Baby Care

Posts Tagged ‘baby sleep’

Sticking to a good schedule for your baby is one of the first thing you learn in baby care. Being a parent is tough work and it’s never easy when you make the transition to parenthood. From day one when you’re baby needs to feed every 3 hours to having a proper baby care nap and feeding schedule is very important in making your life easier as a parent and making your baby more happy overall. Babies thrive on schedules and as long as they are giving their essentials such as food, milk, sleep, they should return you with smiles and tons of love and not throw as many tantrums. Try to develop a schedule and routine for your baby and stick to it as much as possible. If so, you will see the rewards ten fold and anyone who takes care of your baby will enjoy it as well such as a babysitter, friends, family member, grandparent, or others. Babies and Toddlers should be in bed by around 8 pm at the latest, so taking you’re baby out to the movies or a late night dinner so you can get out is not a good idea. You better idea is to get a baby sitter and put your baby to bed at the same time each night.

In the beginning at the newborn stage, this schedule plays a big factor into their well being as many newborns and infants confuse day and night and you will have a baby that sleeps all day and wants to be up all night. This is not good for your health and the health of your relationship in the house so keeping that firm schedule will help introduce sleeptime for your baby and help them discern the difference between day and night.

Another important item in baby care regarding a schedule is trying to have your baby sleep on their own in the crib. If you let your baby sleep in bed with you each night, it’s going to be a tough habit to break so in addition to their schedule, try to create some independence when sleeping on their own and you may find longer and more well rested sleeps for your baby when they are by themselves and not in your bed with you.

Also in the beginning stages of life for your baby, the swaddle can help your baby from startling themselves and hitting themselves with their hands. This may keep them asleep long and let them adjust better to a sleep schedule. However, be sure to not swaddle for long as it’s just a temporary fix in the beginning stages of life and can cause problems if used to long.

No one or parent is perfect and you can always stick to a schedule or routine, however, do your best to be consistent as it will only help you in the long run and make for a more well rested, happy, and fun baby to be around.

One of the most important baby care items you have to keep an eye out for is SIDS. SIDS stands for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and is causing by accidental loss of oxygen and suffocation while the baby sleeps at night. Many of the SIDS cases happen for babies between the ages of 2-6 months and babies that are on their stomach. However, there are cases of SIDS when the Baby is not sleeping on their stomach. Proper Baby Care recommendations by doctors and hospitals are to put babies to sleep in their cribs with nothing else, so no blankets, baby bumpers, and more!

With many parents we’ve talked to, we’ve seen tons of cases of babies hitting their heads on the crib rails and also getting their feet stuck in the crib railings. While there is definitely some risk to babies getting injured by getting stuck in the crib rails or banging their heads. Most parents think it’s not worth the risk of having bumpers, heavy blankets, and would rather limit the risk of SIDS.

Baby Bumpers can be thick pads that protect the baby from banging their heads or getting stuck in the railings. We would recommend the Breathable Baby Bumpers first to test to see if they work for your needs as they are made of a mesh Baby Bumpers and more breathable than the thick pad Baby Bumpers. Still there is an increased risk with bumpers, however, getting breathable bumpers is a good option if your baby is turning all the way around, banging their head or getting stuck in the crib rails. These breathable bumpers are very cheap and may make a good option to try out before putting heavily padded bumpers into the crib with your baby at night.

It’s also a good option to invest in a Summer baby monitor with video so you can check on your baby once in a while in their crib to make sure they are not stuck in the corner of the crib in a position that they may not be able to get themselves out of.

Good baby care starts with a good solid schedule for your baby. In order to get your baby onto a good baby nap schedule, it starts with a consistent schedule for baby feeding. If you feed your baby regularly around the same time, you will notice that the babies nap time will fall around the same time each day. However, baby naps and naptime can vary for each baby.

Some babies take a long nap in the morning. Newborns sleep all day and eventually they will settle into 2 naps per day, and ultimately just have one nap per day as they get older. For some babies, they will enjoy naps in the same spot that they sleep such as their crib. This will also help them get to sleep at night and become more familiar with sleeping in their crib location. Obviously some days will be different so it’s good to train your baby to sleep on the go, in the car seat or stroller which is usually an easier place to get the baby to nap as a baby will get tired when on the go…

Many babies will sleep for a short period of time during the day and then wake up. Most parents do not want to swaddle their baby during the day and keep the swaddle for the night time only if they are interested in swaddling at all. All babies are different and it’s important to understand their cues and when they are tired. Understanding where your baby enjoys sleep can help get them to sleep for their nap. Naptime can be difficult for parents and their is no easy answer as each baby is different. The best you can do is try your baby to get your baby to nap and create a naptime routine. Sometimes, putting dark blackout shades in the babies room will help the baby nap for a longer period of time during the day.

One of the first steps and more important baby care techniques is to devise a sleep routine for your baby. This sleep routine will the way that you get your baby to sleep each night, and also maybe give your family a little peach and quiet, especially if you have more than one child.

After talking to a number of parents, the Ferber sleep method is a good way to get your baby over their troublesome sleep habits. While this method is not for everyone and all parents need to use the sleep routine that works best for them, this Ferber method may help your baby soothe his/her self to sleep.

In a nutshell, the Ferber method states that you should let your baby cry a bit in the Crib on their own. After a few minutes of their crying, you stop by and comfort your baby. Do not pick your baby up out of their crib… Simply try to soothe the baby in the Crib and let them know that you are there. Then, leave the baby to go to sleep again. This next time, wait a few more minutes longer (i.e however much you can stand) and go back in and repeat the process. For the first night, it could take you a numerous amount of entries into the baby’s room. However, after a few nights, your baby should be on their way to sleeping on their own.

With our baby, as opposed to running this sleep routine in a matter of one weekend or a few nights, we practiced a method similar to the Ferber method over a month. We invested in a Summer Video monitor, which is definitely a good investment. We would devise an after feeding routine whereby we soothe our baby with books, light music, sounds, etc. After the baby was finally getting tired, we would put our baby in the crib while the baby was awake and take notice of the babies cues on the video monitor. All in all, he learned to soothe himself to sleep, all the while chewing on his hands. However, that seems to be our baby’s way of soothing himself. I would recommend not using a pacifier so you can teach your baby to soothe and fall asleep without it.

Good luck with getting your baby to sleep on their own and creating a great baby care technique and sleep routine to provide your family with peace in the evening!

One of the biggest talking points among new parents is how much their babies sleep. While certain newborns will live up to the old adage of ‘sleeping like a baby’ and sleep through the night pretty much straight away, others will take a bit longer to settle into a routine and might decide that it’s much more fun to be nocturnal.

Sleep is something that we often take for granted before we have children, but suddenly, when we find ourselves deprived of it on a daily basis, it’s all we can think or talk about! Here is a brief guide to how much sleep a baby needs for the first three years of life.

Newborns

Of course, each newborn is different, but in those first few weeks of life, babies tend to sleep for between 16 and 19 hours a day, generally in two-four hour stretches.
In these early days, it’s hard for babies to tell the difference between day and night; this, coupled with the fact that newborns have small tummies so need to eat little and often, can lead to a few sleepless nights!
Some newborns will sleep for longer periods at a time which is fine, unless perhaps they are premature or of a low birth weight, in which case you may be advised by your health visitor to wake them more regularly for feeds.

Three – six months

By the age of three months, many babies will have settled into more of a routine and, with any luck, will be sleeping for up to six hours a night.
Between the ages of three and six months, as a general rule, babies will be sleeping for approximately 14 hours a day, which may be distributed ten hours at night and four during the day, although don’t expect to have an uninterrupted night.

Six to 12 months

When your baby is aged between six and 12 months, you may start to think about cutting down his daytime naps to two naps of approximately two hours. If you’re very lucky, your baby may now be sleeping through the night, for up to 11-12 hours – if you put your baby to bed at 7pm, he might even sleep through to 7am! This will seem like bliss, but, as stated above, babies are individuals so don’t be too demoralised if your baby still wakes at night. Also, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that if you put your baby to bed late at night he will be more likely to sleep in late. In fact, the opposite may be true. If your baby doesn’t go to bed until 10 or 11pm, he may well be overtired and have a restless and disturbed night’s sleep, so try to establish a sensible bedtime routine in the early months which sees your baby in bed by 7pm.

12-18 months

Between the ages of 12 and 18 months, you may decide to reduce your baby’s naps still further, especially if you find that he’s still waking in the night. As every child is different, there is no hard and fast rule as to how long your one year old should sleep for, but you may decide that one long afternoon nap of two hours is sufficient.

Two years

When your child reaches the age of two and the toddler years are fully upon you, you may find that he is resistant to going to bed as there are too many other exciting things for him to do. You should be firm and establish some boundaries. If you find that your toddler is still waking in the night and getting up at 6am, then you may find our feature on Coping with an early riser helpful.

By the age of two, your child should definitely need no more than one nap during the day of between one and two hours. If you have a bedtime routine firmly in place, he will also with luck be sleeping through the night for a period of up to 12 hours!

Three years

By the age of three, your child should need approximately 12 hours’ sleep. You may decide to cut out your child’s daytime rest altogether or, alternatively, reduce it to one hour-long nap.  You can expect your three-year-old to sleep for about ten hours a night. The benefits of establishing a bedtime routine early on should not be underestimated; the calmer and more settled your child is before going to sleep, the more likely he is to sleep through, so avoid anything that might make him too hyper or over-excited before he goes to bed. Watch our video on bedtime routines for more information.

The following chart should serve only as a rough guide. Remember: every child’s different, so the amount of sleep needed will differ from baby to baby.

Sleep diaries

You may also find it helpful to keep a sleep diary as a record of your baby’s sleep patterns. As the name suggests, this is literally a diary in which you can chart everything from how long it takes your baby to settle to how many times he wakes in the night, how long he wakes each time and what time he wakes up in the morning.

This might be a useful guide for you, as it will help you to get a clearer picture of your baby’s sleep patterns. You can then talk to your health visitor about any worries or concerns you may have. You could draw up a chart consisting of seven columns across for the days of the week and twenty-four rows down for the hours. Colour in the hours that your baby is asleep during the day and night. You could also use the diary as a way of charting the times when your baby is feeding.