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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

Bored baby 13wks - what to do with her

13 replies

leftangle · 05/08/2009 14:56

People have said looking after the baby gets easier but I'm finding it harder and harder to be at home with her. She seems bored but not old enough to play with me or on her own. Any suggestions for occupations. Carrying her in the sling and doing the housework works well but my back can't do more than about 1/2 hour of that.
I'm running out of excuses to go out and it's always raining.
Any ideas? Thanks

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Marne · 05/08/2009 14:59

Go for a walk in the rain (if you have a pushchair and rain cover baby will be fine).

reikizen · 05/08/2009 15:07

I honestly don't think it is possible for a 13 week old baby to be bored as you describe! I can understand that you are though! Mine used to love the baby gym, going to baby groups or friends and family with small children is great. Agree with the walk with the pram option, rain or shine baby can enjoy the view and you can get out and about. Tickling, singing, dancing? They honestly don't need much, dd2 was happy propped up and watching the world go by for ages!

MrsBadger · 05/08/2009 15:10

all the things you swore you never would

ring up the people from your antenatal class and have coffee mornings - 1 in 5 or whatever will be at your house so you a) don;t have to go out in the rain and b) are forced to tidy up

go to classes - anything, baby yoga, music, the free rhyme time at the library, any old shite. Go to toddler groups at all the local churches. Have you a Children's Centre or a Sure Start centre? Get their timetable and go to anything that sounds interesting.

this sounds dumb but worked for us for ages: set the kitchen timer for the time of day you run out of ideas and when it goes off do a specific activity (any specific activity).
We used to have 'it's 4 o'clock... iiiiiiiiiit's Music Time!' where I'd put on a loud CD (Girls Aloud or The Killers went down well) and dance round the living room. DD thought it was hilarious and it got us through an awkward bit of the afternoon.

purepurple · 05/08/2009 15:16

mine used to love watching the washing machine
DD loved her baby gym and DS used to like beig out in the garden in his pram or just sitting in his chair watching everything

rubyslippers · 05/08/2009 15:20

play mat with lots of attachments

let her look at herself in a mirror (make sure it can't topple)

sit her in a bouncy chair whilst you get on with whatever it is you need to

have a splashy bath with her

walk in the park - let her look at the trees/sky etc

janinlondon · 05/08/2009 15:22

I do believe babies get bored. I found that having a variety of places for her to sit/be propped up during the day partly solved it. ie. in her buggy, in a bouncy chair, in the car seat, in the bassinet, on her floor mat. Moving her regularly to change her outlook seemed to help enormously.

HuffySpice · 05/08/2009 15:23

Have you thought about letting her do a correspondance course?

greensnail · 05/08/2009 15:29

Go to lots of groups, I found baby music gave me a much bigger repertoire of songs for when we're at home.

Find out what's on at your local children's centre.

Take her out shopping (lots for her to look at in shops!)

Take her out in the garden/park - my DD loves trees!

Meet up with other people you know with babies.

Go swimming?

MrsBadger · 05/08/2009 16:39

oh oh

treasure basket

this is another good one to set the kitchen pinger for

Original poster

leftangle · 05/08/2009 17:05

Thanks - some good idras here.She used to love her baby gym but now won't stay there long without shouting for attention. Music group I was really looking forward to is shut for the summer.
I'm sure she is fussing from boredom sometimes - she cheers up when I move her or do something different but it doesn't last. NCT coffee tomorrow = will issue lots of invites to my house.
Is she big enough for a treasure basket?

OP posts:

MrsBadger · 05/08/2009 18:39

well if not an actual treasue basket then sensorally interesting non-toy items - wooden spoons, lemons etc

JJ1471 · 05/08/2009 20:14

I remember finding it very difficult to entertain my easily bored baby at that age (I still do at 6 months!). He has never been happy to just sit back and watch what I was up to for longer than a couple of minutes unfortunately and then he screams with boredom and frustration.

At that age would lie for a little while on his playmat looking at himself in the mirror or looking at one of those black and white books with patterns in, sometimes I'd 'read' them to him or else he'd just look at the pictures. He would cry out and I'd go and turn the page.

One of those wind up television things that plays music entertained him too for a little while. We had a CD of children's songs which he still likes to listen to, we all know it by heart now. He would lie on his mat and I'd dance around the room for him.

We also have an electronic nursery rhyme book, and I spent a lot of time flipping the covers of that so it played over and over, he would sing along to it. We read real books as well and I would recite poetry to him! When he was a bit bigger we discovered videos to children's songs on youtube which he enjoys!

Even when I met up with other people, he would still get bored if we were sitting still, he would sleep if we were walking. We went on lots and lots of long walks!

geordieminx · 05/08/2009 20:23

channel 623 on sky - baby tv

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