According to the wonder weeks, a mental leap is a period with intense mental development that you baby experiences. 

Babies are struggling with 10 mental leaps during their first 20 months of life which are linked to their actual age calculated based on their due date.

These mental leaps are (weeks are calculated based on due date):

• Mental Leap 1 - The World of Changing Sensations - Week 5

• Mental Leap 2 - The World of Patterns - Week 8 

• Mental Leap 3 - The World of Smooth Transitions - Week 12

• Mental Leap 4 - The World of Events - Week 19

• Mental Leap 5  - The World of Relationships - Week 26

• ***Anxiety separation*** - around Week 28

• Mental Leap 6 - The World of Categories - Week 37 

• Mental Leap 7 - The World of Sequences - Week 46

• Mental Leap 8 - The World of Programs - Week 55

• Mental Leap 9 - The World of Principles - Week 64

• Mental Leap 10 - The world of Systems - Week 75

While your baby is experiencing a leap you may notice changes in one or more of the following: mood, sleep patterns, health, intelligence (acquisitions or regressions), feeding.

Therefore, expect to see increased activities regarding: crankiness, clinginess and crying.

My experience: For me it was amazing to discover all my baby's inner struggles and therefore I started to read more and more. 

 I found out about the wonder weeks and the progresses she is making, started to understand what I need to do to stand near her and go together through the stormy times. 

Your experience: Therefore, I am bringing you the possibility of doing the same by offering you a customized timeline and detailed information for the Wonder weeks development and leaps of your baby along with the growth spurts, sleep regressions and separation anxiety. Just to help you understand what happens when things seem to be out of control and the baby is fussy, wants to be fed or held all the time.

Will it ever end? How long does a leap last?

Even if it seems like your baby’s leap will never end, the good news is it will. 

Developmental leaps are very variable in length. The shortest ones can  be just a week long and the longest are around five weeks. Yep, that feels like a long period of time. But have some patience as you will often find that there will be ups and downs during the long leaps. Some days you wouldn’t know they were in the middle of a leap and other days, you definitely know!

Remember on the tough days that as they say, this is just a phase and this too shall pass. 

Can I help? How?

What you can do for the beginning is to remember that this is just a phase.

Your baby is just going through a lot and is progressing and will be fine again. 

Good times will come, leaps are a sign of a normal development, they just mean that your baby is learning and will evoluate.

What you can do:

• Ask for help whenever you need a break

• Try to stick the normal routine when possible

• Don't try to change the sleep routines and associations, just adapt

• Give them more physical contact, skin to skin can help

• Use a baby wearing system to keep your baby close and try to perform the same usual activities having your hands free

• Help them understand about the object permanence: play peekaboo or create a permanence box. This will help them understand that you exist also when he doesn't see you and you will, of course, always return