Entertaining 14 week old baby

[Threetrees745]

I have a 14 week old baby and she is an absolute delight, a really happy, active and alert baby. The problem is that she's not a fan of day time sleep or lying down in her pram. I think she's too nosey and wants to see what's going on! However, my husband works away for weeks at a time so I'm on my own with her 24/7 and I'm running out of ideas to entertain her.

We go to two baby sensory classes a week, I read to her, she has a bouncer, a play mat with toys that she can grab etc. Apart from sticking the dancing fruit on the telly so I can pee without her crying, I'm running out of ideas.

She likes me to be in view otherwise she gets upset and she's still not massively there with keeping things in her hand once she has grabbed them so struggles with independent play on her mat while I have a cup of tea etc.

What else can I do at this stage? Any tips?

It sounds like you do loads of great stuff with her! It can definitely be hard to keep them entertained. My boy likes his foil blanket and also just me dancing/singing at him to terrible dance music for some reason! Do you play any musical instruments? OH plays guitar to our son while we sing nursery rhymes as well and he loves it. Those sensory black and white cards go down well too.

I think at this age just any sort of interaction is great - even if it’s narrating what you’re doing while you’re washing up or putting the laundry out.

Good luck!

I think just going out the house is fine. It doesn't need to be a baby activity.

Can you afford a child minder or nursery a couple of mornings? That might wear her out if she is with other kids.

Baby gym was a game-changer for us at about that age. (We didn't really have any toys before that, just a mat and some cloth books and black and white flash cards for tummy time.

If you need to jobs, do them and let her watch just talk or sing with her.

Things which have helped with my DD(5month);
Bubbles
Disco light
Pom poms
Things you use in sensory classes, voil material, ribbon, shakers

Oh yes, I had two of those: alert, active, happy – until they're bored, or you expect them to do something completely unreasonable, like have a nap.

I had a lot more luck taking my extra-nosey one out in a semi-structured carrier so that she could see out. I used it a bit in the house as well.

A baby gym is good for this stage as they can grab the toys, but can't drop them.

I narrated what I was doing, sang, or chatted away about nothing in particular to them almost constantly. My first would watch me get on with things pretty happily from her bouncer for a bit as long as I was interacting. The second tolerated the bouncer, but preferred being higher up for a better view of the action – so carrier or someone's arms. Watching a load of washing go round can also work for a bit (colour, motion, white noise, what's not to like?), and let you get one with stuff in the kitchen.

Once she gets a bit better with her hands, you can give her all sorts of random, baby-safe household objects to explore.

Have you got a sling? My boy loved walking around with me in one. Also a baby gym activity station and a chair to watch you from

I can't exactly remember when my DS started to sit in a pushchair instead of lying in the pram but it got a bit easier then.

I walked about 300,000 miles with the pushchair when my son was tiny but old enough to sit up. He enjoyed looking out and seeing what was what.

I also found that I could order books from the library to be sent from anywhere in the county to my local library. So we often walked to the library and got my books, then walked home. He then slept on my lap while I read.

I know that's a bit of a cop out but I never could get him to sleep any other way.

Later, he liked to be handed kitchen utensils in his high chair.

It's so hard to remember this very early stage, but I think that sitting in the pushchair was a big part of life then. I think possibly I used to push the puchchair up to the piano so he could play too.

I think that before that, when he was just lying flat, we used the baby gym a lot.
Those days are kind of a blur tbh.

I think it's possible that that stage is easier if you can go to a place with older toddlers for the baby to look at. I think the older toddlers are probably very interesting. I didn't have one, but my friends did.

We had one of those rotating mobiles and my DH did once manage to get my DS to sleep in the cot by turning on the mobile above the baby and reading a book next to the cot for ages.

Also we had a baby monitor that played lullabys and they were amazing for getting him to sleep. If I'm honest I think they actually put me to sleep and once I was asleep, he also went to sleep. I'm not absolutely sure that I ever got DS to sleep without being asleep myself next to him.

Around that age I turned my DS to face outwards in the carrier and that made a huge difference - just a walk around the shops was a great activity! Some other great suggestions above, bubbles, tummy time in front of a mirror, singing/dancing in view all good.