The Visual Baby Milestone App

0-3 months

The first 3 months are an amazing time, with lots of cuddles, eating and sleeping (for your baby) as you try and find a new rhythm as parents. Here are some important milestones you can expect.

• Lift and control their head
• Turns head to light
• Begins to make ‘baby noises’ like ‘ah’ and ‘oh’
• Identifies black and white patterns
• Their first smile
• Recognises your voice
• Bear some weight on their legs
• Do a mini push up
• Bring their hands together in a clap

4-6 months

Now your baby’s personality might start to show, with some funny noises and a lot of reactive play, grabbing and gumming. This is what you can expect.

• Coos when spoken to
• Grab toys
• Cut first tooth
• Roll from tummy onto back
• Grabbing their feet
• Roll from back to tummy
• Blows bubbles
• First solid food
• Imitate some sounds like ‘dada’ and ‘mama’
• Start crawling
• Sit up with no support

7 months

In month 7 your baby’s eyesight and motor skills really develop, meaning they can begin playing, exploring and learning. These are some milestones you might identify.

• When on back they try to lift head and shoulders
• Jabber with some joined syllables (‘ahh’, ‘ehh’, ‘ohh’)
• Recognise their name
• Reach for toys to bring them closer
• Wave arms and legs as they recognise someone
• Self feeding of finger foods
• Drinking water from a free-flow cup (not a bottle!)
• Laughs when tickled (don’t overdo it, as they cannot move away)
• Shout for attention (instead of crying)

8 months

Messy mealtimes, lots of baby noises – welcome to 8 months. Here’s what you can expect.

• Sleep all the way through the night (if you’re a lucky parent!)
• Can pick up small objects with fingers and thumb
• Hold their own drinking cup
• Unclasp a toy and give it to you
• More repetitive syllables gurgled (‘da’, ‘ta’, ‘pa’, ‘ka’)
• Recognise the names ‘Mummy’ and ‘Daddy’

9 months

At 9 months your baby will start to ‘own’ their actions a little more, wanting to use spoons for feeding, actively trying to move and using pointing to get what they want.

• Feeds themselves with a spoon (it will be messy)
• Can pull to standing from sitting
• Understands cause and effect actions
• Can point to things they want
• Moving along the floor, either by rolling, wriggling in their tummy or crawling.
• Active movement (crawling or bum shuffling)
• Responds to their name

10 months

You will be amazed at how fast they are developing, with sideways standing shuffling and maybe even their first toothy grin!

• Stand up in their cot
• Drink from an open cup
• First front tooth
• Walking whilst holding onto furniture
• Crawling forward (surprisingly fast!)
• Shake and nod their head
• Respond to simple questions with a point
• Use both hands independently (e.g. can pick up 2 bricks and bang them together)
• Will drop objects at will

11 months

Your little one might be trying lots of new food textures now (they won’t like them all but persevere), and will be exploring everywhere (in one of 3 modes; crawling, bum or vertical shuffling). Here are some new development milestones you might notice.

• Throwing things (they are strong enough, and it’s far more interesting that just dropping stuff)
• Hair pulling (watch out!)
• Walking with a walker (if they are an early walker)
• Pretend talking (constant babbling called ‘jargoning’)
• Understand simple jokes with laughter and giggling
• Resist and assert their independence

12 months

By twelve months those early months seem so far away, your little one seems less baby like and more toddler like every day! Their hand-eye motor skills are really developing, as they can probably grab objects without looking at them directly and you might have noticed they can carry 3 things at once!

• 100% mobile (crawling, creeping, cruising, shuffling or rolling)
• They understand lots of everyday items (pretend to talk on telephone, brushes hair)
• Can understand simple instructions

Obviously it doesn’t stop here – it’s only the beginning. But these are some of the main baby development milestones you can expect to see in the first 12 months of life. It’s an amazing time, and one that moves so fast. Don’t forget to snap away, taking lots of photos and videos and adding them to your Lifecake app as you go. You can then easily share all these precious memories with your close family and bring them along for the adventure too.