Your Baby Development: 39 Weeks Old

How big is your baby?
This week your baby will be weighing around 20 pounds and measuring 281/2 inches if he/she was of average size at birth.

Your baby may be making sounds that have the tones of language, and some babies of this age are able to speak short words, such as "hi", "bye", "mama" or "dada". He/She may be able to imitate a few animal sounds as well.

Your baby will be willing to cooperate and learn about things, as long as he/she is interested in them already. You will notice that he/she can be stubborn when he/she is not interested in something. He/She may want to feed him/herself but not want to dress or undress him/herself. You may also notice that he/she may change his/her mind about what he/she enjoys tomorrow!

Even babies at this tender age can be emotional. your baby may object vehemently when you try and take a toy away from him

or her. He/She may cry copiously when you scold him/her or tel him.her "No!". But just as quickly he/she can change his/her mood if something distracts or amuses him/her.

Many parents become concerned that their baby is lagging behind other babies as far as development goes. Your baby may be focusing on one particular part of his/her learning skills, which may cause another development from progressing. However, this is not a permanent set back and as the other "lagging" development will catch up.

Baby Development Milestones This Week

Feeding Baby

Good Food Choices For Baby
Good food choices to offer your baby now include bananas and ripe apricots, well cooked veggies, such as carrots, yams, potatoes and peas. If you do offer meat, choose softer meats such as turkey and well cooked stew beef.

With all the new flavors and foods around your baby may be even less inclined to drink his her formula or breast milk, so it may be a good idea to introduce 1-2 tablespoons of protein food everyday to ensure that he/she is still getting all his/her nutritional requirements.

Citrus Juice
If your baby hasn't had any problems with the food which you have offered him/her already, then you may want to try citrus juice. Limit the total amount of juice and give him/her 4 ounces a day, and dilute the juice with as much water as juice. i.e. 2 ounces juice 2 ounces water.

Baby Care

Heat Stroke
In extremely hot conditions it is not uncommon for a person of any age to suffer from heat stroke, also called heat exhaustion. Symptoms include:

• Fever or height body temperature
• Hot dry skin
• Little or no urine
• Listlessness
• Irritability
• Poor feeding

It is best to try and avoid this situation if possible, so when it is hot you should make sure that baby gets plenty of fluids and keep him/her out of the sun. If you believe that your baby has heat stroke you must call your pediatrician immediately. Heat stroke can be very serious.

Toys and Play

Here is a good distraction game for a cranky baby. Instead of hiding objects, you look for objects. While holding your baby in your arms, walk through the house looking for familiar objects. Choose to look for objects which he/she may be familiar with, such as a book, a toy, blanket or whatever. This simple game may help distract him/her from being cranky.