Newborn Baby Sleep Advice

While you’re pregnant, all you worry is about keeping the baby healthy and your due date. Not a lot of first-time mommies put enough thought into what happens after the baby is born. Of course, you would have shopped for all the basic things that your baby will need. But often, we fall short on important tips and tricks that will help us deal with the newborn. One of the most important things that you need to educate yourself is about the sleep of your baby. How long should he/she sleep? Why won’t he/she go to sleep? When is the baby going to sleep through the night? These are some of the most commonly asked questions by new mommies.

If you know better about your baby’s sleep pattern and how to cope with the lack of sleep that you’re going to face, things will become much easier for you. Postpartum stress combined with lack of sleep as a result of giving all your time to the baby will make you miserable. It is always great to have someone by your side to help you through this period like your partner, parent, siblings, or a friend. You can also hire a nanny if you can afford to.

Here are some of the vital things that you should know about the sleep of your baby:

The Duration Of Your Baby’s Sleep

All babies are different and they have a sleep pattern of their own. However, you can get a rough figure of how long your baby should sleep in a 24-hour period depending on her/his age.

• Newborns: While some newborns sleep only for around 8 hours some others sleep up to 20 hours a day. This includes all the naps throughout the day and night.

• Three to six months: Your baby will sleep for longer durations as he/she grows up since the frequency of feeding will come down. Usually, if a baby sleeps for around 4 hours during the day, he/she will sleep around 8 hours at night. This is definitely not true for all the babies. But yes, you will be able to make out a sleep pattern.

• Six to twelve months: Your baby might sleep for as long as 12 hours at night. However, sometimes he/she might wake up due to hunger or other disturbances like noise.

• One to two years: Most of the babies between this age will sleep for about 12 to 15 hours a day.

Things That You Can Do To Ensure Enough Sleep For Your Baby

• Swaddling: Once your baby is around 4 months old, try swaddling him/her. If you have done it before and your baby likes it, keep doing it because it is going to comfort him/her the way he/she wants.

• Keep the room dark: Newborn babies are generally not scared of the dark and it will help them fall asleep faster. The darker, the better; try to turn off all the lights and cover the window with curtains.

• Lay down your baby when drowsy: Lay your baby on the bed while he/she is still awake but almost asleep. This will give him/her time to associate the bed with his/her sleep rather than your arms. It is an important habit that will help him/her go to sleep directly on the bed without you having to carry him/her around.

• Shhhhh….no making noise: Keep the room as silent as possible since babies appreciate silent sleeping environments. It can get a bit challenging at times to shut out every slight noise that’s creeping inside. In such situations, you can make use of white noise to mask the irregular and disturbing noise.

Apart from these key points, make sure that you feed your baby as much as he/she wants so that your baby doesn’t wake up again because due to hunger. Also, stick to a particular bedtime so that your baby automatically adapts to the pattern and becomes sleepy during that time. If you want to get some good rest, go to sleep while your baby is asleep. Try completing all the work you want to when the baby is still awake. This is when you can really appreciate the presence of a secondary caretaker around you and the baby.

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