WONDER WEEKS:HOW TO STIMULATE YOUR: How to Stimulate Your Baby's Mental Development and Help Him Turn His 10 Predictable, Great, Fussy Phases into Magical Leaps Forward

Would you buy this again if lost? YESWould you recommend to a friends? YES!WARNING!First of all I have to warn you that the title may be a bit misleading. This book is less about ways of stimulating development as it is about offering explanation for your babies fussy periods. I certainly found the key elements of this book to be in the EXPLANATION of my babies fussy periods. I was relieved to find out that it's perfectly normal for babies to 'regress' in their maturity and not something I did wrong in my parenting. You will find out why your baby goes through these phases.BASIC SUMMARY OF THE MAIN IDEAS BEHIND THE BOOK:In the first 12 weeks of gestation all embryos develop at exactly the same rates. (Hence the 12 weeks antenatal scan to predict due date) After that differences start to occur, but up to about 18 month old babies are still remarkably predictable as this book will show you. Learning does not occur in a linear fashion, but in leaps and bounds. The same occurs with your babies brain. When your baby goes through a cognitive 'leap' he tends to display more fussy behaviour, worse sleep or eating etc. This is because he finds his new rapidly increasing awareness of the world around him a little unnerving. That is why he wants more mummy to comfort him since he is out of his comfort zone! There is not really anything you can do to prevent these fussy periods since it is a normal part of development and a positive thing. However, with increased awareness of what is going on for your baby you can be more sensitive and supportive of your babies needs at that time. You can also encourage your babies new skills by providing appropriate stimulation through games and play.THE CHAPTERS:a) There is one chapter per leap. Each leap happens every few weeks or so.b) Each chapter follows the same format. You will get used to using this book as a friend to lean on and rely on each time your baby becomes more fussy and clingy. Just flip to the relevant chapter.c) Each chapter has many many quotes from other parents so you are able to see what other parents experienced at this stage of your childs development. There is a table of relevant games that your child will be able to start learning. There is a section on signs to look out for that signal your babies fussy periods. A section on how you may be feeling. A section on what you can expect of your baby after the leap. A section that explains how your baby is seeing the world and the changes he is going through. A table that lists the new skills your baby is developing.d) At the end of each chapter there is a page where you can stick a photo and write some notes on the fussy phase your child has just been through. ( I am hoping to follow through this book with any more children I have and am making room for more pictures! )CONCLUSIONI felt very relieved after reading just one chapter of this book. I pay a great deal of attention to my child and when his behaviour changes I want to know why and I worry! Thus this book was like an old grandmother full of wisdom for me, offering me a bucket full of reassurance.Even if your not that bothered about the explanation behind your babies behaviour, your will find this book useful in other ways. Each chapter also contains useful tables on the relevant games for your baby as well as new skills he will be developing. (These skills are not necessarily 'milestones' , but cognitive changes your baby experiences also. )The book is remarkably acurate at predicting these 'fussy periods' I was utterly amazed, and you will be to!

Bought this a bit further down the line (when our little one was coming up 6 months), but have still found it a very helpful read. As a new parent, not being entirely sure what your baby needs, or why they're acting up, can certainly be challenging and undermine your confidence. This book gives you a better understanding of how the world is changing for your baby with each leap (and how that's a confusing and scary process at times!), and I think that it's helped me to be more patient when our little one is fussy and easily upset. I also like how they list the range of skills that your little one could be demonstrating with each leap, but emphasises that each baby is an individual and will likely focus on a particular skill set, and doing your best as a parent to tune into that. When you're a first-time parent, you can become concerned when other babies are doing things that yours isn't; however, understanding that they're focusing their energies into certain skills, whilst yours is probably concentrating on others, can give you peace and allow you to enjoy the progress of other children and celebrate them with their families, as well as delighting in your own child's achievements.I do enjoy the easy access of the Kindle edition, but I guess I miss the ease of a hard copy, where I could just scribble down which skills our baby has shown - it just feels a bit more personal that way. It can also be a bit of a faff swiping back and forth trying to find that bit you read somewhere, which would be really helpful right now - but that could easily be down to me not being entirely au fait with how to use certain features on the device. It certainly doesn't detract from the usefulness of the book!

I cannot say what a life saver this book has been throughout the 14 months of parenthood I've so far had. I found it was really hard in the first few weeks, and then my husband suggested I pick up the wonder weeks book to look in that to see if any of the behaviour my baby was exhibiting was stipulated in there. I did nearly throw the book at him when he suggested that (when do you have time to read in the first few weeks of a newborn???!!) however, when I did finally pick it up, I was so glad I did. It reaffirmed his behaviour and helped me to understand it. I've recommended this book to countless pregnant women, or women with new babies since. I know you can also download an app, which may help and be more accessible to read during the 2am night-time feed perhaps? I should add that I had postnatal depression too; and this really helped me. Obviously it didn't directly combat the depression, but it helped me understand why my boy was being fussy; why he was clingy, and gave me a relative time frame for how long it would last; this helped me see the light at the end of the tunnel. Suddenly it was no longer a never ending thing; there was an end in sight; and actually I could rationalise it much better. I could understand as best I could what he was going through and how distressing it must have been for him. It also helped me to look out for the things that changed after the developmental leaps; it gave me ideas of games to play with him etc... I really do recommend this book over any other for any parent to be, or new parent.