Inconsistent baby smiles

[MEPride]

My DD is 11 weeks on Friday, 8 weeks adjusted. She has given us a couple smiles here or there since about 8-9 weeks (5-6 adjusted). But the smiling is inconsistent and doesn't seem to be becoming more frequent. For some reason I felt like once a baby smiles she has the ability to do so again and again and again. But is it actually normal for smiling consistently and frequently to take a while? I see all these photos of my friends' babies who are a few weeks ahead or behind and they have full gummy grins. I can't catch a photo because it's so random.

She is otherwise developing normally. She has started to coo a bit and is beginning to discover her hands and is beginning to suck on her fist/thumb.

But I was just wondering if it takes a while to develop the skill to smile more and more?

 

[Zephram]

Of course that’s normal. Do you feel like smiling all the time? It’s personality as much as anything, my DS2 smiled all the time as a baby, more than DS1 did, and out of the two of them he has turned out much more happy go lucky.

Also remember that kids don’t develop in a linear fashion, they go up and down in consistency and through phases. So just because she can smile, doesn’t mean her smiles will always happen at the same time/cues and there won’t be a straight line increase in their frequency. They aren’t logical and they don’t present that way. This is especially evident during potty training which notoriously goes up and down.

She can smile, she sometimes does, she sounds normal to me.

 

[whatwillbex]

My dS has been smiling since 3 weeks at us and even some times in his sleep and it definitely not wind. My dd on the other hand you had to really work for her smiles especially at 3 months but then would just randomly smile at a wall! Haha, she was quite a serious baby haha. I think it’s a personality thing. X

 

[Bevziibubble]

My babies' smiles were very hit and miss at first. Sometimes they are just still learning or just don't feel like smiling. Sometimes I would be trying to get them to smile and they would just be staring at me, but they are learning all the time

 

[ClairAye]

It's definitely normal and I can say from experience with two babies that photos are one out of about fifty where you actually catch the smile. My kids smiled if I did 'achoo!' but I could say it loads before I actually got a smile! She's still so little and sounds perfectly fine to me.

 

[_Meep_]

My first was like this until she was maybe 4 months old, despite giving her first smile at 4 weeks. Now aged 3, she is cheerful, smiling and laughing basically all the time. My second smiled at 3 weeks and has done it constantly since. So it really depends on the baby!

 

[superfrizbee]

My ds is also 11 weeks. Both of his siblings smiled early so when he didn't Kim was a little worried, although I k we I shouldn't have been. He started smiling more often than the odd sporadic smile a couple of weeks ago and now full on beams, which is just beautiful! Babies don't do it a lot straight away and they're all different. Your daughter is still within that window of learning it. And as you say, she's been working on other things liking cooing and discovering her hands which are important developmental things for a little one. She try it more and more then and will love your delighted response to her smiles. She'll really pick it up in another couple of weeks I bet.

 

[SarahBear]

What you describe is normal for any skill that hasn't been mastered yet.

 

[CRWx]

It's definitely normal and I can say from experience with two babies that photos are one out of about fifty where you actually catch the smile. My kids smiled if I did 'achoo!' but I could say it loads before I actually got a smile! She's still so little and sounds perfectly fine to me.

This!

My DD smiled pretty early on and sometimes she would smile and coo at me doing things then others she’d look at me like she was so unimpressed! Hate to think how many times I’ve done the ‘achoo!’ tbing in her lifetime

Totally normal, your LO is still so little xxx