Play time on an activity gym or mat is an exciting and stimulating time for a baby – but the fun will come to an abrupt end when a baby gets restless and wants to go to sleep.
Newborns and young babies have very erratic sleep patterns in the early days and this takes its toll on parents who often need to snatch forty winks when their little ones doze off.
It can be a real challenge for a parent to synchronise their personal sleeping pattern to that of a newly born baby. Mum or dad will often feel tired and sleepy at a time when the little one is wide awake and in the mood for some play time.
On other occasions, a parent might try to play with their child, when all that’s on the little one’s mind is sleep. The truth is, during the first few weeks it can be a nightmare just keeping track of a baby’s sleeping patterns.
Babies will typically sleep in short spells of around one to three hours and they will drift off to dreamland at any hour of the day or night. Parents will quickly discover that establishing a baby sleep routine is not easy.
New parents often wonder why babies regularly wake up in the night and show no desire to get back to sleep again. The reason for this is simple – they don’t really know the difference between night and day and have not started to develop a regular sleep pattern.
Familiarising a baby with the concept of day and night is essential – during the day you should ensure your rooms are bright and the curtains are open, you should encourage plenty of activity and not try to quieten traditional daily noises while your baby is sleeping.
At night parents should turn the lights down low, close curtains, reduce noise levels where possible, keep your voice low, don’t play with your baby and put the child down to rest as soon as possible after a feed and changing.
Leading baby sleep specialists recommend that at night – when a mother is feeding a baby – she should make it quiet and short and should put the baby back to bed in a dark place. During the day feeding should be more fun and lively to give the child the impression that they should be up during the day and sleep during the night.
In the first three to four months, it is difficult for newborns to put themselves to sleep. There will, however, be signs that a child is tired because normally after around 10 to 20 minutes of play, or even just sitting in a bouncer or baby seat, the little one will show obvious signs of tiredness.
Parents need to be on the look-out for signs of their child wanting to sleep – these include rubbing of the eyes, yawing, pulling at the ears, general restlessness and crying. With time, a baby will slowly begin to associate certain activities or processes with sleeping and this will eventually become the routine.
It is natural for a newborn baby to fall asleep while sucking at the breast, a bottle, or a dummy. The risk, however, is that when a baby always falls asleep this way, it quickly starts to associate the motion of sucking with falling asleep – this can become a habit which is hard to break and the little one may find it hard to fall asleep by any other method.
There is plenty of advice which suggests parents should try to create the right mood for their little ones to go to sleep by rocking them gently, nurturing them, cuddling them or playing soothing music.
Establishing a baby sleep routine is important for the child – and also for parents who need to get the essential rest and sleep they need to get on with the demanding role of raising their little ones.
After around four months it’s recommended that parents start to take active steps to teach their little ones to learn to fall asleep all by themselves. Here’s an article which offers advice on the subject of infants and sleep. There is also some useful reading on the NHS website for helping your baby to sleep.
Sleep deprivation can really take its toll on new parents and they should try to snatch a badly-needed nap when their baby sleeps.