This week you may be working on getting back to your pre pregnancy weight by exercising and eating right, but do your best not to diet heavily because it can affect your breastmilk production. Your baby is loving the sights and sounds, and is starting to show you what he likes by smiling, cooing, and kicking his legs.
If you were cleared for normal activity at your 6-week postpartum check-up, you are probably starting to see a glimmer of hope for that pre-pregnancy body. While your body has undoubtedly gone through some major changes, you can really start to see some progress a few months post-delivery. Try your best to be active during your downtime (heh). Whether you got back to the gym at 6 weeks, or you're more of a "daily walk and weekly yoga" kind of mama, just do your best to get that body stretching, strengthening, and sweating. The endorphins from exercise will help your mental health, and will, of course, help you to feel better, giving you more energy to keep up with babe. A lot of mamas find that when they start exercising heavily, their milk production starts to decline, so try your best not to strictly diet or limit your calories if you plan on nursing your baby. Keep your calories up, but make sure you're loading up on green veggies, seasonal fruits and meats high in iron. If you need to, you can make yourself daily smoothies packed with flax and oatmeal, or take a fenugreek supplement to make sure the girls don't dry up.
This week, your little one will seem very interested in sights and sounds. Her hearing has been developed for a while, but she's just starting to realize that there are differences in volume and which objects make certain noises. If she hasn't already had access to little toys like rattles, this is a great time to give her some. Watch her eyes light up when she realizes she's making noises with her toys.
Your baby may also have music preferences, too! You'll be able to tell when he's digging your tunes when he kicks his legs and waves his arms. When a song is a little more mellow, he will probably calm down too. If your baby previously had the smile thing down, you may be able to make him giggle by doing silly things like: sticking out your tongue or playing peek-a-boo! By this time babe's vision/depth perception isn't fully developed so when you hide behind your hands, your babe will go nuts when you reappear! You'll love watching his little minds work and their little belly laughs.
Make sure to read to your little babe everyday. Whether you already have a library stocked with books for your babe, or you have a book that you're currently reading, it will help babe with listening, memory and language down the road!
