How to survive leap 1

I was introduced to the Wonder Weeks when Caroline was a few weeks old. I was immediately intrigued and got the app on my phone.

The app asks for your baby’s due date to calculate predictions on when they will enter what it calls leaps, or “fussy phases”.

“From our research, we are now able to predict, almost to the week, when parents can expect their babies to go through one of these ‘fussy phases’.”

The Wonder Weeks (van de Rijt and Plooij), page 2

I decided to track our daughter’s phases based on her due date, as well as her birth date, just out of curiosity.

As it turned out, Caroline reached her leaps almost perfectly to the predicted start day…based on her birth date, not due date.

As a result, I tracked her developmental leaps based on her birth date moving forward.

The book is absolutely fascinating. I wrote a review about the book at this post if you are interested to read more before purchasing a copy.

The app has valuable information and is useful for tracking purposes, but the book has a plethora of information on the skills learned in each leap, and signs to watch for etc.

It even has checklists of abilities that your baby is likely to start showing during each wonder week.

We really enjoyed reading about these leaps, and have decided to follow along with William’s wonder weeks as well.

I, again, tracked both his due date and his birth date in the app to see which he’d line up with. He hit wonder week 5 (leap 1) perfectly- based on his birth date.

If I’d followed his due date instead, it was saying he had over a month before reaching it. It was clear immediately that this wouldn’t be the case.

He’s just finished up the first leap, and he exhibited many of the skills noted in the book.

You can find all of our wonder week reports on this leaps and milestones page.

The First Wonder Week

Wonder Week 5 is actually the first wonder week. Wonder weeks are labeled by the week that they are anticipated to happen during your baby’s life.

“At about 5 weeks, and sometimes as early as 4, your baby will begin to take the first leap forward in his development. New sensations bombard your baby inside and out, and he is usually bewildered by them.”

The Wonder Weeks (van de Rijt and Plooij), page 38

William entered this leap right on time!

Wonder Weeks Chart

Page 47 in the Wonder Weeks book, shows the first checklist of interests and physical changes that may occur during wonder week 5.

For more detailed information, check out the book! Here is our experience with each of the skills:

“No two babies are exactly the same. Each baby has his own preferences, temperament, and physical characteristics, and these will lead him to select things in this new world that he, personally, finds interesting. Where one baby will quickly sample everything, another will be captivated by one special skill.”

The Wonder Weeks (van de Rijt and Plooij), page 16

In other words… your baby may check off everything that is listed on this checklist, or find a few special skills to focus on.

Interests:

I’ve created two invaluable resources for you based on my personal experiences with my babies and in helping countless other parents.

1. I wrote a book about all of my tips and tricks when it comes to baby schedules, sleep and more. I wrote this book with new parents in mind, so it’s an EASY read and it’s realistic and something you can start implementing immediately.
2. I created schedule tracking sheets for your baby’s first full year.

Where can you get your copy of these resources?