Catégorie : bebe/Sommeil/

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What to do when your child continues to wake up during the night – and you know he is old enough to sleep all night? If you want him to sleep all night without calling for you, the most important thing is to make sure that the child learns to fall asleep alone – finding his thumb, with a transitional object, or in some other way. Most experts agree that you should try to prevent your child from becoming dependent on external conditions, such as feeding, rocking and music to fall asleep; If it happens, the child will probably need the same things every time she wakes up during the night.
If your child does not sleep all night, there is a variety of approaches you can try.
• Approach 1
As long as you put your child to sleep in adequate time, you can do whatever looks like it’s going to help him fall asleep, like rocking him or walking until he falls asleep. If your bedtime routine is consistent, the waking up during night should diminish in a few weeks. If that doesn’t work, try a routine check: If your child is crying, go to his room. Give him a little tap on the back and tell him that everything is fine, but it’s time to sleep. Do not take him on to your lap, be kind but firm. Leave. Wait about five minutes and check again. Do this repeatedly, until he falls asleep, increasing the time between each visit.
• Approach 2
Help your child making appropriate associations for bedtime, creating a consistent routine before bed. Make sure your child falls asleep alone – without you, without a doll or bottle. Although these methods result in the short term, they can teach your child to rely on them to sleep, instead of falling asleep on her own. If she does not fall asleep, try leaving her crying for progressively longer time intervals, starting at five minutes, increasing to 10 and so on. Between intervals, you can spend about two to three minutes with the child, reassuring, talking and possibly giving it a little pad on the back. Do not her pick up or put her in your arms.
• Approach 3
See what time it is when the child shows signs of drowsiness and make this her regular schedule to lie down and sleep. Plan a quiet routine for bedtime and discuss it with your child, so she understands what is going to do, when, and why. Whatever the decision, the routine should finish with the child calm and awake in the crib, so she can fall asleep on her own. If the child wakes up during the night, do not pick her up or bring her to your room. The child needs to learn to fall asleep again alone, even if it means that at the beginning she cries a little. Comfort for a short time and then again every five to 10 minutes until she falls asleep.
• Approach 4
You can help your child with auto compensation techniques giving her a teddy or a blanket and helping her to find her thumb. Follow a routine of sleeping and comforting support. If she starts crying at night, change the pace of sleep waking before her bedtime. Give her love and affection, feed her if necessary, and put it back on, reassuring her because she is with you.
• Approach 5
Try changing the afternoon nap to an earlier time and, if necessary, wake the child up earlier. Keep the routine before bed. Other ways to help the child sleep are lying down with her, pretending you’re asleep, or a work approach, responsible adult: get ready for bed and make your own daily routine.
Eventually he will fall asleep while watching you. If the child wakes up during the night, don’t let her get to cry. Instead, try to find the reason for awakening (as a dirty diaper, hunger, is bored by the day-to-day routines, stuffy nose or even pajamas with a irritant tissue). Increase your level of intervention and the link to you during the day and let the father play the role of caregiver during the night, so that both parents help the child to sleep. If the child has been a consistent sleeper, but is going through a phase of great development, it is natural to wake up more often during the night. When this happens, try to numb it again without the draw of the cradle. Instead, give a little pat on the back, talk quietly and sing. You might consider taking her to your own bed.
There is no right way to encourage your child to lie down and sleep at night. You need to choose an approach that results for you and your family.
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Typical sleep patterns for newborns

Newborns sleep a lot – usually up 16 to 17 hours per day. But most babies don’t stay asleep for longer than two to four hours during the first few weeks of life.
The result?
Much sleep for your baby and a very irregular – and tiring – life to you. Your mission is to respond to clues of the newborn so you’ll probably get up often during the night to change him, feed him and comfort him.

What is happening

Baby sleep cycles are much shorter than those of adults, and babies spend more time in rapid eye movement sleep (REM), which is believed to be necessary for the extraordinary development that is happening in the baby’s brain. REM sleep is lighter than non REM.
All this unpredictability is a necessary phase for your baby and doesn’t last long – although it may seem like an eternity when you are sleep-deprived.

What is the next step

Around 6 to 8 weeks of age, most babies get to sleep for shorter periods during the day and longer periods at night, although most continue to wake up to feed at night. They also have shorter periods of REM sleep and longer periods of deep sleep non REM.
Sometime between 4 and 6 months, experts say, most babies are able to sleep from 8 to 12 hours overnight. Some babies sleep a great part of the night much earlier, at 6 weeks for example, but many babies reach this milestone by 5 or 6 months of age, and some continue to wake up during the night. You can help your baby get there sooner, if that is your goal, by teaching good sleep habits from the beginning.

How to establish good sleep habits

Here are some tips to help your baby sleep:
Learn the signs that mean that he is tired.
  • In the first six to eight weeks, most babies are not able to stay awake more than two hours. Extending more than that to put your baby to sleep, he can become too tired and have trouble falling asleep.
Notice the signs of tiredness of your baby.
  • Does he rubs his eyes, pulls his ear or is more demanding than usual?
If you notice these or any other signs of drowsiness, try to put him to sleep.
«Quickly you will develop a sixth sense about the pace and daily pattern of your baby, and will know instinctively when he is ready for a nap.»

Start to teach him the difference between day and night

Some babies are night owls (something that you may have started to notice a little during pregnancy) and well awaked when you want to rest. In the early days will not be able to do much about it. But around 2 weeks of age you can begin to teach him how to distinguish night from day.
When your baby is alert and awake during the day interact with him, as much as possible, keep the house and his room light and bright, and do not bother to minimize daytime regular noises, as the phone, music or dishwasher. If he tends to sleep during feedings genteelly wake him up.
At night, do not play with him when he wakes up. Keep the lights and the noise level low, and spend a less time talking to him. This way your baby begins to discover that the night is for sleeping.

Consider starting a bedtime routine

It is never too early to start to try to follow a routine before bed. It can be something as simple as putting the baby in his bed, singing a lullaby and giving him a kiss good night.

Create the environment so that your baby falls asleep by himself

By 6 to 8 weeks of age you can start giving your baby the opportunity to fall asleep on his own.
How to
Put the baby in the cradle when he is drowsy but still awake.
It is not advisable to rock or breastfeed your baby to sleep, even at the beginning. There are Parents who believe what they do at the beginning has no impact, but it has. Babies are learning their sleeping habits.
«If you breastfeed the child to sleep every night in the first eight weeks, why would she expect something else later?»
However, not everyone agrees with this strategy. Some parents choose to rock in their arms or breast-feed their babies until they fall asleep, because they believe that it is normal and natural, because they like and because their baby is growing and sleeping well, or just because nothing else seems to work.
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As a new parent, this is probably one of your questions. Below are some general guidelines on how many hours of sleep the average child requires at various ages. Of course, every child is different — some need up to two hours of sleep more or less than others.

Age Day sleep Night sleep Total Sleep
1 month 8 hours 8 (inconsistent) hours 16 hours
3 months 10 hours 5 (3) hours 15 hours
6 months 11 hours 3 ¼ (2) hours 14 ¼ hours
9 months 11 hours 3 (2) hours 14 hours
12 months 11 ¼ hours 2 ½ (2) hours 13 ¾ hours
18 months 11 ¼ hours 2 ¼ (1) hours 13 ½ hours
2 years 11 hours 2 (1) hours 13 hours
3 years 10 ½ hours 1 ½ (1) hours 12 hours
* number of naps between brackets


Keep in mind that most kids need a lot of sleep. Many times if a child has poor sleep habits or refuses to go to bed before 11 p.m., the parents think that she just doesn’t need much sleep. That’s probably not true — in fact, it is quite likely to be a child with sleep deprivation. To see if your child fits in this scenario, ask yourself these questions:

• Your child falls asleep on almost all travels by car?

• You have to wake up your child almost every morning?

• Your child appears bored, irritable or very tired during the day?

• On some nights, your child seems to “land” much earlier than his usual time, before bed?

If you answered Yes to any of these questions, your child may be sleeping less sleep than needed. To change this you need to help him to develop good sleeping habits and set an appropriate time and bedtime routine.
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What will the baby’s sleeping pattern?
Newborns sleep a lot. Wait for your baby to sleep up to 18 hours per day in the first few weeks. However, do not sleep for more than three or four hours at a time, day or night. This unfortunately means that you can expect some sleepless nights, especially at the beginning.
This is a necessary phase for your baby and passes quickly, although it may seem like an eternity when you are sleep-deprived.
Your baby’s sleep cycles are much smaller than yours. The baby will have a greater quantity of rapid eye movement sleep (REM), which is a light sleep, easily disturbed. This is necessary for the changes that are happening in his brain.
Between six and eight weeks your baby will probably sleep for shorter periods during the day and longer periods at night. But he will still wake up to feed at night. He will have more stages of sleep deeper, non-REM sleep, and less light sleep.
It is possible that your baby sleeps the night at eight weeks of age. But it is much more likely that your nights are interrupted for at least the first few months. If your goal is to get the baby to sleep through the night, encourage clear habits from the beginning to help.
How to encourage good sleep habits
The baby can develop good sleeping habits soon after six weeks. Here are some strategies that you can use to help your baby develop them:
Recognize the signs that mean he is tired
In the first six to eight weeks, the baby will probably not be able to stay awake for more than two hours at a time. If you wait much longer than that to put him to bed, he probably will have more trouble falling asleep.
During the first three months, learn to read the signs that your baby is sleepy, as:
• rubs his eyes
• pulls the ear with his hand
• has dark circles under his eyes
• is irritable and cries for almost nothing
• stares into space
• yawns and stretch himself often
• loses interest in people and in his toys
• and still becomes too quiet
If you notice these or any other signs of sleepiness, falling asleep put the baby in his cot or pram. You will quickly develop a sixth sense about the pace and daily routine of your baby, and will instinctively know when he is ready for a nap.
Teach the difference between day and night
Your baby can be a night owl and be wide-awake when you are ready to sleep. At about two weeks of age, you can begin to teach him the difference between day and night.
During the day, when it is wide-awake:
• Change his clothes upon awakening to signal the beginning of a new day.
• Play with him as much as you can.
• Create animated energetic moments, talking, singing and playing with him.
• Keep your house and his room light and bright.
• Do not minimize the noises of everyday life such as radio or washing machine.
• Wake him up gently if it is falls asleep during feeding.
At night:
• Create quiet moments while you are feeding him.
• Keep the lights and low noise, and talk.
• Change him to the pajamas to signal the end of the day.
All this should help the baby to begin to understand that night is for sleeping. And give him the opportunity to fall asleep on his own.
Between six and eight weeks of age, you can teach the baby to fall asleep on his own. Put him to bed when his is drowsy but still awake. Stay with him if you want, but be prepared to do the same, every time that he wakes up during the night.
How the baby falls asleep is important. If you rock him to sleep every night in the first eight weeks, he will wait the same later. If you leave him alone to sleep, he will wait for that too.
Some experts advise against rocking or feeding the baby to sleep. It is up to you to decide what kind of routine best fits you and your baby.
If you want to establish a predictable pattern, you will need to adopt the same strategy every night.
What sleep problems happen at this age?
In the first few months, you may have to resign yourself to some restless nights. In the first few weeks you will notice probably that snuggling the baby helps him fall asleep.