The child sleeps a lot or a little, restlessly or soundly, what are the signs of drowsiness in the baby and how to determine in time that it is time for the child to sleep - most parents cannot cope with these questions on their own. And they often make mistakes, not understanding how important a healthy and sound sleep is for an infant.
After becoming a parent, many are afraid of most of the natural things that happen to a child. It takes time, effort and patience to make the unknown and frightening understandable, to find your own approach to the child's needs and development. One specific and frightening area is children's sleep.
It can be difficult for young parents to find out from the first days how many hours a child needs to get adequate sleep, how he sleeps and whether it is possible to wake a sleeping child. It is useless to ask questions to doctors, unfortunately, medicine summarizes and averages statistics on many aspects of upbringing.
There are several rules that will allow young parents to find an approach to their child and give him a healthy and satisfying sleep.
Identify signs of drowsiness in your baby
In adults, there are only two signs of sleepiness in perception: yawning and lethargy. In children, everything is much more complicated, because their central nervous system has not yet been fully formed, they do not know how to control their body and respond to fatigue in time.
An unreasonable cry, general nervousness and rubbing of the eyes can be a sign of drowsiness. These are already late signs of overwork and should not be brought to them. Older children, when drowsy, become "tame", ask to be in the arms of their parent, cling to him. They begin to move awkwardly, stumble and lose coordination of movements, or vice versa - they become hyperactive, move sharply and quickly, and make noise. As if trying to throw out energy - this is also a late sign of overwork. When the degree of sleepiness reaches its peak, the child begins to whimper, cry and protest trying to put him to sleep. It is easy to check if the child is overexcited or just playing. It is enough to offer him a new game or toy - a tired child will not react, but a playful and active one will immediately switch his attention to a novelty.
It is worth paying attention to the fact that if a child begins to "rage" at a time close to sleep, it is important to shift attention and offer quiet games, take a warm bath or other methods that parents have already become accustomed to to distract the child.
Hyperactive behavior has a very big disadvantage - an overexcited child cannot calm down on his own, as a result, he begins to sob, kick and cry until he gets tired and falls asleep. Therefore, it is very important to identify the early signs of sleepiness in your child and learn how to catch these moments in order to put the child to bed on time. Such identification of signs of fatigue will help the child himself in the future to have the right habits and sensations.
Babies sleep a lot. Lots of
Throughout the day, it seems that the child sleeps very little, if at all. However, an infant sleeps from 14 to 22 hours for up to six months during the day, and the World Health Organization confirms these figures as optimal.
The baby's sleep during the day is blurred into deep sleep, superficial and nap, for half an hour, an hour, a couple of hours, and in total, a sufficient amount is recruited to rest his little body. By the year this figure drops to 12, and by the age of three - to 9 hours of sleep. Therefore, if it seems to you that the baby has confused day with night, sleeps very little or, on the contrary, a lot, do not worry. Sleep is established by 6-7 months and most of the wakefulness goes away during the daytime, and sleep - at night. By the age of 8 months, as a rule, the child is already sleeping continuously for 5 hours at night.
Increasing the interval between sleep
Your child can sleep for half an hour, then stay awake for an hour and fall asleep again for half an hour. Perhaps the child himself now perceives this form as comfortable, but remember that he does not control his body and does not know how to establish habits. Only a parent can teach a child the right habits, recognize their feelings and draw conclusions from them.
Try to gradually increase the intervals between going to bed for your baby, by ten to twenty minutes. Do not lead to crying and screaming, but while the child is cheerful and happy, plays with his mother's hand or chews on a diaper / rattle / teetot - let him chew. Sleep mode is useful and makes sense after six months, until this time the child should be brought to sleep gradually.
The habit of sleeping without parents
In the first months after birth, the baby needs the warmth of the parents nearby to feel safe. A small child, waking up, may be frightened when left alone. An excellent solution, which is universally recognized, is to attach a crib to the parents' bed. In this case, the mother can always reach out to the baby, giving a feeling of security and warmth, but at the same time the risk of waking the child up with her movements or harming him in a dream is reduced.
Gradually change the way you go to sleep. Give up motion sickness in the hands, it also does not benefit the back of the parents, because the child becomes heavier and the lower back is heavily loaded. If the baby is used to falling asleep while feeding, switch the process to horizontal - lying on the bed. The child gets used to falling asleep on a stationary flat surface, and not in the hands of his parents, and there will be no problems with falling asleep in the crib in the future.
Don't wake a sleeping child
There is nothing worse than a child who is forcibly taken out of deep sleep. If your child falls asleep, let him sleep as long as he needs.
Of course, the realities of the modern life of active parents and the working hours of the clinic do not always coincide with the needs of the child, and this must also be taken into account. In addition to understanding the signs of sleepiness in children described above, try to identify for yourself the signs of different phases of sleep in your child.
Deep sleep (tightly closed eyes, deep and measured breathing, lack of eye movement under the eyelids) and shallow sleep (eye movement over the eyelids, disturbed breathing rhythm, sighing, twitching of the arms and legs) are different. And if your baby is sound asleep during the visit to the doctor, take time to talk with the doctor, ask questions before the examination. You can easily determine by breathing that the baby has passed into another phase and will be able to wake him up without loss.
Don't disturb your baby's sleep for your own convenience
It would seem tempting to adjust the child's sleep to suit your tasks, so that he sleeps when parents need to do chores, work, and do something interesting for themselves. Of course, self-interests are very important for an adult, so as not to fall into domestic bail and not become isolated on the child.
However, a child's sleep is in many ways the foundation for a healthy central nervous system, behavior, behavioral responses, intelligence development, and many other critical aspects of an infant's life. Don't compromise on your child's sleep if you have unexpected things to do. Any business can be rescheduled, it just won't be so convenient for an adult. Rather than forcing your baby to sleep on a schedule that suits you, schedule your activities with a floating time schedule so you can get in when your baby is resting.
Separate sleeping time and feeding time
For newborns, it is in the order of things to sleep immediately after meals, during meals, instead of eating.. But the older the child becomes, the longer the gap between sleep and feeding needs to be done.
In addition to the fact that immediately after a meal, a child may regurgitate "excess", and after eating, young children often have urge to use the toilet. Changing clothes and washing a sleeping child is another adventure, and gives us the opportunity to look at the point above in the text - not to wake the child in the deep sleep phase. Gradually increase the interval, even if the baby is sleepy after eating and blinks languidly. Distract him for a while with a game, a conversation, a fairy tale. It is useful to draw for a child, showing him the capabilities of his own hands, to teach fine motor skills.
Do not wake up the child if he cries in his sleep
It is perfectly natural for a child to make sounds and fuss in their sleep. He may sneeze, hiccup, cry, or even scream without waking up. Make a convulsive breath or exhale, jerk your arms and legs. These are signs of a calming down of the central nervous system before plunging into a deep phase of sleep, do not panic or be afraid if a child suddenly cried out with a small seagull at the whole apartment, frightening the cat, dad and neighbors. Walk up to the crib calmly and make sure the baby is actually sleeping. You can gently place your palm on your tummy, warming, or a light warm heating pad, heated by an iron or your own warm diaper. The feeling of warmth signals the baby that he is not alone, this will help him to calm down without waking up and continue to sleep. If the baby continues to cry, is nervous and does not sleep well, try not to wake him up and take him in your arms. Maybe he was overexcited before going to bed and cannot calm down on his own, for this he needs the warmth of his parents and there may be a soft whisper or "white" noise.
In general, young parents find it very difficult to get the first months and even years of parenting. Many things are impossible to google, learn and transfer someone's experience to your child, because kids are different, families have different environments and different habits. These rules, described above, will help parents not only better understand their baby, but also teach him to develop healthy sleeping habits.
