Tips For Newborn Baby Sleep And Night Feeding
Newborn babies sleep anywhere from sixteen to eighteen hours each day
, spread over six to seven brief sleep periods.
It may sound obvious but little babies have little tummy's and yet they are growing rapidly! When your baby is on a liquid diet of either breast milk or formula which is digested easily, it's pretty easy to understand that he will get hungry again within two to four hours. Sometimes if your baby is going through a growth spurt he may be hungry again in as little as every one to two hours.
Many newborn babies won't sleep longer than three or four hours without feeding, and most babies wake far more often than that.
The trick is to learn when your baby is waking up to be fed or if you should let him go back to sleep on his own.
When you first bring your baby home, it may seem that every cry they make sounds exactly the same. By learning to read your baby's crying signals and trusting your own instincts you will soon learn to tell the difference.
Babies make many sounds while they are sleeping, from snuffles and grunts to whimpers and outright cries.
What you need to remember is that these noises don't always mean your baby is awake. Often your baby is totally asleep while making these sounds. If you pick him up every time he makes a noise, all you will be doing is teaching him to wake up more often! And as every new parent knows that's the last thing you want to happen!
You need to pay special attention to the sounds and movements your baby makes while sleeping, listen and watch your baby carefully. Learn to tell the difference between the cries and whimpers he makes while sleeping and the sounds he makes when he's awake and hungry.
If he's awake and hungry, it's best to feed him as quickly and quietly as you can, then he is more likely go back to sleep easily. The longer you let him cry, the more likely it is for him to wake up completely, and it will be harder and take much longer to resettle him so you can BOTH go back to sleep.
Remember...
1. Don't pick up your baby every time he makes a sound.
2. Learn to tell the difference between your baby's cries.
3. Tend to your baby quickly and quietly at night so he's easy to resettle.
4. And most importantly... trust your own instincts!
You can help your baby learn the difference between nighttime sleep and daytime sleep, and help him to learn to sleep for longer periods at night.
During the day make sure his naps are in a lit room where he can hear the noises of the day, you could put his a bassinet in the main area of your home such as the living room or keep the curtains and door open in the bedroom or nursery.
Make nighttime sleep dark and quiet. Try not to stimulate your baby too much during nighttime feeding and changing.
It might be helpful to start a nighttime routine so that your baby starts to learn that nighttime is sleep time, for example: using a nightly bath and putting on pyjamas to signal the difference between going to bed at night or having naps during the day.
Sleeping through the night for young babies is not the same as it is for older children. In fact a five hour sleep is actually considered sleeping through the night! It can be a year or longer before your baby starts to sleep all night.
by: Alitiff Bolger
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