Parenting Blog

The little one inside you is now taking rest besides you. Isn’t this feeling the most magical of all the experiences during pregnancy? Looking at the little angel taking rest has now become your favorite task. But as a mother you must be well aware of the sleeping habits of your little baby.

Most of the babies sleep for at least 14 hours in a day. This includes daytime naps. The babies by this age will develop a predictable pattern of sleeping and waking up. You might be relaxed, as you won’t have to feed your baby in the night any more. But you cannot expect our little baby to follow a strict, regular sleep program. Try some sleep training for your child if you want his sleep time to be more regular and should fit in your family lifestyle.

Observe how your baby responds to a regular sleeping pattern. You might have to make some adjustments in your sleep time according to what is suitable for our baby.

Most of he babies develop habit of sleeping for longer stretches in the night. Though not 8 hours, still they can sleep for around five to six hours in the night. You cannot hope for a long eight to nine hours of sleep for yourself if you are a parent of a 3 month old. But that does not mean you will feel deprived of rest. This will allow you to get through few sleep cycles which will make you feel more relaxed when you get up in the morning. This is an important stage for not only your baby but also for you.

Don’t be depressed if your baby is still waking up in the night for night feeding even if he is 3-6 months old. A lot of babies in this age keep their mothers waking in the night. By the time your baby gets 6 months old, if given proper training will definitely start sleeping for more hours in the night and stop troubling you.

You might have started to enjoy after your baby learns to sleep for long periods at night but to your shock a lot of babies may start to wake up in the night again. You might have to break your sleep after every few hours. This is natural, so don’t get upset. It might annoy you and make you wonder, what happened suddenly. The baby is now learning new skills like sitting and rolling. His body might try some rolling in the sleep and the little twitches made by him will wake him up. Some babies might feel insecure during night and might wake up crying just to find themselves in the arms of their mother

The life of newborn babies is mostly all about feeding and sleeping. After all, he/she is in the inertia of the long cozy sleep inside the mother’s body. Parents do need to know how much a newborn baby normally sleeps in 24 hours. 

While newborn babies do not follow a set routine for sleep, for most babies, the sleeping time is up to 18 hours daily (in 24 hours). But the sleep is often intermittent and the baby wakes every 2 to 3 hours to be fed. Also, most babies will sleep for 3 to 5 hours maximum at a stretch. Following are some common sleep patterns for newborn babies of varying ages: 

Up to 3 Months

Newborn babies, ranging in age from their natal day up to 3 months, usually take 16 to 18 hours of sleep daily. The sleep is divided into 2-3 hours sessions. Their sleep does not have to do much with night or day and they will sleep almost equally at day as they do at night. The day-night awareness appears in the baby at an age of around 6 to 8 weeks. By the age of 2 to 3 months, a sleep pattern is developed by the child. The parent can then anticipate when the child is going to sleep and how long the sleep is going to continue at a particular time. 

3 to 6 Months

The total daily sleep of the baby at this age is about 14 to 16 hours. It is usually 8 hours of sleep at night and 6 hours at day (divided in three stretches of 2 hours each). The child gets asleep more readily and does not wake in the absence of much disturbance. Some babies at this age may not wake at all during the night. However, most would wake once to be fed. By the age of 6 months, the daytime sleep drops to 2 naps, each lasting about 2 hours. 

6 to 12 Months

During the 6 months to one year, the total daily sleep of a baby is 12 to 14 hours. Most babies take a daily nap of about 2 to 3 hours each. A 6 month sold baby is able to sleep well through the night, without waking at all. But many kids do wake once. Before the baby’s first birthday, a long stretch of sleep (about 11 hours or more) is less likely to occur.