Some babies are fantastic sleepers, going through the night from 6 weeks old and taking three perfect naps a day. But most babies probably yours included - are not fantastic sleepers. There is no reason why they should be, of course. Many of the sleep "problems" with young babies are to do with parental expectations rather than with the baby behaving abnormally. But while you shouldn't have high hopes of your baby's sleep fitting in with yours in the early days, it is important to plan ahead. The habits that your baby is getting into by around the 6-month mark will condition her sleep habits for the months to come.
How much sleep does my baby really need?
Some experts will tell you that young babies need as many as 18 hours of sleep in every 24 hours. Others say that they can make do with as little as 12 hours a day. But how much your own baby needs is very individual and is determined by a whole range of factors including your expectations, her size and genes, what kind of person she is, and what's going on around her.
Monitoring her sleep
Some parents feel that they are being kept on the go all day by the demands of their baby. Apart from feeling worn out themselves, they feel that their baby can't possibly be getting enough sleep and rest either.
Your baby's little naps and snoozes during the day all add up to a substantial time spent asleep.
So if sleep is something that you're concerned about, for whatever reason, try keeping a sleep diary for a couple of days.
Note exactly when your baby sleeps and when she wakes. You'll almost certainly find that she sleeps for longer than you thought, especially if you're the kind of person who tends to use the hours when your child is asleep to do other tasks. Perhaps before she was born, you imagined that you'd be able to use your baby's sleep time to organize the house, but now that she's here it's a shock to find that you only just have time to pile washing into the machine and to wash the breakfast dishes while she's napping. No wonder it feels like she hardly sleeps at all!
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