Episode 54: What to do with Your Baby in their first few months

Providing the proper skills to your newborn, baby, or toddler, might seem like a HUGE task and super daunting. In this episode, Jodi speaks with Sharon Mazel who is a pregnancy and parenting expert, NYT bestselling author, parenting coach, speaker, and Instagram influencer. In this episode, Sharon shares her expertise on tummy time, how to follow your baby’s cues, and how to foster the development of your young child’s motor and language skills.About Our Guest:Sharon co-authored the bestselling book What to Expect When You're Expecting (4th and 5th editions), along with these other books in the popular What to Expect pregnancy and parenting book series:What To Expect Before You’re Expecting (1st and 2nd eds)What To Expect The First Year (2nd and 3rd eds)What To Expect The Second Year (1st ed)What To Expect The Toddler Years (2nd ed)What To Expect: Eating Well When You’re Expecting (1st ed)What To Expect Pregnancy Journal and OrganizerWhat To Expect Babysitter's HandbookWhat To Expect Guide to ImmunizationsWhat To Expect Guide to a Healthy HomeShe was also integral to the content creation and launching of the award-winning website, WhatToExpect.com, where she spent more than a decade writing and editing.Sharon speaks widely on pregnancy, parenting, and health & wellness topics — plus she's a pregnancy and parenting coach, working with families online and in person, answering questions, giving tips, and coming up with strategies and individualized plans to help expectant and new parents be the best possible parents.Show Notes:3:40 - Strengthening and Enhancing your child’s Small Motor Skills "Get a play gym for your baby ... it's a matter of them, first of all, gaining that hand-eye- coordination and learning "7:25 - Attention span and a proper time frame of play"I remember hearing this from some experts, and I was like how interesting, but some young babies when you're playing with them and then they start to hiccup, that's often a sign that they're not interested in playing anymore and their attention span is like gone "10:40 - Large Motor Development skills"The best thing that you can do for your baby is to let your baby have time on the floor uncontained. So this way your baby can learn, first of all, what it feels like to be on their back, on their tummy, on their side"14:25 - Tummy time"If you put your baby down, and I'm not talking about a one week old, but let's say it's a 6, or 8, or 12 month old, you put your baby down in tummy time, and within 30 seconds they start crying. I wouldn't rush to pick your baby up out of tummy time"19:30 - Language development"When your baby coos, coo back to your baby, your baby’s not saying a word but your baby is [saying] 'ah, ah', mimic those sounds and your baby will start to learn the art of conversation"21:30- Nonverbal communication"If we can show what happiness looks like to our baby, that's a great teaching tool"Connect with Sharon:Join the 150,000+ followers who interact with Sharon daily on Instagram, where she posts informative pregnancy and parenting content daily and hosts regular Q&A's.Check out her website hereCredits:Host - Jodi FriedGuest -  Sharon MazelEditor - Matt Feiler