It’s lovely when your baby begins to recognise you. At 2 months, your voice will probably be the sound they most recognise, and you’ll start to learn their likes and dislikes as their personality develops! You’ll probably notice at this stage that your baby stays awake for longer too – some 2 month old babies are awake for ten hours a day!

Feeding your baby

It’s important to keep up the night feeds, especially in the early weeks, as they are essential for your baby’s nutritional requirements and for maintaining your milk supply.

At this stage feeding problems are also common amongst babies, for example, colic occurs in 1 in 4 young babies. It is comforting to know that colicky babies do not have any lasting problems once the colic stops, but it can be very hard to listen to the long periods of crying every day.

Your baby’s nutritional needs are changing as they grow so they will probably be feeding for longer now but might be taking less feeds per day. You should still be guided by your baby but by now a feeding pattern may be starting to show.

Your baby’s development

Your baby knows who you are

Your baby is by now very comforted by your embrace and may well cry when picked up by someone unfamiliar. They’ll move their arms when they’re stimulated or excited, and can comfort themselves by sucking their fingers or thumb.

Your baby’s learning to lift their head

Your 2 month old baby’s body is continuing to straighten out. Soon they’ll be able to lift their head and hold it for a few moments while they’re lying flat on their tummy.

Communicating

Although your 2 month old baby won’t be able to talk using words for about a year, they’re already learning how to communicate. Your voice is probably their favourite sound. When your baby hears it they’ll instinctively respond by making a sound in reply.

It may appear that your baby is passive — eating, sleeping, and waiting for you to do things for her. But it's closer to the truth to say your baby is a little initiator:

• She's always seeking ways to adapt to the world. (For example, sleeping is one way she learns to organize her life: When she's tired, she turns off the environment, conserving energy to grow.)
• She's always giving you signals. By watching her closely, you'll learn how much or how little stimulation she can handle, and when she's ready for talking, feeding, singing, or playing. For instance, “I'm happy and ready to play” signals include open eyes, relaxed arms and legs, and maybe even a tight, playful grip around your finger.
• If she's played with, talked to, or fed too much, she may grimace, turn and look away, clench her fists, and wriggle or spit up. These messages say, “Slow down, please. I need more peace and quiet.”

Discovering their hands

As their instinctive grasp reflex lessens, your baby will become fascinated with their newly discovered hands, and will use them (as well as their mouth) to explore new and different objects.

2 month old sleep patterns

Fortunately, by the time your baby is 6 to 12 weeks old, she'll probably be sleeping for longer stretches of the night. If she's not, you may have to help her learn to fall back to sleep on her own. Here are a few tricks you can try:

• Put her in her crib, instead of rocking or holding her.
• Wait until she's groggy, but still awake; then lay her in her crib, say "good night," turn off the light, and leave the room.
• If she cries, wait a few minutes before returning.
• If she continues to cry, go back in the room (leaving the light off), rub her, and talk to her in a soothing voice. When she quiets down, say "good night" and leave the room again.
• If she begins to cry again, repeat this pattern until she falls