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Newborn Babies and Sleep
Newborn Babies and Sleep
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 Everyone
has advice for new parents about babies and their sleeping habits.
The truth is that each baby is different. Though there are some
milestones you can look forward to these are just an outline of
where your little one may be at a certain age. You need to be sensitive
to your baby’s needs and flexible as to expectations regarding
their development.
Up to the age of four months old babies have very
different sleep needs than older babies. You should understand your
newborn baby’s developing sleep patterns in order to help
you develop reasonable expectations when it comes to your baby and
sleep.
You have probably “heard” that babies
should start "sleeping through the night" at about two
to four months of age. Understand, that for a new baby, a five-hour
stretch is a full night. Many babies at this age can sleep uninterrupted
from midnight to 5 a.m. (Not that they always do.) A far cry from
what you may have thought "sleeping through the night"
meant!
What's more, while the scientific definition of
“sleeping through the night” is five hours, most of
us wouldn’t consider that anywhere near a full night’s
sleep for ourselves. Also, some of these sleep-through-the-nighters
will suddenly begin waking more frequently, and it’s often
a full year or even two until your little one will settle into a
mature, all-night, every night sleep pattern.
Babies should not sleep more than 3-4 hours without
a feeding. Be aware that most babies wake far more often than that.
Your baby will wake during the night. It’s a tough job, being
a parent or caregiver, but it has to be done. So that you’re
not jumping at every sound your little one makes there is a tip
you should be aware of. Babies make many sleeping sounds, from grunts
to whimpers to outright cries, and these noises don’t always
signal awakening. These are what we call sleeping noises, and your
baby is nearly or even totally asleep during these episodes.
Learning to recognize the difference between sleeping
sounds and waking sounds will make it easier for you to know when
to rush over to your baby’s crib needlessly. A crib that helps
parents of newborns-4 months old is a co-sleeper crib. A co-sleeper
is a crib that fits in right next to your bed. If your baby stirs
during the night simply patting his back gently can lull him back
to sleep.
If your baby cries a wakeful cry always check
on them and make sure they are clean, feed and comfortable. There
is nothing wrong with picking up and holding your baby, even rocking
her to sleep. Babies are social people! They shouldn’t be
left alone and isolated all the time.
Many people enjoy using soothing music as their
baby’s sleep sound. If you do, choose bedtime music carefully.
Some music (including jazz and much classical music) is too complex
and stimulating. For music to be soothing to your baby, pick simple,
repetitive, predictable music, like traditional lullabies. Tapes
created especially for putting babies to sleep are great choices.
Pick something that you will enjoy listening to night after night,
too. (Using a CD player with an automatic repeat function is helpful
for keeping the music going as long as you need it to play.)
Whatever your method is to help get your little
one to sleep you should be aware that he is a baby. Nothing he does
is to spite you or make you angry. Babies are unaware of other people’s
feelings or needs, all they know is that they are hungry, wet, or
lonely. It’s up to you to make them feel better. Never “punish”
a baby for crying or not going to sleep, and never, never strike
a baby. This is considered abuse and it is against the law, as well
as morally reprehensible.
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