Totally baffled by Wonder Weeks

[Sleepybeanbump]

Every time I open this book I'm just

Aside from the endless anecdotes about parents wanting to hit/shake/scream at their baby ...the milestones just seem waaaaay out. I get that the checklists cover quite a range of time, but the quotes with actual weeks under them... You know 'Bob's mom, 18 weeks' etc...

Crawling at 21/22 weeks.
Reeeeaaaalllly?

Waving and following instructions at 31/32 weeks....
I know a LOT of babies and it just seems sooo way out to me. Like months out. Are American babies particularly advanced?!

Everyone I come accross raves about the app which I don't have but the book I just want to hurl across the room every time I open it!

There's virtually no peer reviewed science behind it. It's popular because it reassures parents that their baby's current period of fussiness, sleeplessness or general he'll raiding is a. Normal and b. Has a purpose.

I was a bit weirded out by the constant references to wanting to hurt the baby too. Mine has pushed me to the brink with lack of sleep but I've never wanted to shake or harm him (done plenty of going into another room and crying mind...)

It's not American - Dutch I think?

There's a really big range of normal with actions as well. My sil was walking at six and a half months. Ds only crawled at nine months. I could speak in sentences at one year. Etc etc. Huge differences at this early stage.

But yes, the book is pants

Some of the writing is a bit weird but the timings of the leaps seem to make sense to my babies grumpy periods anyway. But yes it is mostly to make parents feel better that their baby won't be a grump forever.

Also DS1 started crawling at 18 weeks so it is possible! he hasn't sat still since either

Couldn't believe how popular it was among women in my circle! The women quoted in it seemed to hate their babies. The activities suggested for each age group were way out and despite the disclaimer that they wouldn't get them all at once made me paranoid something was wrong because I wasn't 'stimulating' my child enough. They make it sound like you have to "capitalise" on your child's interests in order to advance their development. They're babies FFS!

I found the descriptions of the "leaps" they were mastering quite poorly described, too.

In the interests of balance: I had the app as well as the book and I found the "leap" predictor quite uncanny. Having said that it could easily work in the way astrology does as babies do tend to be clingy fairly often and the power of suggestion is appealing as it may give some comfort to think there's a design to it and an end in sight!

I suppose if it has popularised the idea that if your baby is crying a lot, it's because it's hard work being a baby and doing all that growing is tough on them, rather than that they are deliberately being a PITA, then that's a good thing. The hateful language used in describing how babies were behaving I found very alarming though.

This sounds like total bollocks.

I'm baffled that people know how many weeks old their baby is. I lost count after 12 and went to months. Also baffled by the whole idea just described and never want to read the book.

cornish I've been writing how many weeks my ds2 is on the calendar ever since I tried to cancel his 12 week jabs because I thought he was only 11 weeks - luckily the gp's receptionist actually knew how old my child was so it didnt get cancelled .

Wonder weeks hasn't matched up to any changes in my baby's behaviour or developmental leaps I can see.