Baby
What your baby is doing
Reaching, rolling, laughing
Between 4–6 months expect intentional reaching, rolling, sitting with support, and belly laughs. Variability is the rule; ranges matter more than dates.
Body
Your healing body
Rebuilding capacity
Progress resistance gradually; respect leaking, heaviness or pain as data — these are reasons to modify, not push through. The 2025 Canadian Postpartum Guideline frames progression toward (and beyond) 120 min/week MVPA as individualised and symptom-based, with daily pelvic-floor training and pelvic-floor screening before higher-impact return (Bø 2017).
General info — not personalised medical advice.
Mind
Maternal mind
Your brain is still remodelling
Hoekzema 2022 found postpartum gray-matter changes that persist into year 2 — predictive of maternal attachment and responsiveness. Fog isn't failure; it's plasticity.
Source: Hoekzema et al., Nature Communications 13, 6931 (2022) — Postpartum gray matter
Bond
You & baby
Secure base behaviour
Your baby looks to you for cues in new situations (social referencing). The reliability of your response — not its perfection — builds security.
Source: Ainsworth et al., Patterns of Attachment (Erlbaum, 1978)
Partner
For your partner
Re-negotiate the load
Six months in is when invisible labour calcifies. Make a list together: who does what, when, and what changes when one of you returns to work.
Source: Cowan & Cowan, When Partners Become Parents (1992, 2000)
Feeding
Milk, bottles & beyond
Around 6 months: solids
WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding for ~6 months, then complementary foods alongside continued breastfeeding to 2 years and beyond. Iron-rich first foods; baby in control of the pace.
Sleep
Infant sleep this week
Consolidation, not training
Stretches lengthen as the brain matures; night waking still serves biology. Safe-sleep rules continue to age 1 (AAP 2022).
Source: AAP Task Force on SIDS — Safe Sleep Recommendations 2022
Reflection
60-second prompt
What used to overwhelm you and now doesn't?
Notice your own competence. It's been quietly accumulating.
Developed and curated by perinatal psychologists, family & couples counsellors, doulas, perinatal health & fitness specialists, and IBCLCs / lactation consultants. Educational — not a substitute for medical care.