Congratulations- you have made it through your second month! This article will cover the third month of your new child's development and offer some parenting tips to help you along the way.

In the third month of the life of your child there will be many developments including several key intellectual advances. After the third month your baby will have grown leaps and bounds not just physically but also socially and intellectually.

During this month, your child will have a significant increase in muscle control and vision. Simply because you do not see her moving does not mean she is not increasing her muscle development. She is actually not moving because she chooses not to move- she is now more able to make voluntary muscle movements! Furthermore, you will be happy to learn that spitting and spit up will occur less and less.

Another great improvement you might experience this month is an increase in uninterrupted sleep. Your child should be able to sleep for up to 6-8 hours without waking! To help this along you can increase bedtime feeding amounts. Because of all of this, your son will probably experience a decrease in nighttime feedings.

A benefit of your child's development this month is the decline in crying he might experience. This decline is due to several reasons, including an increased capacity for food, decrease in gastrointestinal pains, etc. If your child is colic those symptoms should also pass during this time period. A key development this month is the establishing of short-term memory. Your child is constantly enhancing his or her memory skills. This mental progression will open doors to many future breakthroughs including, but not limited to, identifying frequently seen family members and recalling what items are off limits.

In order to stimulate further growth in your child here are some things you can do: Respond quickly to the needs of your child in the first six months of his life, increase bedtime feeding and learn how to differentiate different types of cries. Studies show that faster responses to the needs of your child in the first six months decrease dependability later on. And since your child is only crying for specific reasons these days, learning how to differentiate between different types of cries will be beneficial to both you and your child.