Today we're returning to a topic close to our hearts - children's sleep. It's dear to us because it was covered in our first posts on the blog. It's an extremely interesting subject because of the diversity of aspects we can find, the different contexts and situations that mean that each baby's sleep is not the equal. Equal in time, frequency and need.
We know that it can be a real headache for parents in the first few months. They come home to a completely irregular pattern and the fact that whether it's day or night is no obstacle to their normal interruptions to sleep, to breastfeed, change a nappy or just because the baby needs a cuddle.
But will this scenario last long? It will depend from baby to baby, but what we can see is that around the age of six months, the day starts to have 24 hours and there will be a different way of programming it. We'll start to see what's known as a sleep pattern.
We think we can divide this topic into two parts. We want to look at the before - the first few months and the importance of sleep in a baby's growth and development - and the after - getting into a routine and how sleep patterns can develop in a baby.
So we're starting this topic as we always do - with some research so we can understand it better and share everything with you here.
When asked about an undisturbed night, the answer can be a little complex. Sleep patterns undergo transformations from the first few weeks to six months of age. An important note is that newborns have unique nutritional needs, so the frequency and quantity of breastfeeding is crucial.
Sleep patterns are gradually being built up, so the first month will be a time to get to know your little one and their sleep patterns. Interruptions and waking up during the night will be frequent. In the case of newborns and their small tummies, it's necessary to wake them up several times in order to feed them.
Another aspect we've discovered is that you'll need to wake your baby up more or less every four hours since the last time you breastfed. Breast milk is essential at least once every four hours during the first few weeks. When your baby is a month old and growing normally, you may no longer need to do this.
In this case, to make it a little easier to wake your little one up, you can see an opportunity when the baby is in an active sleep state - an involuntary movement of the eyes and eyelids. Afterwards, you can adopt gentle ways of waking him up - a gentle massage on the back, stomach, legs or changing the nappy.
Sleep can also make regular breastfeeding a little difficult, as the baby can fall asleep at the mother's breast. In this situation, we can ask for help from a professional to see if the baby is healthy.
Rest time is extremely necessary for the baby's growth and development. Something that has been indicated in our research is that proper sleep time will make it highly likely that babies will start to show good routine habits (e.g. bedtimes or consistent sleep schedules) and, better still, they will be able to maintain these good habits throughout childhood.
In this way, we can see that sleep patterns are beginning to take shape, but babies are beyond a phase of great deregulation when it comes to sleep schedules. They are still very young and still need other things, such as feeding every four hours.
What about you? How were these first few months of adaptation, disruption and tiredness? Anything you'd like to share with us about the first month of sleep periods? What were the main difficulties? We want to know your experience. We want to know your opinion.
