Physical Development

Your baby has discovered two wonderful new toys: her hands. She'll spend time lying quietly on her back, opening and closing them and carefully inspecting her fingers. Part of the fascination is that she is starting to understand that her hands are an extension of herself, with unique capabilities. As her vision improves, she's also developing hand-eye coordination.

Social Development

Now that she's able to vocalize in other ways besides crying, your little one is becoming quite the little chatterbox. Squeals, giggles, and bubbling sounds are common at this age (which doesn't make them any less delightful!). She's discovered that her newly mastered sounds are a great way to gain attention and approval. But even when no one's around, she loves to listen to her own voice, and will repeat favorite sounds over and over again.

The best way to encourage communication is to speak with your baby often. By 3 months, hearing others speak is a strong stimulus to make her own sounds. She'll look for the source of the noise, watch your face intently as you speak, change activity (either by kicking excitedly or freezing to attention), and, usually, smile and talk back. Wait until she's finished, then try imitating the noises she makes--she'll be delighted you finally "understand" her!

Intellectual Development

Amazing though it may sound, your baby's senses have developed to almost their adult levels in just three months. She can now see you across the room, hear and respond to you from the next room, and turn in the direction of any sound that intrigues her (as well as tuning out the annoying ones). She's able to track movement, she has depth perception, and her color vision is maturing. From now on, she'll concentrate on making sense of the stimuli she's receiving, and communicating her feelings about them.

Note: The information above offers general guidelines, but all babies develop differently, and few hit their milestones precisely when the conventional wisdom says they should. If your child was born prematurely, you may want to use your due date as a baseline for following baby's development.