Sleeping

While newborn babies often drift randomly in and out of sleep, sometimes spending long periods suspended between the two states, settled babies are much more definite about the difference between the two. Once asleep you can be fairly sure that they will not wake up again for a while; once awake you can be equally certain that they will not go to sleep again until they have been fed. At three or four weeks of age sleeping and feeding still go hand in hand. Left to follow their own inclinations babies wake up because they are hungry and go to sleep because they are full. Their waking time is therefore concentrated around feedings - the physical care given before them and the affectionate attention given after them.

Wakeful Periods

By around six weeks, the relationship between feeding and sleeping begins to slacken a little. The baby will still be inclined to go to sleep when he is fully fed, but he will not always sleep until he is ravenously hungry again. He may begin to wake up, sometimes, just because he has had enough sleep for the moment.

Most babies adopt one particular time of day for being wakeful. A common one is the second part of the afternoon. The baby sleeps after breakfast through most of the morning. He has his lunchtime feeding and sleeps again, but this time he does not sleep right through until hunger wakens him. He naps for a couple of hours and then wakes anyway. Many mothers encourage this pattern because it is a convenient time to pay social attention to the baby. He could have his daily drink of fruit juice when he wakes up, and then a stroller ride to the store or a period of free kicking on the floor with no diapers and plenty of your attention. An hour or two of this and the baby will be very ready for his bath and the next feeding. The physical exercise and the play will have tired him. He will probably sleep well until his late evening feeding.

Of course some babies adopt different and less convenient times of day for being awake. If your baby tends to nap for only an hour or so after breakfast and then stays awake all morning and sleeps all afternoon you can probably alter the pattern by juggling the feeding times. An extra "snack" feeding when he wakes in the middle of the morning may well put him back to sleep again. If you then let him sleep on until a later lunch, he will, over a few days, shift toward being awake in the afternoon.

By the time the baby reaches three to four months he is likely to have two or even three wakeful periods in the day. As before, a good feeding makes him inclined to sleep. But as he gets older his naps get progressively shorter.

Sleeping Difficulties

In this age-group any difficulties are yours, not the baby's. He will sleep as much as he needs to sleep; he is still not capable of keeping himself awake and he is no more capable than you are of waking himself up on purpose. You need never add worry about whether he can be getting enough sleep to worry about the fact that you certainly are not!