Sleeping

How much sleep should my baby get? this is one of the biggest worries a new parent can face. Is the baby getting too much or too little sleep? just like adults, babies sleep patterns vary quite a lot. You might think that everyone else's baby is sleeping almost to a schedule and your child just sleeps when it wants to, and not when you want it too.

Baby Sleep Stats (Statistics)
Babies need about 15 hours of sleep each day, and unfortunately thats not in one straight sleep session. in fact, each sleep session lasts about 3 - 4 hours, and a bulk of this is happens during the daytime. This is particularly the case in the first couple of weeks. Some babies can start sleeping for a longer duration, sleeping through the night at about 6 weeks while others could start this at about 6 months. The amount a baby sleeps will gradually decrease over time. A baby aged between 3 to 9 months will sleep about 14 hours, and this will fall to 13 to 14 hours when your child is about 1 to 2 year old. From 3 years this goes down to 12 hours but this involves one after noon nap. you may be thinking thats a lot of sleep time, but babies need this much sleep. If you have read the above and find that your baby does not even sleep that much and that it seems that your baby does not need that much sleep, then you may have a sleep-deprived child.

Helping your Baby Sleep
Just like us parents, babys like to sleep and wake up at a about the same time. The key issue is that you need to learn or learn the tell-tale signs the baby makes when its time to sleep. Signs to look out for are when the baby is rubbing his eyes, yarning, to crying and being cranky.
Sleep Consultants recommend that you portray a distinction between night and day. A way you can do this be making nighttime a time were you do not play games with the baby, and daytime be bright full of activities etc. You could put babies to sleep on its own accord, i.e. without moving the cot etc.
When the baby is between 3 to 6 months you should establish times for sleep and stick to them so that the baby will get a natural rhyme as to when to go to sleep. A good time to go to sleep is about 7-8 pm. You should stick to the same activities running up the bedtime, such as bathing the baby. As you probably know, all babies wake up several times in the night, and it will be up to you to either rock your baby to sleep or let him sleep on his own. Some parents let their child cry to sleep when they wake up in the night. This usually makes the baby less dependent on parents when it comes to getting back to sleep on his own. Remember, this is method some parents use.