What do you do to entertain baby?

summerbridesara

Let me preface this by saying I'm a BIG worrier.  I really, really hope that trait does NOT pass on to Sophia.

That being said, sometimes I feel we aren't doing enough to entertain/educate Sophia.  I've told DH we need to start reading to her at least once a day.  We are hardly reading to her at all.  We put her in the bouncy seat, but that's just flashing light and vibration.  We put her in the jumperoo, but that's just her bouncy (I know that's good for her leg strength) and again, flashing lights and music.  DH still puts her in the swing sometimes.  We have a floor mat that she barely gets on - DH is much better than me with putting her on the mat. 

What else can we be doing with her?  I sing to her sometimes and dance with her.  We have the Baby Einstein Octopus that if you press it's "arms" they tell you a color and we have the Leap Frog worm thing that plays music and counts.  I've heard of Lamaze toys  - are they any good?  

I want to give her the best start possible.   I did use Baby Plus for some of my pregnancy.

Thanks for any advice!

Futuremrssoll

Yeah, i always thought i'd read to eli all the time, but he just grabs the book from me and throws it down at this point, and when he was younger, when he'd fall asleep there would be no book near by to grab to read and i did not want to get up and find a book because we'd be too cozy. ?I used to sit in him his BeBe pod and show him different toys and sing with big gestures to get him to lift his head and work on some neck control. ?When he was around 4 and a half-5 months we started using the exersaucer and he loved it! ?Now, i just put as many toys around as we have and now mostly we just use walking toys and standing toys. ?hope that helps! ?i also play peekaboo with him alot and he loves to get chased around! ?we climb up and down the steps alot too. ?haha. ?just wait until she starts moving! ?thats when the real entertaining has to begin.

LClaire

That age is so hard! Especially since she's really starting to be aware, I remember feeling like I needed to be doing things with her to stimulate but having a hard time with it since she was still so little and there were only so many options! We're sort of back there again lately and I've been trying to find some new more learning-focused things for Amelia to do so she's not bored - epsecially now that we're getting into winter more.

I think a huge thing to remember is that literally everything to them is a learning experience. Everything is just so new that just looking around at the world is learning to them. Sounds, colors, patterns, lights, etc are all new things to take in, so even just sitting in her bouncy chair and watching you or your DH do something like wash dishes is already a great learning experience for her! You can make it even more for her by really keeping up that singing and talking to her and explaining what you're doing. Even just getting out and going to the library to watch other kids, walking around the mall or stores and putting her in the stroller so that she can see out is helping her to start to assimilate so many new things.  Developmentally, I *think* at about 4 months(it all ges a little foggy!) is when they really start to progress(with a huge range of "normal") physially as far as holding heads up for longer, pushing themselves up while they're laying on their bellies, starting to look at things that are a little farther away and reach for it on a mat, starting to get ready to sit up alone - - so the play mat is a perfect thing for her to start doing more of that kind of exploring as she starts getting her muscles ready for more rolling and getting ready to crawl. She'd probably start to be a little more interested in toys now for you, too - simple stuff like rattles where she's realizing that she can shake it and make noise and smile at it; smile at herself in the mirror, bat at thing that aren't super close. I hope that helps at least a little. Really, it sounds like all of the things you're doing are already great and exactly what she needs:)

I also have a book that I loved when I couldn't think of anything else to do and I just went to find it, but I think it's packed away still so I might have to reasearch a bit more, but I think it's just called "Games To Play With Babies" (I have two and I can't remember if that's the one I love or not, but I know I at least like that one. It goes from birth to toddlers and groups activities by age and gives ideas for things to do at different stages and also explains what skills it's helping the baby to develop. I loved having that to pull out last winter when we were bored in the snow and I was feeling like I wasn't doing enough with her!

mrspablondie

At four months I used the activity mat a lot, he could entertain himself for an hour on it.  I would also get down on floor and play with him on it.  I did a lot of airplane rides, worked on tummy time by putting toysout of his reach so he would roll over.  I played music and sang and danced.  It was also summer for us so I could take him to the park and he loved the swing.   Its a hard age to entertain them because they are still immobile.  Once DS started crawling everything got so much more fun.