new born – Mummy To Twins Plus One

Are hitting milestones early related to intelligence?

When I meet some mums or people out and about they ask about my little boy. I tell them what he has been up to and give them a quick update on things.

Our little boy who is six months old tomorrow seems to be hitting most milestones early.

When I mention this to others I get one thing said back to me….

“He is going to be intelligent”

Geez I hope so but I’m not sure if laughing before the doctors tell me the baby should be or trying to stand when you cannot crawl or doing things before the allotted time-frame means you are going to be genius or at the very least a smart bunny or smarter than the average bear.

Since he was born he has wanted to stand up. I picked him up and he put his legs down on me to stand up. He was just born…. why is he wanting to stand? I had no concept of this due to having preemie twins for my first children. Having a baby born exactly on his due date changes things.

It has not just been one person who has told me that due to Alexander hitting his milestones early he is going to be super smart, there have been many, actually too many to remember.

I do think that he is in a hurry to do things. Maybe he has places to be, worlds to conquer or a business meeting to attend? I don’t know but he is keen to be racing around like the other kids.

Is it due to him being the youngest child? He sees the older kids do everything? The twins did not have this, although they had the constant company and help of having someone with them at all times.

What can my little boy do now?

Roll everywhere (Travels everywhere)
Crawl a little bit
Grabs everything even with a pincer grip
Laughs at his own jokes and others
Follows instruction to roll over to an area or part of the room
Has to get to his toys even if they are out of reach. Likes to play with toys that are not his…. yes the twins need to keep their toys and room tidy.
Getting more hungry
Has increased his solids intake to more and more each day. Sometimes it depends on the day and how hungry he is…. seems to be increasing.
Makes eye contact with people – He has done this for a long time now. I think from about 2 months he did this or before.
He likes to give you cuddles
He LOVES cuddles from mummy especially and also his sisters, oh and daddy.
Loves mummies singing… YES I know this will change but he thinks it is wonderful at the moment!
Has a funny sense of humour….. He laughs at things that you think babies would not find funny. It is like he has a quirky offbeat understanding of comedy and humour already.
Sits up in his rocker chair
Loves to see everything when we are out and about…. if he is in his pram he must be sitting up. This started months ago and I was hesitant to have him sitting up as I thought he was too young…however he would fret and freak out if he could not see what was going on and also be included.
He loves to be with his big sisters in their room. The girls tuck him in their bed and fuss over him. He has smiles and giggles, and of course looks so happy to be there it is lovely to watch.

I personally think that it does not matter when your child does anything. As long as all is well with development and they are happy, healthy and loved it will all work itself out. Of course if you are worried about something it is always best to check. Having checkups and making sure that development is on track, if there are any issues you can hopefully get to see the right people earlier rather than later and things will be resolved or better than they could have been without the help.

I always had the twins checked at certain ages for milestone development when they were babies and I’m doing the same for Alexander. My kids don’t do what others do and vice versa. When things happen is up to the individual and of course if it is like when the twins lose their baby teeth we are not keeping up with the other kids at all. My girls have only lost 3 teeth in total, mind you I was slow on that front too as a kid, so maybe it genetic.

From my reading online I found that if your child is an early reader, it is likely that they are smarter. Yes you read that right.

“We also know something about early reading. While it’s not necessarily a sign of genius, early readers are usually “smarter than the average bear.” Nancy Ewald Jackson, a developmental psychologist and reading acquisition expert at the University of Iowa, says one review of the literature found the average IQ of early readers was 130. “That’s clearly above average, but half the group would not qualify as gifted in terms of IQ,” she points out. One of her studies showed that precocious kindergarten readers tended still to be reading above grade level by grades five and six. But it isn’t clear whether that’s because they were bright, and therefore read early, as opposed to because they read early, and thereby became smarter.” ( Hoffman, John, Today’s Parent: “Earlier, faster, better: precocious kids”, Oct 4, 2006)

The twins and now our little boy have done things earlier than expected. The girls did things way before it was thought things would happen and maybe that was mainly due to the fact that they were six weeks early. Well could have been seven weeks early if one twin had her way! They spoke, sat up, crawled and rolled over way before they were supposed to. Maybe they were in a hurry like our new little boy is as well. Or could it just be genetics again?

I wish I had a crystal ball to tell me if these comments are right about intelligence and smarts. I am just pleased that he is a happy, healthy, we think he is smart, and active little person.

Did your baby hit milestones early? Were you told that your little boy/girl was going to be intelligent due to reaching these development milestones before they are supposed to?

If you are a parent to older children has this idea panned out? Have they blitzed their grade? Or the top of the year at uni? Or how about launch a million/billion dollar idea as a startup company? Let us know.

Alexander is now eleven weeks old. Yes soon to be three months old, Oh how that has flown by already.

As anyone with a newborn knows you get up multiple times at night and feed, settle, cuddle, and of course change nappies. I also wash up bottles so that we have more for the next feeds. Lately the baby has taken to waking up at 2.30 or say 2am to want more food. I change his nappy and get him the milk and then feed him. He then falls asleep and then I put him to bed after some lovely morning cuddles.

Alexander then wakes again at 4am. He is screaming the place down so I do all the normal things, change his nappy and get more milk ready for the next feed. However it is this time that he decides that he is not hungry and just wants cuddles with mummy. I was snug and asleep in my bed before he screeched to what I thought was a hungry cry, but turned out that he just wanted cuddles. This is lovely but to wake up to give someone cuddles seems a bit annoying. I love the cuddles but I do LOVE my sleep and to wake up to then have to fall asleep again in the living room is a bit annoying to say the least.

I do try again to feed him but he pushes the bottle away and is content to just be cuddled. I fall asleep on the lounge as well as the baby. Hours pass and I finally wake to realise that I have been sleeping with my neck and body in an odd position. No wonder my body is out of sorts and everything hurts.

I sit in the living room looking around at all the things yet to be done and think about all the other things around the house that have to be done or have not been done or even thought of or even started. Gosh I’m exhausted just thinking about it all!

Why can’t I just sit and cuddle the baby?

Why do I have to get up and get stuff for people?

It is annoying that I have to leave the house but I do. Dropping kids at school and picking them up and of course all the after school activities that the girls go to. All I wanted to do was to stay in the house with my PJ’s on and just cuddle and be with Alexander.

During these early morning moments I have thought why can’t I be more in the moment? I love the cuddles, giggles and raspberries that Alex is doing but I still find myself drawn to all the other things that need my attention. Maybe this is due to having kids already? When I had the twins I had no pressure to be anywhere, I did not have kids before the twins so I could have the cuddles and just stay at home if I wished to. Now with older children it is hard to impossible to stay at home.

In the early weeks mums at the kids school commented on how it was great that I was getting out and about. It was nice to hear and I of course would have rather have stayed at home, but with kids at school I had to venture out. I suppose it was good that the kids made me go out with the baby but that quiet time just snuggling with your new baby is so nice and a pity that I have to get up to do the more boring things, like cleaning, shopping, clothes washing and more.

Also with older kids the house is much noisier than before. When the twins were babies I tried to have things super quiet when they were sleeping. I would even put notes on the front door in case of deliveries. Yes I was trying to make sure that who ever knocked on the door knew to be quiet or less noisy than they would be normally. I of course have not done the note on the front door this time, not due to not thinking about it but just due to never getting around to do it, and thinking about sleep rather than writing notes.

Did you find that due to other kids and commitments that you are not enjoying the lovely moments of the new baby as much as you would like? Let us know.

I need to just learn to switch off and to let go. I know it is hard but I need to. I think from the state of my house you would think that I have done just that, but I have been trying to tidying and sort things but it is always hard with a new baby. I get some things sorted and then have to leave it to be with the baby, then off course I don’t get back to the pile of clothes to fold and put away. Then I have to pick kids up from school, take them to after school activities and then when home do homework, dinners and more! Yes…. I think that is about it.

Letting go about now sounds good after reading all that I need to do!

Do you have some tips to just try and let go of all the things that need to be done? If you do have some great ways to let go of things that would be great to be shared also.