By three or four months, most babies start to sleep 15 hours a day (10 hours at night, and the remainder divided among three day time naps). You may still be getting up once or twice a night for feeds at the beginning of this stage but by the time your baby
is six month old. She(he) will be physically capable of sleeping through the night. Whether he/she actually will depends on whether she’s learning sleep habits and patterns that will encourage this. She will still need about 14 hours of sleep a day, and may sleep for as long as seven hours at a stretch, with two one and a half to two hour naps a day. She no longer needs a feed during the night. By nine months to a year, your baby will probably be sleeping for about 10-12 hours at night and napping twice a day for an hour and a half to two hours at a time.
You can prevent a lot of future sleeping problems if you try to establish a consistent bed time routine as early as possible.
From the time your baby is three months old try to:
- Keep bed time and nap time as regular as you can
- Put him/her down to sleep at night before he/she nods off, so that he/she doesn't become dependent on you to fall asleep
- Help him/her to learn how to settle and soothe him(her)self by sucking his/her thumb, or cuddling a favorite blanket or small cuddly toy, which is always put in her cot with her(him). Most babies discover such as “comfort object” for themselves, and it works wonders, but once the favorite is established, make sure that you always have a duplicate handy for the inevitable night when it can’t be found at bedtime
- Give him/her a massage between bath and bedtime. This should make him/her feel relaxed and prepare him/her for sleep.
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