Sleeping..and How Many Hrs..

Please read "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Marc Weissbluth. He's a Chicago pediatrician with 30+ years research in infant/child sleep.

This book has been used by many parents to implement sleep training. Understand that I am NOT advocating sleep training at 5 weeks; that's just entirely too early.

I am recommending the book because there is great information in there about how many hours your child should get, why they need that much sleep, how to recognize sleep cues, how to help get sleep rhythms going, etc. I think you will find it especially helpful as your child gets older, even if you disagree 100% with his techniques and choose never to use them.

I have really studied this subject and wish I had all the knowledge I do now when I had infants.

As far as how many hours, at under 12 mos of age most babies sleep at least 17 hours. Twelve of those at night, then two two hour naps and one shorter nap usually. The last nap will disappear as they get closer to a year. The closer to birth the more sleep, the closer to one year year the less sleep. So at under 2 mos old your baby will probably sleep about 18 hours a day. The better the daytime sleep, the better the night time sleep. Yes that really is true.

Sleep is when their neuron connections in the brain form. Better sleep makes a smarter kid! It's been proven with scientific studies. So, it's worth the effort to get the best sleep for all of us, but mostly for children and infants.

Here is the best method I have found for getting a child to sleep:
try using the Baby Whisperer's EASY method for a schedule, and the Happiest Baby on the Block 5 s's method. Those two combined will make cio not be a needed thing (at that age)
EASY - when the baby wakes up it Eats. After you feed it, then it has Activity - bouncy seat, tummy time, sitting up and playing with toys, swing, exersaucer, etc. When the baby gets fussy check the B's - boredom, butt or burp. If it's none of those then off to Sleep. Don't wait for the baby to do more than get the tiniest bit fussy, then see what is causing the fusses - if it's just that they needed their diaper change do that, but if it's not the activity is boring, the butt is dirty or they have to burp, then put them down. This may happen after as short as 45 minutes, don't freak, it really means they are tired.
Now, to get them to sleep use the 5 s's. Swaddle the baby, hold the baby on their side and sway as they suck on something (paci, your knuckle or their finger/thumb) and make a shush noise. This will calm your baby. When the baby is calm, but not asleep yet, keeping them swaddled lay them in the bed. I like to pat them instead of sway after a minute or two cause you can still pat after they are put down but you can't sway, so pat the baby and continue patting gradually decreasing it as you put them in the bed. Also continue the shushing as you put them down, again gradually getting quieter.
If you do these two you will find a well rested, easily managed baby in no time.

Hi M.,
I am a mother of three and soooo understand your predicament. Not only are you juggling the responsibilities of a mother of multiple children, I suspect you aren't getting that much sleep yourself...lol I have found that at 5 weeks, your baby will sleep and eat on demand...meaning most likely for 1-3 hours (of sleep) at a time and eating when he is awake. I would recommend that you also adopt that schedule and nap/rest whenever possible and the sleeping routine will evolve and he will sleep longer as his stomach grows and can eat more at one time in order to sustain him further. I hope this helps a little, and if you'd like to contact me, I am a family coach as well. Feel free to drop me a line on here or at my site www.stepshelp.com
Sweet Dreams!
D.

I have to agree with M R about the "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child". It gives you all the information you could possibly find about sleep for infants, toddlers and children. It is well researched and I highly recommend it.
How you get the infant to sleep is up to you and baby. Each child is different. However for a newborn (until 3 months) do whatever it takes to get them to sleep. The baby should only be awake for about 2 hours and then back to sleep. The infant may sleep anywhere from 30min to 4 hrs or so. I recently had my second baby and I found using the baby bjorn or other sling/carrier was very effective during the day to help with sleep and get things done. Now that my dtr is 3 1/2 months she takes all of her naps in the crib. (Babies begin to self soothe at the stage and are more aware of the environment.) I don't let her "cry it out" necessarily. I "check and consul". I strongly urge you to check out the book. Again you can't do sleep training until the infant is around 3 months. The EASY method is also good rule of thumb. I really incoporated it all for my babies!

Hi M.-

My daughter was probably the few ones that really never napped until she was 6 months old and then almost right after she started taking 2 1-hour naps during the day she would sleep 11-12 hours at night. Until then though, she very rarely napped or slept at night, maybe a total of 14 hours in a 24 hour period. I was very worried, but my pediatrician told me some babies are like that and not to worry as long as she slept a few consecutive hours at night and was eating well. She was right! At about 2 or 3 months I would give her a bath (obviously you can skip that to meet your baby's needs), put her lotion and pjs on and massage her for about 5-10 minutes, give her a bottle and rock her with a cd of lullaby music on. It took a while (2-3 weeks) before she would surrender and go to sleep, but she eventually did. Again, my daughter was definately a high maintenance baby, so hopefully your son will adjust quicker! Good luck!!

a newborn will probably sleep about 18 hours a day. I think my daughter at this age was still going to bed on the late side - maybe 9:30 or 10:00, and would sleep until 7-8:30 AM (with 2-3 feedings in the middle). Then 3-4 naps per day. I didn't bathe her every day at that age either. Really, they don't get dirty. And honestly, we would just sit with her on the couch talking or watching TV or dinking on the computer and she fell asleep in our arms at that age. Once she was a little older we began to "work on" having her fall asleep on her own. WHen they're this small though, anything goes IMHO.