Nearly laughing
Squeals, big gummy grins and almost-giggles: your baby is becoming genuinely fun. A pre-three-month growth spurt may stir things up, and the 12-week vaccinations are next week (UK).
Personality, incoming
Expect more vocal experiments — squeals, growls, expressive coos — and delighted whole-body responses when you appear. Real laughs often arrive somewhere around three to four months, and yours may be rehearsing.
Your baby may now hold their head quite steadily upright and push up firmly in tummy time. Some start attempting a roll from tummy to back — usually by accident, to their own visible astonishment.
Preferences are showing: a favourite song, a preferred hold, strong opinions on the car seat. This is personality, arriving on schedule.
The pre-12-week stir-up
Another growth spurt commonly lands around three months, and some babies start early — a hungrier, clingier, wakeful few days at eleven weeks is nothing unusual.
Sleep can wobble at the same time: a baby who'd found a longer night stretch may briefly unfind it. Growth, appetite and development surges all tangle together around now; ride it rather than diagnosing it.
The steady trend underneath is real, though: crying well down from the peak, and daily life more predictable than a month ago.
Getting ready for the 12-week jabs (UK)
Next week brings the second round: 6-in-1, MenB and rotavirus doses two. You know the drill now — book a calm slot, plan the paracetamol for after the MenB dose, and expect an off-colour day.
Second doses matter as much as first ones — protection against whooping cough and meningitis B in particular builds with the series, at the age babies are most vulnerable.
In the US, the equivalent second round comes at the 4-month well-visit; nothing is due at 12 weeks, but it's a fine moment to check you're booked in.
And you
If a return to work is on your horizon — soon for many US parents, later for most UK ones — the thinking-about-it feelings can be heavy: relief, guilt, dread, sometimes all at once. All normal, none a verdict on your parenting.
Whatever your feeding method, don't let anyone (including yourself) audit it against week-one intentions. The plan that survived contact with an actual baby is the right plan.
Look back deliberately this week: the parent handling week eleven would barely recognise the shell-shocked person from week two. That progress was you.
Feeding at this stage
Pick how you're feeding — we'll remember for next time. Every one of these is a good way to feed a baby.
Breastfeeding
- A spurt-driven feeding frenzy at 10–12 weeks makes many parents suspect their supply has failed — it hasn't; a few days of extra feeding recalibrates it, as before.
- Because regulated breasts feel soft, the three-month spurt is the classic moment families stop breastfeeding unintentionally — if you want to continue, feed through it and trust the nappies.
- Feeding a distractible, grinning baby is a new skill — boring rooms, feeding first before play, and accepting shorter feeds all help.
Breast + expressed
- Add a pumping session during spurt days to match the demand signal a baby at the breast would send.
- If output has plateaued and you need more, tweak one variable at a time — an extra morning session usually beats longer sessions everywhere.
- A fed-by-others bottle routine pays off around now if you're preparing for work or shared care — keep it regular.
Breast + formula
- During the spurt, decide consciously whether extra hunger gets extra breastfeeds, extra formula, or both — any of the three works; the choice just shapes where your supply settles.
- If you're happy with your current balance, offer the breast first during spurt days so the extra demand doesn't quietly shift your ratio.
- Combination feeding into months three and beyond is common and sustainable — supply can hold at a part-time level for as long as you keep those feeds regular.
Formula
- Expect appetite to step up around the three-month spurt — bigger bottles or an extra feed for a few days, guided as ever by your baby.
- Don't move to 'hungry baby' or follow-on milks for spurt hunger — first infant formula remains the recommended milk all year; just offer more of it.
- If night waking returns with the spurt, a calm feed and straight back to the cot keeps the wobble temporary.
Totally normal (even when it doesn't feel it)
- A sudden return to ravenous feeding and night waking — the ~3-month growth spurt often previews itself around now.
- Almost-laughs that dissolve into hiccups — real giggles commonly arrive around 3 to 4 months.
- An accidental roll off the play mat's centre — normal progress; it just means never leaving baby on raised surfaces, which was already the rule.
- Hands permanently in mouth with waterfall drool — still hand-discovery and salivary glands, still (probably) not teething.
- A previously settled evening turning fussy again for a few days — development surges temporarily scramble the settings.
- Refusing the bottle this week after taking it fine before (or vice versa) — preferences flicker at this age; calm persistence usually wins.
- Feeling ambivalent about work, weaning, or the future — every option involving a baby involves trade-offs; ambivalence is just accuracy.
Worth checking
You know your baby best — if any of these ring true, or something just feels off, it's always OK to ask.
- Fever of 38°C (100.4°F) or above — your baby is still under 3 months, so this is still an automatic same-day call: GP or NHS 111 (UK); in the US, your pediatrician.
- A baby who has become less responsive over days — smiling less, vocalising less, harder to engage — call your GP or health visitor; in the US, your pediatrician.
- Losing skills they had (stopped smiling, stopped cooing, stopped tracking) — book the GP promptly; in the US, your pediatrician.
- Head strongly preferring one side always, or a visibly flattening or tilted head — raise with your health visitor or GP (early treatment for tightness is simple); in the US, your pediatrician.
- Persistent vomiting, refusal of several feeds, or a dropping nappy count during the spurt — call your GP or 111; in the US, your pediatrician.
- Any seizure, breathing colour change, floppiness or unresponsiveness — call 999 (UK) or 911 (US).
- Feeling worse rather than better as the weeks pass — postnatal depression and anxiety can begin at any point in the first year; call your GP or health visitor this week. In the US, your OB, pediatrician, or the 988 line.