Sometimes the baby does not want (or cannot) fall asleep and his parent’s despair. But what a delight! When a baby sleeps peacefully, it fills everyone who observes it with placidity and tenderness. And more to mom and dad, who can spend hours and hours looking, feeling and breathing the happiness that their child radiates. However, getting to that point is not always easy.
In fact, during the first year, it has been calculated that sleepy dads can lose between 400 and 700 hours of sleep. But it is not all bad news: from a very young age, they can be helped to become big sleepers by applying basic routines before and during sleep.
Thus, children will benefit from the restorative function of rest, which improves the body’s defenses, and older children will also have sweet dreams. For this, it is necessary to know the two stages of sleep that our son will go through during his first twelve months of life.
First stage
It is a fact, the newborn sleeps about 16 hours a day but, of course, not uninterrupted. In this first phase, which lasts up to three months, his awakenings and dreams are very directly related to his shots. That is to say, the feeding of the baby causes the periods of sleep to happen approximately every three hours: they wake up when they are hungry and they stay like this for about an hour in which they dedicate themselves, above all, to suckling.
Little by little this time increases until they are three months old and can stay up to three or four hours in full wakefulness. In this first stage, there is no choice but to be patient: the most that your baby usually sleeps uninterruptedly is five hours at night. However, it is also true that the times you stay awake are usually short.
Second stage
From three months he will sleep a little less: about 13 hours a day. In addition, exhausted parents will notice a few more changes: The ability to sleep so far may be impaired. He wants to relate more to his surroundings, and asleep he senses that it is impossible. Usually, you are already synchronizing your sleep rhythms in a less stressful way. That is, he stays awake for much of the day. A nap in the morning, another in the afternoon and, finally, a long sleep during the night is enough for him. You will get to sleep an average of eight hours in a row around five months. This rule is not general: there are many babies who at three months are already able to sleep even 12 hours in a row at night.
Tips:
1. It is necessary to set a time for the baby to lie down and not vary it if it is not strictly necessary. The important thing is that parents observe the time when their little one begins to appear more sleepy and take advantage of the fact that they always fall asleep more or less at that moment. If it is too early or too late, you can adjust the time by increasing or delaying it. It will be necessary to modify a quarter of an hour a day until you find a time that you think is adequate and comfortable.
2. The pacifier is a good tranquilizer, it can be used if necessary to help you fall asleep. The baby in the womb has a habit of non-nutritive sucking and is a source of pleasure. You do not have to prevent that enjoyment. It is from the year and a half when the pacifier generally becomes a disturbing element. Until then, it is not a problem. It is recommended to use it only as a conductor of sleep and remove it just when you start to close your eyes.
3. You can influence your child’s dream by acting during the dream. Simply practicing the same ritual before he falls asleep: rocking him, singing lullabies to him, or using a soothing tone of voice when bedtime comes can help calm him down – that is, prepare him for sweet dreams.