Baby Sleep Schedule

Newborns

You've just come home from the hospital, and you'd love to get your baby on some type of routine. Good luck! The first few weeks will consist of your baby sleeping a large part of each day. Unfortunately for you, though, these sleeping patterns will be sporadic. While your baby will snooze throughout the day, she will wake often to be fed and changed. Baby feeding patterns will be frequent—every one to two hours—for the first few weeks. While some babies begin sleeping for longer periods of time at night, many continue their short sleeping periods all day long.

Trying to establish a baby sleep schedule during the first four weeks is difficult to do. However, as your baby matures, she will begin sleeping for longer periods of time. Although you may not be able to create a good sleeping routine during those first few weeks, you can lay the groundwork for encouraging your baby to become a better sleeper.

Baby Sleep Schedule

The best way to establish a schedule for your baby is to take your cues from her behavior. While most pediatricians recommend the feed on demand plan, eventually you'll begin to notice a pattern in your child's eating habits. You can then begin manipulating her daily schedule by using this routine and other signs as well. You can begin programming your baby to understand that it is time for his nap or for his nighttime sleep.

Try to encourage your baby to sleep at certain periods during the day. Realistically, a newborn will take several catnaps. However, once she has begun to have more wakeful periods throughout the day, you can begin helping her stretch those catnaps into actually naptimes.

• Interact with her during her wakeful periods.
• Read, sing, and talk to her.
• Don't over-stimulate her.
• Keep her in well-lit, active areas of the house when you want her to remain awake.

As your infant grows, you should be able to help her take at least three naps of 30 minutes or more throughout the day. Eventually, she'll drop down to two naps, and these may last an hour or more each. Finally, once she becomes a toddler, she'll be down to one nap a day.

Handling Problems

For many parents, a baby sleep schedule always seems just beyond their reach. Either their child won't take naps during the day and is absolutely exhausted—and cranky—at night, or their child takes a good nap during the day, but awakens frequently at night. Others may have a child who is a great sleeper—that is once he goes to sleep. How do you handle these problems? Routine is the key to developing good sleep patterns for your child.

• Try to stick to a schedule throughout the day.
• Schedule play dates, shopping trips, birthday parties, etc. around your child's naps as much as possible. (Obviously, this won't always work, and being too rigid regarding your child's schedule can create a whole new set of problems!)
• Use praise often. Let your child know how proud you are that he took a good nap, slept through the night, went to sleep on her own, etc.
• Put your child to bed while he is still awake. Let him learn how to soothe himself to sleep. You might encourage a favorite toy or lovey that he can keep in his bed.
• Don't go to your child at night as soon as you hear him. This depends upon his age and other circumstances, such as illnesses, etc., but if your child is several months old and there isn't anything apparently wrong with him, let him try to soothe himself back to sleep. If you immediately jump up and head to his room, you are reinforcing negative behavior and creating unwanted sleep patterns.

Finally, if your child continues to struggle with developing and/or maintaining a sleep schedule, discuss the problem with your pediatrician. There may be a physical reason as to why your child cannot sleep well.