New born babies have unusual sleep-pattern till they are at-least six months old, sometime newborn as well as little older kids have sleep problem, few of the kids sleep a lot while other sleep too little and few have irregular sleeping pattern as they wakeup at irregular interval. Generally a newborn baby sleeps for about 18 to 22 hours a day with a break of about 1 to 3 hour in between their sleep. As the child grows older within a span of six months their sleeping time comes down to about 16 to 14 hours a day.
Parents should be aware of few things necessary to understand the newborn baby’s sleep pattern and related problems.
Tired babies:
A newborn baby exhaust their energy too soon and gets tired very easily, for few weeks a newborn baby should be wrapped slowly, softly and carefully in a clean, smooth and soft cloths. Even if a child is wrapped they generally try to undo it or feel discomfort at it. Usually a child moves their hands and legs and get tired and here is a trick; A tired baby sleeps well but over-tired baby generally cries and yell and gets more discomfort and this disturbs kids sleep pattern. Usually an infant should not be carried out of bed for more than one hours as this causes overtiredness in them
Bedwetting, hunger and Illness:
Another factor that disturbs the sleep pattern in newborn babies are bedwetting, getting hungry or illness. A newborn baby regularly soil their diaper either by peeing or by passing stool. A wet diaper gives itchy feeling to baby and discomforts them, disturbing their sleep pattern. New born gets hungry too quickly and should be fed regularly, some time a change in the feeding pattern disturbs the sleep pattern too. Newborn baby are more prone to illness and most common illness in newborn babies is stomachache. Parents should learn about the hunger pattern in their newborn baby and their cleansing times so that newborn kids are disturbed minimally. If the newborn is ill or if they cry and yell non-stop a immediate consultation with pediatrician is highly recommended to avoid the sleep discomfort.
Sleeps in Arms Only:
Most comfortable place for a new born baby is mother’s arms, a newborn baby should be kept close to its mother as far as possible and many a times if baby is left alone, they feel lonely, uncomfortable and they wake up and start to cry. This is a natural phenomenon and often described as an invisible bondage of mother - child relationship. It is advisable for mother to give ample time to their newborn and mother should disassociate with newborn slowly. Mother should make newborn baby to sleep in their arm and then lay them in crib (or cot) and should move away once the child is deep sleep.
Sleep Associations:
As child grows older they automatically gets disassociated with their mother and often sleep alone. Commonly a child sleeps after a short play, after feeding or rocking in cradle. Kids can be slowly disassociated from these activities and can be made to sleep in cot with proper and regular training