Babies do not sleep regularly until they are six months old. Newly-born babies sleep 16-17 hours a day, but their sleep is mostly irregular at intervals of 1-2 hours each.
As they grow older, babies need less sleep. But the need for sleep varies from one baby to another. While some infants wake up at night for a few minutes and then resume sleeping, others cannot go back to sleep.
We offer you here some suggestions that could help you and your baby sleep better:
• Make sure to breastfeed your child and change its diapers quietly at night, so that it does not wake up. Otherwise, the baby would have difficulty going back to sleep.
• Daytime is for playing. Talking and playing with your baby during the day keeps it awake for a longer time, which will help it sleep for longer periods at night.
• Put your child in bed as soon as it feels sleepy.
• Wait for some time before responding to the crying of your child. It may go back to sleep without assistance. If the crying continues, check on it and tickle it until it sleeps, but do not turn on the lights. If the crying persists, then try to identify the reason. Your child might be hungry or needs its diapers changed.
• Follow the same steps every day before sleeping. You can put on some soft music or tell a story to your child in a quiet voice.
• If the baby’s bed is in a separate room, then keep the door of that room ajar, so you can hear it, if it needs to be attended to.
• Be firm. Do not allow for your baby to develop a habit of sleeping next to you.