From 0 to 3 months

A typical dream for age

At this age, the newborn sleeps enough - about 17-18 hours a day for the first few weeks and 15 hours a day for the third month.

Children almost never sleep more than three or four hours, neither during the day nor at night . This means that you will also not be able to sleep for many hours. You will have to get up at night, change your child's diapers and clothes, and play with him during the day. While some babies sleep through the night from the age of 8 weeks, most babies do not reach these levels until they are 5 or 6 months old. You can help your child achieve these results if you develop the habit of good sleep from the beginning.

How to develop healthy sleep habits?

Here's what you can do at this age to help your child acquire the necessary sleeping habits:

Learn the signs of baby fatigue

For the first six to eight weeks, your baby will not be active for more than two hours. If you do not put him to sleep on time, he will be overtired and will not be able to sleep for a long time. Watch it until you notice that the child becomes drowsy . He rubs his eyes, tugs at his ear, pale dark circles appear under his eyes? If you see any other signs of drowsiness, send him straight to bed. Soon you will learn your child's daily rhythms and behavior and instinctively know when he is ready for sleep.

Start explaining to him the difference between day and night

Some babies are owl type (some signs of this you have noticed during pregnancy). And at this time, when you want to turn off the lamp, the child can still be very active. For the first few days, there is nothing you can do about it. But as soon as the child is about 2 weeks old, you can start teaching him to distinguish between day and night.

When a child is awake and active during the day, play with him, turn on the lights in the house and in his room, do not try to reduce the usual daily noises (phone sounds, TV or dishwasher sounds). If he falls asleep during a meal, wake him up and straighten him up. Do not play with the child at night. When feeding him at night, reduce light and noise, and do not talk to him for too long. It won't take long and your baby will begin to realize that he sleeps at night.

Give your child a chance to fall asleep on their own

When a child is 6-8 weeks old, give him a chance to fall asleep on his own. How? Put him to bed when he is sleepy but still awake, experts advise. They advise not to rock the child before bedtime. "Parents think that if they start developing these habits in their child too early, it will not affect, but this is not the case. Babies acquire sleep habits. If you rock your child every night for the first 6-8 weeks, so why should it expect anything else later? "

What difficulties may arise?

By the time your baby is 2 or 3 months old, you may need to wake up at night more often than necessary , as well as develop negative sleep-related associations.

Newborns need to wake up at night to eat , but some may accidentally wake up before they really need feeding. To avoid this, try to wrap the baby well before putting him to bed for the night.

Avoid unnecessary sleep-related associations. Your child should not depend on rocking and feeding to fall asleep. Put the baby to bed before he falls asleep and let him fall asleep on his own.

From 3 to 6 months

The typical sleep at this age is:

Congratulations! Now all your nightly rises in two or three hours are back in time (hopefully). Up to 3 or 4 months, most babies sleep 15 hours a day, 10 of them at night, and the rest is divided between three daytime sleepings (the number decreases to two sleepwalkers when your child reaches 6 months ).

At the beginning of this period, you can still get up once or twice for night feedings , but after the 6th month your baby can sleep all night. But it depends on whether you will be able to develop healthy sleeping habits in the child.

How to develop healthy sleep habits?

Determine the exact mode of day and night sleep and stick to it.

While the baby was newborn , you decided when to put it on at night, observing the signs of drowsiness (rubbing the eyes, pulling the ear, and so on). Now that it has gotten a little bigger, you need to set a specific time for day and night sleep.

The evening is a good time for the child to sleep between 19.00 and 20.30 . Later, he will probably be too tired and find it very difficult to fall asleep. Your child may not look tired late at night, but on the contrary, he may look very energetic. But believe me, this is a sure sign that the child should go to bed and sleep.

In the same way, you can adjust the time of daytime sleep - plan it at the same time every day or put the child to sleep when you see that he is tired and needs rest. Any approach is acceptable if the baby is getting enough sleep.

Start creating a bedtime ritual

If you haven't done it before, between the ages of 3-6 months, the time has come. The ritual of going to bed may include the following steps: take a bath with him, play a quiet game with him, read one or two bedtime stories, sing a lullaby. Kiss him and wish him "Good night".

Regardless of the rules that are followed in your family, you must follow them in the same way, at the same time every night. Children need perseverance, and sleep is no exception.

Wake up your child in the morning

If your baby often sleeps more than 10 hours a night, it is advisable to wake him up in the morning . In this way you will help him to restore his regime. Keeping a good sleep may seem complicated, but remember that your baby needs to stay asleep during the day. This will help him wake up at the same time every morning.

What difficulties may arise?

Two problems - waking up at night and the development of negative associations associated with sleep (when the child gets used to rocking or eating as a prerequisite for falling asleep), this applies to infants and older children. Between 3 and 6 months, another problem may occur - difficulty falling asleep.

If your child has difficulty falling asleep at night, first make sure that he does not go to bed too late (as already mentioned, an overtired child has difficulty falling asleep) . If not, then you may have formed one or more sleep-related associations. Now is the time to wean him off them. The child must learn to sleep alone, not thanks to your hands or while breastfeeding.

What tactics you choose - you decide! We hope you find our article useful and answers to your questions.