A Newborn Baby Sleep Schedule:
Discovering Day/Night Difference
Intro Newborn 1-4 months 4-12 months
The baby sleep schedule for a newborn comes quite naturally at first. Ideal now is to support her natural newborn sleep patterns and gently instill a good day-and-night rhythm for best newborn sleeping skills.
Especially during the first days, sometimes weeks, most babies are barely awake when not feeding. She will feed, sleep, feed, sleep, ...
Most babies
Please do not feel
uncomfortable if your baby does not seem to behave like "most babies".
When I mention "most babies" I mean what is typical, on average, for a
baby of that age.
But of course there are always many many cases on
either side of the average. And those babies are still very normal!
As
a comfort, remember: "most
babies"
do not
behave like "most babies" ...
In fact, it is better not to interfere with the newborn development too much while she is still fully establishing her newborn sleep patterns.
But it
is important to give her a feel of day
and night. A baby is not born with the day/night rhythm
well
established. It is the first thing to be learnt about sleep.
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Use these steps to help your baby discover the difference between day and night:
-
Choose your day and night times.
No need to be very strict but roughly decide on a time when the day starts and ends. For example your day could start around 7am and end at around 7pm. Each feeding in between will be a night feeding.
-
Day/Night Cues - Top tip!
Keep lights dim and activity to the lowest during these night feedings. In other words: during the night, keep it functional: not too many smiles, not much talking, change her diaper only if really necessary ...
Leave active feeding and playing sessions to the day - when I bet you'll feel more like it yourself as well. This will be a key part of each baby sleep schedule at any age. -
Of course you choose times that suit you well.
And no worries: this is not about deciding when your baby will go to bed when older. It's just for you to have a regularity guideline right now. And for baby to get into the rhythm.
-
Avoid waking your baby up for a feeding.
If she ususally feeds at a given time but is fast asleep, it's best to let her sleep. She needs time to find her sleep/wake pattern and that is best developed naturally.
-
Observe your baby.
Look for sleepy signs, listen to her breath when she just fell asleep and also when she is in a deep sleep, how does she wake up (rubbing her eyes, turning her head left-to-right, ...)? This will help you arrange a good newborn sleep schedule.
No worries if you cannot read and interpret your newborn baby's signs.
To tell you the truth: most parents find that very hard to do - even if many books make us believe "good moms and dads" should.
Just observe, it is fun to do and somehow you do learn from it! Somehow you will get a feel for when she needs to sleep, or is not tired at all, or overtired. And you will use this as she grows out of the newborn phase ...
My detailed guide to good naps gives you specific tools to use your baby's sleepy signs set up a good early nap routine. See "Nap in a Snap" for more info.
Remember to stay relaxed about sleep and enjoy your tiny baby as much as you can: she's only a newborn for such a short time ...
You will soon find a bit more rhythm towards 4 months.
Intro Newborn 1-4 months 4-12 months
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