Posts Tagged ‘newborn sleep’

According to National Sleep Foundation, Sleep is
indispensable for a person’s well being. Lack of sleep
affects people’s health, they become moody, irritable and
even forgetful without adequate sleep.

It is no wonder then that new parents are concerned about
their sleepless nights when they bring their newborn baby
home from the hospital.

A new baby needs to eat every few hours.  Hence the new
mother has to feed him and many new fathers are trying to
be “helpful” as much as possible – at time by just
sympathizing.

But these sleepless nights should not last for a long
period of time. You can re-arrange somewhat your schedule
making the night-time routine go a lot easier.

You may hear a lot of suggestions from your friends and
relatives,But you need to educate yourself from reliable
sources: read books written by professional people as
well as articles in magazines.

Besides that, you have to keep in mind that not two
babies are alike.

A newborn baby has a very little stomach, so it gets
hungry “all the time”. And it’s rightfully so, your baby
is developing, is grooving – you would not want it to be
otherwise.

I had two children and they were very different in their
sleeping habits. One slept for long hours and needed an
afternoon nap until the age of about 6, while the other
child stopped napping at the age of about three.

While you could start “disciplining” the new baby nearly
right away in teaching the proper “sleeping-habits” – I
personally would keep the harshness away and try to be
patient for a few first weeks.

One thing you may introduce right from the start that at
night it’s strictly eating time and not entertainment
time and also you should put the child to bed without
pacifiers, bottles – in other words without help from
you, without “crutches” or toys.

You could adjust the hours of feeding. Some babies may
sleep at night during 4-5 hours – that’s what the “night”
for the baby is like.

You may feed the child at midnight and so your “night”
would be till four of five in the morning.

Keeping in mind that the newborn grows rapidly during
his/hers first two month in spite the fact that it’s
tummy is very small and the food get digested very
quickly.

The child needs to be fed every two-four hours.

A good practice would be to have the child fall asleep on
it’s own with one toy in the crib. By “on it’s own” I
mean not giving him the bottle or breast-feed him just to
get him to sleep.

If the child begins to fall asleep while it is being fed
just gently remove the bottle or your breast before he
falls asleep and put him in to the crib without a
pacifier.

This way the newborn will not associate the feeding and
the sleep as being closely “related” – sequenced.

There are several things that you can do to make certain
that the baby sleeps well.

Make sure that the temperature in the room is warm and
enjoyable for a baby. If the room temperature is
comfortable your newborn should not have too many
blankets.

Do not dress the baby too warmly because if a newborn
gets hot it will wake up, hence he or she is going to
wake you up as well.

If the baby is dressed many different layers to keep warm
this may also disturb his/her sleep.

It is important to put your baby to sleep at the same
time and in the same room every night.

Keep the room dark and quiet.

At times grown ups are speaking of the newborn sleeping
“through the night”, which means of about 5 hours: from,
12 to 5 in the morning. That’s the “night” for the baby
(not for you!).

It will take about a year or a little longer until the
real “sleeping through the night” will take place.

It’s important for the parents to get their sleep.

Besides being disturbed by the child’s feeding hours the
parents may get anxious or worried.

This is one of the things you should not do – worry,
which is according to studies, is number ONE cause of
sleep deprivation.

The child will grow-up soon and in time you are going to
recall those “sleepless” nights as some very special
events from your ‘distant” and joyful life.

Thank you, my Friend, for visiting my blog. I hope you
enjoyed the post. Please leave a comment.

Wishing you success and God’s Blessings,
Olga O’Mara

“Shocking Facts About Sleep That Drug
Companies Do Not Want You to Know!”