NEWBORN SLEEP TIPS | How much sleep does a newborn need? How can I get my baby to sleep? - Certified Pediatric Sleep Consultant and Potty Training Coach

NEWBORN SLEEP TIPS | How much sleep does a newborn need? How can I get my baby to sleep?

You brought your new baby home from the hospital and you’re realizing that they really are sleeping a lot, especially during the day. Are they sleeping too much? Are they not sleeping enough? How much sleep do they need? And what even is considered a newborn? All these things that might be going through your mind, we’re gonna talk about all of them!

NEWBORN SLEEP TIPS | How much sleep does a newborn need? How can I get my baby to sleep?

If you’re lost in this new journey of parenthood, I want to invite you to grab my newborn sleep course, this course is going to walk you through those first few months of parenting, not just in the aspect of sleep, even though it is going to be mostly sleep related, but you’re gonna have so much more information in this course. I’m even breaking down things that you can do with your child for different experiences during different months of your child’s life. You will be surprised how much you can do with a newborn baby that’s going to help their brain development and with social, emotional and language skills and all things down the road. So make sure you grab that course.

My top five tips for newborn sleep:

Not to stress. I don’t want you to stress about sleep. Everything in the first few months is practice. You can practice independent sleep and you can also enjoy cuddles with your baby and we know that skin to skin time is so important.
Swaddle in those first few months, because you want to replicate the womb that your baby was in, it was a tight little compressed area. It’s also going to help dampen their startle reflex.
Use white noise. Again, we’re replicating the womb, it was loud and pushy in there. So you want to use white noise consistently the entire duration of your baby’s sleep.
Use blackout curtains. You don’t need lights going on in your child’s room, any light that we’re seeing is telling our brain that it’s time to be awake.
Take shifts with your significant other. Taking shifts is going to help keep your sanity and help both of you get sleep.

The terms ‘baby’ and ‘infant’; ‘baby’ we’re really only talking about that first month, maybe the first two months of your baby’s life, and ‘infant’ are anything above two months up until 12 months old. So today we are going to focus on those first four months of your baby’s life. How much sleep do they really need? What should their wake windows look like and how much should they be sleeping during the day?

The whole phrase “never wake a sleeping baby,” throw it out the window because you SHOULD wake a sleeping baby in that first month of your baby’s life. Your baby is going to have their days and nights mixed up and you need to fix them as soon as possible. Wake your baby every two hours. You’re probably going to find that your baby is going to need to eat every 2-3 hours, so you’re going to wake to feed anyway.

So from birth to one month old, your baby is going to need 16 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period.

Their wake window should only be 45 minutes. So that might mean you only have time to feed, change their diaper and have some face to face time, skin to skin time or a little bit of interaction together before your baby is tired and ready for a nap.

At birth to one month old, your baby is going to nap for up to six hours a day, maybe more, maybe a little less. But in general about six hours of daytime sleep is what newborns need at one month old.

Your baby still might need about six hours of daytime sleep at two months old. But when you break it down by wake windows and nap time, you’re going to have a later bedtime these first few months. If you wake up at seven a.m. every single day and get your baby up at the same time, every day, starting at two months old, then it’s going to be easier for your baby to set their circadian rhythm at three months old.

At three months you’re up 75-90 minutes of wake time. You’re going to start getting those first little giggles and your baby is really going to stretch out from that fetal position and they’re not going to need as much sleep.However, they still need 14 to 16 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period and the daytime sleep should be spread out. Your baby is still going to have about four naps a day, but they should be sleeping for 4 to 5.5 hours during the day.

Four months old your baby sleep is becoming more adult-like and they’re falling into more adult-like sleep patterns. Your baby might go through the four month sleep regression. I have a video right here https://youtu.be/NW-QU8qUHPA that you can check out to learn more about the four month sleep regression and how to handle that. So here your baby is going to need 14 to 15 hours of sleep in the 24 hours period and they can handle a 1.5 to 2 hour wait window. This is when life just gets so much more fun at this point because if you think about a two hour wait window, the amount of time it takes you to feed your baby, change your baby and then maybe go for a walk or go to a library story time.

Do not just keep yourself cooped up because you’re gonna think about those first few months, you’re adjusting to being a parent, you’re adjusting to parenthood, whether it’s your first kid, whether you’re adding another child to your family and you’re having that adjustment period, you’re probably not leaving the the house as much as you did before the baby was born.

I hope that this was helpful. Don’t forget to grab my newborn sleep course.