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While in the womb, the baby sleeps most of the time. He spends literally 90 percent of his intrauterine life in a sweet slumber. After birth, he needs to adapt to a completely new environment. Now the child has to eat, excuse me, relieve himself, breathe, cope with gravity and move, communicate with his parents. This is very, very difficult.
Eat and sleep
The amount of sleep is closely related to how much a child can eat at one time. On average, a newborn consumes about 40-80 kcal per feeding. To select a daily calorie intake, he needs 6-8 feeds a day. Therefore, there is no reason to hope for a night’s rest. And if the baby sleeps all night, this may indicate health problems.
By the second month of life, the baby already consumes 100-120 calories per feeding. By the third or fourth months, this number increases to 120-140. Therefore, the number of feedings becomes less, it is necessary to apply the baby to the breast less often. And this is happiness! – affects the length of night sleep. After all, a baby can already sleep for 4 hours at night without a break.
Of course, these are not absolute figures, but only approximate figures. Each child develops according to its own schedule, but you can use this data as a guide.
Sleep all night long
Experts say “sleeping all night” when you’re three months and ten months old are two different things. At first, he will wake up every 2-4 hours, and this is normal. Or sleep for 5 hours, wake up, eat and sleep for another 3 hours.
Experts have found that by six months, more than half of babies already have a regimen: they sleep at least six hours at night without waking up. And by the age of 9 months, there are already more than 70 percent of such “conscious” babies.
Gradually, the baby learns not only to eat more, but also to accumulate fats and carbohydrates. The intervals between feedings are getting longer. In addition, another important process is being tuned in the baby’s body: the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone. Once the debugging of this process is over, the baby will begin to sleep more at night.
In the meantime, you need to try to help him: eliminate light sources in the bedroom, reduce noise and try to reduce the amount of physical activity of the baby in the late afternoon.
Sleep schedule
Up to 3 months
Newborn babies can sleep up to 19 hours a day, although 14-17 hours is the norm. The baby sleeps continuously for 2-3 hours. By the age of one month, children sleep on average 14 hours a day, at night they can sleep continuously for up to four hours, and then wake up every two hours. But some children need about six months to be able to sleep four hours at night without interruption.
3 – 6 months
By this time, you can already try to debug the child’s day regimen. During the day, babies go to nap 3-4 times, sleep 6-8 hours at night, while waking up much less often – 2-3 times per night. In total, the baby sleeps for about 13 hours a day.
6 – 9 months
At six months, the baby sleeps on average 12,5 hours a day, of which up to nine hours is at night. Most of the night, the child is already sleeping peacefully, and during the day he fits 2-3 times.
9 – 12 months
This is the time when the amount of sleep is steadily decreasing and is no more than 12 hours a day. During the day, the baby sleeps once and is able to sleep peacefully all night. Closer to a year, the duration of a night’s sleep can be about ten hours.