Just filling out questionaire for DS2's 6 week check and have a few questions.

[Charleesawmummykissingsanta]

1. Does your baby smile at you?

He doesn't smile at anyone, but he smiles when he is asleep. does this count and should i be worried that he isn't smiling directly at us yet?

1. Do you think your baby can here you?

Im not sure TBH he doesn't turn to face me when i talk to him, but he does startle at very loud noises. He has only had 1 ear checked at birth whicch was fine they couldn't do the other one becuase he was screaming so im waiting for an appointment for the other. Should i be worried about the fact that he doesn't turn to face me when i talk to him?

Im not sure if im worrying unecissarly or not! He is 5 1/2 weeks btw.

1. try and tickle around his lips with your finger and see if he smile as we did that with my dd and eventually she learnt to smile

2. at long he does get startled by loud noises than i wouldnt worry about it as hes WAYYYYY far too young to know where the sounds is actually coming from...

but i wouldnt be worrying at all as its all seems to be fine. x

Thanks, im currently suffering badly from PND and am worrying about EVERYTHING!

oh dear....hope u do get well soon and yes its all normal to worry about things about a newborn as its natural

Trouble is when you are down you worry about everything as you say - I do anyway, sounds perfectly normal to me DD wasn't smiling much at 5 1/2 weeks and now smiles lot's, I would also say too young to start looking in direction of noise...remember a week is a long time developmental wise for babies, each week they do more and more (but only when you're not looking )

If he startles at loud noises he can hear I would not expect a 6 week baby to turn to the direction of the sound. Dd1 smiled at 4 weeks Dd2 at 6 weeks. You are worrying unneccasarily though these kind of questionaries seem designed to do that to you.

Know exactly what you mean about worrying about everything. Smiling can take ages to develop - I know that my DS only started at around 8 weeks, and that was only really in reaction to me smiling at him. He will now do it spontaneously (he's now 5 months old). Agree with the others about sound. Sometimes it can seem as if they don't really hear anything except loud noises. But it's taking ages for them to process each sound, emotion etc - as the weeks go by they really do learn so much and advance so quickly. You will be amazed - and reassured. I found the health visitors really helpful - and they didn't seem to mind being asked endless questions by me. I worried about everything - feeding, sleeping, waking, clothing, playing - you name it I've worried about it! Amazingly DS seems to be coming through it all without a care in the world. It's amazing what they teach you - and, of course, they've never done any of this stuff before either. Things that can help: health visitors, good food (for you), sleep (for you), baths (for you), talking to other people, websites like this, support from friends and relations. I found that from 6 weeks on it got easier (well I got more confident), before that I think I cried most days.