended to replace the advice of a trained medical doctor. Health & Parenting Ltd disclaims any liability for the decisions you make based on this information, which is provided to you on a general informational basis only and not as a substitute for personalized medical advice. All contents copyright Health & Parenting Ltd 2016. All rights reserved.