When are the Wonder Weeks?

There are ten Wonder Weeks the first 20 months of a baby's life. Each wonder week has a fussy period at the start of it (see the post Signs a wonder week is about to start for fussy signs). If it sounds like I am speaking total gibberish to you right now, then check out
the posts WW Book Review and What are the Wonder Weeks :)

Knowing when one of these weeks occurs can help a lot when troubleshooting baby's suddenly fragile (and, let's just admit, nightmarish) condition. Yes, you'll want to rule out that baby isn't sick or in pain etc. first, but after you do that, you can be comforted by the fact that baby is being fussy not because of something you have done, but because she is in a Wonder Week. If you own the book, you'll also get loads of tips on how to help baby reach his potential during and after these leaps.

All babies go through these wonder weeks at a predictable time, give or take a week or two. They usually last anywhere from 3 days to a few weeks (although, gulp, they can last up to 6 weeks long!), often increasing in length as baby gets older. But don't worry, they also occur less often as baby gets older.

They don't necessarily coincide with growth spurts, cutting teeth or other common baby milestones, although they might end up, by chance, happening around the same time. Physical developments may be indirectly related since babies start to be able to do more physically as they understand more mentally.

Make sure to calculate weeks from the due date, not the actual delivery date. If it is tricky trying to figure out how to keep track of how many weeks old your child is, try writing your baby's age in weeks on your calendar at the beginning of each month. I have also included the months for you with each of the weeks (following the complaints of my sister Sharon:)

Here's a helpful chart on the Wonder Weeks. And there's even an iphone app.

Wonder Weeks and Fussy Periods:

• Wonder Week 5 - fussiness starts around 5 weeks and usually lasts 1-7 days.
• Wonder Week 8 - fussiness starts around 8 weeks and usually lasts 3-14 days
• Wonder Week 12 - fussiness starts around 12 weeks/2.8 months and usually lasts 1-7 days
• Wonder Week 19 - fussiness starts around 15 weeks/3.5 months, peaks at 17 weeks and skills appear around 19 weeks. It usually lasts 1-6 weeks **From now on Fussy periods will last longer than previously
• Wonder Week 26 - fussiness starts around 23 weeks/5.3 months, peaks at 26 weeks and skills appear around 26 weeks. It usually lasts 1-5 weeks
• Weeks 29/30 or 6.8 months - This isn't actually a Wonder Week, but many babies act fussy during this time as they begin to understand that their mommy can leave them. Just thought I'd let you know :)
• Wonder Week 37 - fussiness starts around 34 weeks/7.8 months, peaks at 36 weeks and skills appear around 37 weeks. It usually lasts 3-6 weeks
• Wonder Week 46 - fussiness starts around 42 weeks/9.7 months, peaks at 44 weeks and skills appear around 46 weeks. It usually lasts 3-7 weeks
• Wonder Week 55 - fussiness starts around 51 weeks/11.7 months, often peaks at 53 weeks and skills appear around 55 weeks. It usually lasts 3-6 weeks
• Wonder Week 64 / 14.7 months
• Wonder Week 75 / 17.2 months
• Over 20 months - Other wonder weeks have been documented throughout childhood. It is also suspected that adults even go through some wonder weeks.

For loads more information on your baby's sleep, from short naps to bedtime battles, check out the blog index, sleep by age index and blog user guide. It's time to say goodbye to sleep problems!