Features of the regime of a newborn baby and a month-old baby

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Lyudmila Sergeevna Sokolova Pediatrician of the highest category

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Article last updated: 05/25/2019

Immediately after the birth of a baby, the life of every woman changes very dramatically. Of course, she becomes happier, but at the same time the responsibility assigned to every mother also increases.

New parents have to quickly learn how to care for their baby. One of the first questions is how much sleep should a newborn baby sleep per day? It happens that babies sleep soundly and soundly, not wanting to interrupt it for feeding and other procedures, or, conversely, the baby is constantly awake and has difficulty falling asleep.

Sleep in the first month of life

Indeed, the first month of a child’s life is the sleepiest. Woke up, ate and went back to sleep. So day after day. Only at the end of the first month does the baby begin to “communicate” with mom and dad: he smiles at them, looks intently at stationary objects, listens carefully to the voices of adults, however, the baby sleeps most of the day. This is the absolute norm for him. A healthy full-term baby sleeps on average 16-18 hours and wakes up every 3 hours to eat. In his sleep, he rests and grows; he should not be disturbed in this, says E. Komarovsky. There is no need to interfere, but it is certainly worth helping. To do this, you need to properly organize his sleep.

A prerequisite is a dense and even mattress, preferably orthopedic. It is better to take care in advance about a replacement cover for it, since from birth children have an amazing ability to get everything dirty and wet. It is better to cover the crib with thin diapers rather than sheets. They are more convenient and easier to wash. Usually they buy 2-3 sets of bed linen, while a much larger supply of diapers is made. Changing a dirty diaper is not difficult. Pillows are not needed, even a diaper folded several times under the head is not required.

Important! A child of the first year of life should sleep only on his back. This is a categorical recommendation from doctors. Motion sickness in children leads to dizziness and, in some cases, loss of consciousness.

Particular attention must be paid to the temperature and humidity in the room. Optimal parameters are 18-19°C and 50-70%, respectively. At higher temperatures and lower air humidity, there is a high probability of drying out of the mucous membranes.

The child should only sleep on his back

When is prolonged sleep dangerous?

After a 5-hour rest, the baby feels normal, eats, does not cry, but is awake less than the prescribed amount of time? This means that the cause of a long-term physiological state is malnutrition; this problem can be eliminated. But there are other reasons that should force parents to see a doctor:

• the baby sleeps for 5 hours without changing the position of his arms, legs, head and attempts to wake him up are in vain;
• the skin and mucous membrane of the mouth have acquired a blue tint;
• body temperature has increased;
• breathing is heavy, shallow

Normal sleep duration for a one-month-old baby

How long should a 7 month old baby sleep?

In the first month, newborns sleep up to 18 hours; this value can fluctuate within 2 hours. Conventionally, you can divide all your sleep time in half, the duration of night and daytime sleep will be equal to 9 hours. The baby sleeps and is still awake in his own way.

Night sleep

It is impossible to answer the question of how long a month-old baby should sleep at night. The duration of sleep is limited by the intervals between feedings. Therefore, he will sleep just enough until he gets hungry and asks for food. This can be 2-3 times a night. In addition, the baby needs to change his diaper. It will be possible to talk about a full night's sleep only after 1 month. To form a proper night sleep schedule, you must adhere to the following rules:

• after waking up at night, open the curtains;
• during the waking period during the day, stay in a bright room;
• do not turn on bright lights at night during feeding and diaper changing, use a night light;
• do not overload the baby with emotions right before bedtime, exclude the arrival of guests in the evening;
• go to bed at 22-23 hours;
• put him in the crib immediately after feeding, so that he falls asleep not while eating, but after, on his own.

Daytime nap

During the day, a month-old baby usually sleeps for 2-3 hours at a time. The number of sleep periods is 6-7 times. Babies build their daily routine according to their needs: they wake up for feeding, some socializing and then fall asleep again. Walks and shopping trips should be arranged between feedings. As a rule, babies like to sleep especially soundly in a stroller or car seat; the duration of sleep can reach up to 4-5 hours in a row. At first, it is necessary not so much to count how much newborns sleep in the first month; the period of their wakefulness is much more important. You should not let your baby get too tired. It usually gives the following signals of fatigue:

• yawns, rubs eyes;
• movements slow down, the gaze does not focus on anything, it stops.

At this moment, the child must be put to sleep, otherwise he will start screaming and in the future it will be even more difficult to put him to sleep.

How to lay your baby down?

It is not recommended to rock a child in your arms, in a crib, or in a stroller. A healthy baby falls asleep on his own! Before “leaving” for the land of dreams, it is necessary to change the baby’s clothes into fresh, recently ironed undershirts and diapers. There is no need to swaddle the baby tightly so as not to disturb comfort. You should ventilate the room 10-15 minutes before going to bed. There is no need to rock the baby, but it is necessary to sing a lullaby, stroke the legs and arms.

Important tips to help moms improve their baby's sleep

• Don't let your baby get tired. If the baby rubs her eyes, yawns, and looks for her chest, then it’s time to go to bed;
• come up with a ritual that will be carried out strictly before rocking to sleep: read a fairy tale, sing a song;
• Bathing affects children differently. If after the procedure the child begins to be awake, then the water should be diluted with essential oil, soothing herbs, and aromatic drops;
• as a preventive measure, give the baby vitamin D once a day;
• if a child wakes up at a certain time from colic or teething, then you can give medicine in advance;
• is everything in vain? You can move away from the child’s field of vision; perhaps those present in the room are distracting the baby;
• The baby should not overeat before rest.

Each baby has an individual daily routine. The main thing is to adhere to the recommendations and take important advice in time so that there are no negative consequences. Parents need strength, patience, and love to organize the correct daily routine for their little one. Healthy rest for babies is the key to a happy seven

How many times can a baby sleep a day?

How much should a 6 month old baby sleep?

A child’s adequate sleep is the key to peace and tranquility in the newborn’s family. The longer the baby sleeps, the more time his mother has for proper rest. Many doctors advise mothers to sleep at the same time as their baby, at least 2-3 times a day.

Co-sleeping between mother and baby

Each child is individual; the answer to the question of how much newborns should sleep under 1 month can be answered as follows: children do not owe anything. They will sleep as much as they need for proper rest. The task of parents is to prepare and provide all the conditions for proper sleep. These include the following:

• ensure comfortable air temperature;
• perform regular ventilation;
• do wet cleaning;
• do not collect “dust collectors” - soft toys should not be within the child’s reach, especially in the crib;
• choose a moderate, reasonable amount of clothing or diapers made from natural fabrics, choose clothes that are easy to unbutton at night without disturbing the baby: a bodysuit with buttons between the legs or rompers with buttons on the legs;
• regular nutritious feeding;
• evening water treatments - swimming in a large bath;
• massage and gymnastics according to the child’s age;
• make sure that there are no sharp extraneous noises (neighbors started repairs, the car alarm went off);
• regularly change the diaper between feedings, although manufacturers of modern disposable diapers position them as capable of keeping the butt dry all night, a full diaper is not helpful for healthy sleep;
• arrange a comfortable sleeping place.

A great achievement would be to get 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep. The number of sleep periods indirectly depends on the lifestyle of the family in which the baby grows up. If there is a constant need to travel by car during the day, the child will constantly sleep in the car seat. In case of long walks, the baby will sleep in the stroller, and the interval between feedings may increase.

If we still talk about averages, you can use the following calculation: 24 hours (in a day) divided by 3 hours (the interval between feedings), you get 8 periods of sleep. From this indicator, subtract the time spent awake between each daily feeding, a total of 3-4 hours a day. The average figures are obtained: the total sleep time can reach 20 hours, and there can be 7-8 breaks for feeding.

Children's room

The bad atmosphere in which the baby lives causes poor sleep, so you need to wet clean the room every day. Cleanliness, light, fresh air are necessary conditions for the development of a healthy baby.

Rules for cleaning the room:

• the room must be regularly ventilated. In winter – 3-4 times;
• The sun's rays should penetrate the room, but not too bright, so there should be tulle on the windows;
• the floor, furniture, window sill must be wiped every day;
• You cannot smoke, dry clothes, or cook food in the baby’s room;
• it is necessary to monitor the temperature. The optimal temperature is 22-24 degrees;

Bed:

• The baby must have a separate bed. It cannot be placed in a corner, near the front door, or near heating appliances;
• a diaper should be laid on top of the oilcloth;
• The baby does not need a pillow;
• the mattress must be hard;
• You cannot use a stroller instead of a bed. Its walls do not allow air to pass through.

Need silence?

You should not put your baby to bed in absolute silence. It must be remembered that in the womb he heard sounds, so calm conversations and light noise may be present.

Should it be dark during the day?

The child must develop a biological clock, so before the daytime sleep there is no need to tightly curtain the windows. Everything should be natural.

Features of feeding a newborn

How long should a baby sleep at 8 months?

The very first feeding begins in the delivery room, immediately after birth. The first drops of colostrum that a baby receives are incredibly important - they start the baby’s digestion process and signal the body to regularly produce milk in a nursing mother. The first feeding will last a few minutes, then the baby will fall asleep and sleep for 5-6 hours. By this time, the mother will have rested a little after giving birth, will take a nap and will be ready for the next feeding.

For your information. The ideal feeding option is breastfeeding. Milk replaces colostrum 4-5 days after birth. Regular breastfeeding will be the best prevention for preserving and increasing the amount of milk. The intervals between feedings should be 2-3 hours. There is no need to feed more often - the milk will not have time to be digested; pediatricians do not recommend feeding less often.

In the first 3-4 days, the baby may lose up to 10% of its birth weight. This is considered an acceptable norm, but after discharge from the maternity hospital there should be an increase. Therefore, if the little one is sleeping, and the permissible 3 hours have expired, you can put him sleeping to the chest, help him take the nipple into his mouth and feed him while he is dozing. Feeding must be maintained at night; usually babies scream to wake up the sleeping mother and ask her to eat. As they grow older, feeding intervals will increase.

The best feeding is breastfeeding

If breastfeeding is impossible for various reasons, or a decision is made to initially abandon it, it is necessary to take care of the formula and the possibility of diluting it in advance. It makes sense to tell the neonatologist at the maternity hospital about your decision in order to get the necessary specialist advice on the number and frequency of feedings in the first days. In the future, the number of feedings is calculated based on the child’s physical indicators - weight and height. The intervals between feedings with formula milk are quite stable - 3 hours. They must be adhered to in order to provide the child with the opportunity to gain stable weight, while eliminating the likelihood of overeating.

Why does my baby sleep so much?

A newborn baby sleeps almost the whole day. Once he is a month old, his need for sleep does not decrease much.

It’s hard to even imagine what kind of work a baby’s brain does when it’s awake. After all, his auditory and visual analyzers must learn to perceive and analyze information. In addition, the brain receives information about the position of the body and the ambient temperature. Naturally, when receiving so much information, the brain needs a long rest.

Sleep disorders

After the first month of life, at 4-5 weeks, the child experiences a leap in development, he crosses the newborn threshold, which, according to WHO, lasts 28 days from the moment of birth. During this period, sleep is often disturbed: the child begins to “hang” on the chest, crying to demand to be picked up, falls asleep poorly and often wakes up.

At the same time, it is worth talking about disturbances in sleep patterns only when awakenings become frequent and sleep lasts no more than one hour. After waking up, the child is not rested, but capricious, tired, and irritated. In order to fall asleep, he needs long-term attention from his mother. In this case, it is clear that the child did not fully rest during sleep.

Baby's waking hours

Causes of violations and their correction

• Behavioral reason associated with the formation of a relationship between sleep and external factors (rocking in arms, feeding). In the absence of such a familiar influence, a refusal to sleep occurs, and putting the baby to bed turns into a test of strength for the whole family. To avoid this and develop healthy sleep habits for the future, you need to teach yourself to fall asleep in your crib. Organize a sleep ritual. After an evening bath and hygiene procedures, feed him a hearty meal and send him to bed.
• Substitution of the concepts of day and night usually occurs after a long daytime nap, when the child does not fall asleep because he is not yet tired and full of energy. Gradually, waking hours are transferred to the night period. In this case, it is necessary to regulate the duration of daytime sleep; if the situation only worsens, you can take extreme measures - wake up the “sleepyhead” during the day, entertain him, tug at him in every possible way so that by the evening he is tired and wants to sleep.

Bathing in a large bath

It is advisable to avoid co-sleeping with parents. Despite the fact that this may be convenient in the first months of the baby’s life, because the nursing mother does not need to get up to breastfeed, it will be very difficult to wean a one-year-old baby from going to the parent’s bed. It's best not to start unless it's a conscious choice.

In the first month, you can pause with the norms and regimes. The child sleeps peacefully, and this is the most important thing.

Is it necessary to develop a sleep routine for a baby?

An established rest regime is important for the baby and mother. Caring for the baby and household chores greatly exhaust a woman, so she needs to sleep well at night and rest during the day. And if the baby does not have a rest regime, then the mother will not be able to plan important things and simply relax.

A tiny baby needs to be accustomed to a sleep-wake schedule gradually, gently, so as not to traumatize the child’s psyche. A child who falls asleep at different times of the day sleeps poorly, has difficulty immersing himself in a natural physiological state, and is constantly capricious. These are alarm bells notifying parents that it is necessary to adjust their rest schedule. At 6-8 weeks, the baby will be able to follow a daily routine if his parents help him with this.

Harm of long sleep for a newborn

Since feeding a baby is often postponed to another time due to his prolonged sleep, there are a number of dangerous consequences that can even threaten his life. If the baby does not wake up on time, and therefore does not eat or defecate, then this may indicate some kind of abnormality. In such cases, you should seek help from experienced professionals. Often, such a baby’s regime can create many additional problems.

Among them, pediatricians identify such problems as:

1. Dehydration.
2. Weight loss.
3. Difficulty breathing.

It should be remembered that every child is unique. This also applies to his sleep. Some babies sleep more, some sleep less.

Many pediatricians believe that the baby knows better when and what he needs to do. Little children obey their biological clock. And therefore they wake up exactly when they really need it.

If a child was born small, he should be fed more often and more abundantly than one who was born with a normal weight.

But it will be more difficult for him to wake up than for the second baby. You should not force feed your baby. He eats as much as his stomach allows.

Features of sleep in the second week

When a baby turns 2 weeks old, how much sleep should he sleep per day? At this time, the child rests for approximately 20 hours. If in the first few days he normally loses weight, then it is in the second week that he begins to intensively gain and grow. At this age, he is already adapting to a life independent of his mother’s body. His digestive organs and central nervous system begin to work.

But since the body’s systems at this stage still require intensive development, this process takes a lot of effort and energy. It can be replenished by timely, full-fledged breastfeeding and sufficient sleep. During the day, the baby sleeps for approximately 9 hours, and at night for about 11. A baby at 2 or 3 weeks of age usually wakes up at night every 4 hours to receive the next portion of food. But there are children who can do without snacks and still sleep soundly and peacefully.

The third week of a child’s life is characterized by the fact that his activity increases even more. He begins to move, tries to raise his head and look at the things around him. At the same time, his schedule is gradually changing. As before, the baby wakes up immediately before eating and falls asleep immediately after it. But now he needs fewer hours to regain his strength. When the baby reaches 4 weeks of age, a specific schedule is assigned.