3 Lessons About Sleep That Your Baby Teaches You
If you have a baby at home, you have probably become a fan of baby sleep information. When babies or young children are not sleeping well (or parents believe that they are not sleeping well), they look for information to know if the hours of sleep that their baby has daily are normal or if there may be some kind of problem. Babies sleep a lot but different from us.
Babies will sleep in intervals of two or three hours because regardless of whether it is day or night, they will wake up because they will be hungry and also, they will not care if you are tired or if you are sleepy. A baby sleeps an average of 16 hours a day, but it will depend on the baby who sleeps those hours, more or even less. There are babies who sleep the minimum and are like a rose.
As babies grow, they can regulate their internal clock and know that they have to sleep more at night, but until they are one year old (some before and some after), they will not sleep through the whole night or at least most of the night. The day you manage to sleep more than six hours in a row or the 8 that you need to be well, it will be like the best award received.
There are families that can sleep more than others because it will depend on the baby and his needs. But nobody gets rid of little and bad sleep during the first months of their little ones’ lives. There are ways to put children to sleep that are useful for some but that are not useful for others. But what is clear is that your baby will teach you great lessons about sleep.
Sleep Lessons Your Baby Teaches You
1. Your dream is also important
You will begin to value your own dream as the most important thing in the world. You will realize that if you do not get enough sleep, your mood may change (for the worse), your physical state will begin to be weak and you will not feel energetic enough to be able to take care of your baby. In order to be happy you will need to be rested, by sleeping well you will be healthier and less stressed.
This means that you should prioritize your sleep when your baby sleeps. It will be important that you take a nap every day, that you do it when your baby sleeps. It is clear that you will not sleep the same hours as him, but look for a time in the day when you can. In this way you can be more rested and carry out your daily tasks with a better attitude.
2. Not all babies sleep the same
You may initially compare how your baby slept with other babies, but not all babies sleep the same. If your neighbor’s baby sleeps 19 hours and your baby sleeps only 12 (spread over day and night, of course), it doesn’t mean something is wrong with your baby, at all. It is simply that yours sleeps fewer hours and does not need more to be fresh and have energy.
To know if your baby is healthy even if he sleeps less (or more) than normal, you should check that he is gaining weight regularly, that he eats well every day, that he interacts with the environment, that he does his daily bowel movements as usual, that he does not you notice down or lethargy, that he has a good skin color… If your baby is healthy and your pediatrician also tells you, everything is fine.
3. Sleep formation has different stages
Sleep training in babies is not something that is achieved overnight, far from it. The form of sleep is made up of different stages, from establishing a routine to sleep, to regular naps… To finally sleeping through the night. Diligence and perseverance is required. There will be many nights on the road that are quite difficult.
Patience will be your best weapon, a baby does not wake up to bother you or to make you tired. When they cry, they do it because they need you, because they require your attention to satisfy their basic needs, be it hunger, that they have a dirty diaper, that they are cold or hot or simply that they want your love and warmth to feel emotional comfort.
