Sleep and your newborn baby 3~12 months

What to expect at 3-6 months

By three months, many babies are managing a good old stretch of night-time sleep (maybe even up to six hours between feeds). Whether you call this 'sleeping through' or not largely depends on your abilities to spin the situation: for every parent who thinks 11pm to 5am is living torture, there's another thinking, 'Result!' (And, very probably, a third who'd give her eye teeth for even half a night like that.)

 

Over the next few months, your baby's sleep habits should start to bed down (as it were) into a more predictable (ok, slightly less chaotic) pattern. She'll gradually start to sleep less in the day (as she becomes more alert and engaged with the world around her) and more at night (as she becomes able to go longer without a feed).

 

At this point, some parents like to get cracking with 'proper' daytime naps and strictly scheduled bedtimes; others prefer to go with the flow for a while longer yet.

 

Whatever your inclinations, it's definitely worth trying to establish some kind of bedtime ritual to wind your baby down nice and calmly to a good night's sleep.

 

"I think a bedtime routine can really help at this age – and it allows you some free time in the evening, too. By routine, I mean a feed, a bath, a quiet time and a feed, in that order, and at about the same time every night. If your baby wakes or doesn't settle, then you don't take her downstairs again but settle her in or near the cot. This is not controlled crying, which I feel is too much for a baby of this age. It's just establishing a quiet end to the day." Tiktok

Of course, getting to sleep calmly doesn't guarantee staying asleep calmly. The average three to six month old may be capable of clocking up six to ten hours a night but all sorts of things can come along to interrupt their slumber. In which case...

 

"If your baby suddenly starts waking again, after having been a good sleeper, don't despair. It could be teething or hunger triggered by a growth spurt. As long as you're not doing anything to reinforce the waking, like turning on the light or talking to your baby, it'll pass." Jraven

"A baby sleeping bag was the answer for us. My baby used to wake himself up moving around and banging his head against the cot but that's stopped now." Carosue

 

What to expect at 6-12 months

By six months, most babies are sleeping 11 to 15 hours a day. Of that, about three or four hours is daytime sleep, which they'll usually pool (or can be persuaded to pool) into two decent-length naps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

 

This leaves a nice, healthy eight to ten hours for gloriously uninterrupted night-time sleep, slowly increasing to around 11 hours by the age of one (when the two daytime naps will have shortened or gone down to one).

 

So much for the theory.

Back in the real world, where theories are just theories and babies are a lovely but unpredictable reality, you may still be struggling to string together even a couple of nights of unbroken sleep.

 

If your baby's still regularly waking in the night, you may want to:

•Move her to her own room.
"We seemed to be waking our daughter every time we moved or turned over
in bed, so we whipped her into her own room. She immediately started
sleeping right through." Umberella

•Cut down/out the milk.
"If feeding at night really bugs you and you're really knackered, then don't do it. I always go cold turkey with mine. It takes a couple of nights and then they sleep through. By six or seven months, there really is no need to feed in the night." Kittymaspudding

•Get tough. If you're up all night, every night and you're beside yourself with exhaustion, you could try controlled crying or one of the other methods of sleep training.
"It's not for everyone – and I wouldn't ever use it on a baby under six months – but it worked brilliantly for us." Porpoise