Baby sleep: in a nutshell

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By the time your baby is three months old, he will tend to sleep more at night and stay awake longer during the day. But it is amazing just how different babies can be. Some will sleep for hours on end. Others hardly seem to sleep at all. There’s no such thing as normal when it comes to sleeping babies.

Average sleep pattern for babies

All guides to babies’ sleep patterns are just that – a guide. You know your baby best. If he is awake and happy, he has had enough sleep. If he is awake and unhappy, he may need more sleep. If your baby is having trouble falling asleep, try the patting settling technique or read more about solving sleep problems.

Moving baby to a cot
If your baby has been sleeping with you for the first three months, you may want to move him to his own cot. With a little luck, this will go without a hitch and your baby will doze off happily when you put him into his cot. If, however, your baby is having trouble adjusting to bedtime without you, read Toward independent sleep.

Bedtime routine

By the time baby is six months old, he will appreciate the soothing ‘sameness’ of a bedtime routine. Babies love routine and it won’t take long for him to understand what is expected. A typical bedtime routine might look like this:

1. dinner
2. bath time
3. short playtime
4. last feed of the day (breast or formula)
5. nappy change
6. quiet time with you in his bedroom (reading a book or telling a story)
7. into the cot while singing a lullaby such as Rock-a-Bye Baby
8. say goodnight
9. lights out or night-light on (whatever he is used to)

At six months, there is no need for a feed during the night. Some parents find that a feed around 10 pm (called a rollover feed), just before they go to bed themselves, helps baby sleep longer through the night. You know your baby better than anyone, so you decide.

Night waking

All babies wake during the night as part of their normal sleep cycle. Problems start when they can’t get back to sleep without your help. Every night, many parents suffer the sudden jolt awake as they tune in to their little night owl’s cries. Once a baby knows how to fall back to sleep by themselves, everybody in the house can enjoy nights of relatively unbroken rest.

To help your baby figure out how to put herself to sleep, it is best to put her to bed while she is sleepy but still awake. If she can learn to go to sleep without your involvement, she is more likely to drop off again by herself if she wakes during the night. This means putting her into her bed before she falls asleep on your lap or on the bottle.

Nearly 50% of babies under 15 months wake at night. If regular night waking is becoming a problem for you, try using the tips in the guide to solving sleep problems.

Sleep tips

• You can help your baby to associate darkness with sleep by minimising activity, noise and light when you are feeding or changing her nappy during the night.
• A milk bottle in bed is not a good sleep aid as it can cause illness if milk goes down the wrong tube. As babies get older and develop teeth, it can also cause severe tooth decay if milk pools in her mouth while she sleeps.
• The 'tummy clock' is powerful enough to wake a baby with hunger pangs. So, starting at three months, if your baby wakes up hungry at 2am or 3am, you can give her a bottle of sterile water. This may give her enough associations to get her back to sleep and turn off her tummy's alarm clock after a couple of nights.

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  By Raising Children Network

  All babies are different but there are average sleep patterns.

  • Up to three months: your baby might be sleeping more during the night and staying awake longer during the day.
  • 3-6 months: your baby might be having two or three sleeps of up to two hours each during the day, and perhaps waking at least once during the night.
  • Six months: there might be no need for a night feed.
  • 7-12 months: your baby might be sleeping 2-3 hours during the day, split between morning and afternoon sleeps. At this time, many babies also start sleeping from between 6 pm and 10 pm until 5 am or later.

  Night waking

  Your baby needs to learn to put herself to sleep. Encourage this process by putting her to bed while she is sleepy but still awake, rather than letting her drop off while feeding or cuddling. She might then be more likely to go back to sleep by herself if she wakes during the night.

  This article is an extract only. For more information visit raisingchildren.net.au/sleep/babies_sleep.html

  Sourced from the Raising Children Network's comprehensive and quality-assured Australian parenting website www.raisingchildren.net.au.