The first growth spurt
Around two to three weeks, many babies hit a growth spurt: hungrier, fussier and clingier for a few days. It passes — and there are lovely new alert moments in between.
Hungrier all of a sudden
Growth spurts often land around 2–3 weeks and again around 6 weeks. For a couple of days your baby may want to feed much more often and be harder to settle.
This is normal and temporary, whatever way you feed. With breastfeeding, the extra feeding is precisely how your baby orders more milk for next week; with bottles, they may simply take a little more, a little more often.
It can shake your confidence — a previously settled baby suddenly frantic at 11pm. Hold your nerve, feed responsively, and it usually settles within two or three days.
More awake, more aware
You'll notice longer alert windows now — wide-eyed stretches where your baby stares at your face, follows it briefly, and listens hard to your voice.
Talking, singing and pulling faces at this range is genuinely developmental. You can't spoil a baby with attention; responding to them is how their brain learns the world is safe.
Short bouts of tummy time — a few minutes, a few times a day, always awake and supervised — start building the neck and shoulder strength for everything that comes later. Chest-to-chest on you counts.
Crying is ramping up
From around two weeks, normal crying starts to increase, heading for a peak around six to eight weeks. Knowing this curve exists helps: more crying doesn't mean something is wrong or that you're doing a bad job.
Work through the checklist — hungry, windy, nappy, too hot or cold, overtired, wants holding — and then remember some crying has no findable reason at all.
If you're at the end of your rope, it is always OK to put your baby down safely in their cot, on their back, and step into another room for a few minutes to breathe. Never, ever shake a baby.
And you
In the UK, care usually transfers from your midwife to your health visitor around now — they're your go-to for feeding, sleep, crying and your own wellbeing questions.
Sleep deprivation is at its most brutal in these weeks. If there are two of you, shifts genuinely help — one covers till 2am while the other sleeps, then swap.
Check in on each other, not just the baby. 'How are you actually doing?' is the most useful question two exhausted parents can trade.
Feeding at this stage
Pick how you're feeding — we'll remember for next time. Every one of these is a good way to feed a baby.
Breastfeeding
- During the growth spurt, feed on demand and trust the system — a day or two of near-constant feeding boosts your supply to match your bigger baby.
- Resist judging your supply during spurt days; nappy output and weight gain over the week are the honest signals.
- Look after the feeder: drinks and snacks within reach make marathon feed days survivable.
Breast + expressed
- If you're exclusively expressing, add a pumping session or two during spurt days to mirror the demand a baby at the breast would create.
- A hands-free pumping bra and pumping while your baby naps nearby can claw back some sanity this week.
- If bottles of expressed milk are vanishing faster than you can pump, it's fine to bridge with formula — protecting your rest also protects your supply.
Breast + formula
- In spurt days, offering extra breastfeeds before increasing formula keeps your supply responsive to your baby's new appetite.
- If you'd like to nudge the balance towards more breastmilk over time, growth-spurt weeks are actually a workable moment — extra time at the breast does the signalling for you.
- Equally, adding an extra formula feed to get through a rough patch is a legitimate call — feeding plans are allowed to flex.
Formula
- Expect your baby to take a bit more during a growth spurt — follow their appetite rather than yesterday's amounts.
- Keep feeds paced and responsive even when they're frantic — short pauses reduce gulping, wind and the misery after.
- Making up feeds fresh each time is still the safest routine; if you need speed at 3am, a flask of just-boiled water measured out in advance helps.
Totally normal (even when it doesn't feel it)
- A sudden 48-hour feeding frenzy around now — the 2–3 week growth spurt is textbook normal.
- Crying that is noticeably more than last week — normal crying increases from about 2 weeks towards a 6–8 week peak.
- Baby acne appearing on the face around 2–4 weeks — it clears without treatment.
- Hiccups after feeds, sometimes several times a day, don't bother babies nearly as much as they bother us.
- Hating tummy time at first — a few protesting minutes still count, and chest-to-chest on you counts too.
- Breastfed babies sometimes start pooing less often around now — for some, several days between soft poos is normal.
- Wanting to be held constantly — closeness is a need at this age, not a habit you're creating.
Worth checking
You know your baby best — if any of these ring true, or something just feels off, it's always OK to ask.
- A temperature of 38°C (100.4°F) or higher still means same-day advice — call your GP or NHS 111 (UK); in the US, your pediatrician.
- Fussiness with fever, refusing several feeds in a row, or vomiting most feeds — call your health visitor or GP; in the US, your pediatrician.
- Forceful projectile vomiting after most feeds, especially if your baby seems hungry again straight after and wet nappies are dropping — call your GP promptly; in the US, your pediatrician.
- A cry that sounds high-pitched, weak or unlike your baby, or a baby who can't be woken properly — call 999 (UK) or 911 (US).
- Fewer heavy wet nappies over a couple of days — call your health visitor or GP; in the US, your pediatrician.
- A rash that doesn't fade when you press a glass against it — call 999 (UK) or 911 (US).
- You feeling rage or despair when the crying won't stop — put baby down safely and call someone: a friend, your health visitor, or Cry-sis (UK); in the US, the 988 helpline. It's a sign you need support, not that you're a bad parent.