How do you put to sleep a newborn?

The harmony we feel when we hold our baby in our arms is broken when we hear him cry in the middle of the night. We try a thousand things like lulling, singing to him, but nothing seems to work. We tell you what sleep is like at this age and what to do to put to rest your newborn.

After childbirth, we feel exhausted. Adapting to being mothers and taking care of a life that depends on us drains our energy. At nightfall, we want to go to bed and have sweet dreams, but the crying of our baby stops us.

Getting the baby to sleep through the night has become mission impossible. The Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) indicates that newborns sleep between 18 and 22 hours; they wake up when hungry, have colic, are cold, or feel discomfort due to a wet or dirty diaper; some sleep less without being sick.

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How do babies sleep?

Newborns do not have a set bedtime. The Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford points out that they tend to confuse day with night at this age so that they can sleep between eight and nine hours and approximately eight hours at night.

This institution explains that most babies do not sleep through the night until they are three months old or until they weigh more than 5 kilos; however, this varies in each little one; some sleep continuously until they are one year old.

“Newborn infants have a small stomach and must wake up after a few hours to eat. In most cases, they will wake up to eat about every three hours”.

Lucile Packard Children´s Hospital Stanford

Baby sleep states

Joaquim Bosch Castells, pediatrician and member of Top Doctors Spain, commented that the little ones wake up after 3 or 4 hours in the first months of life mainly because they need to eat, require a diaper change, or want to be talked to.

Once fed, “active sleep” begins; the little ones move their eyeballs with their eyes closed, their breathing is irregular, they make faces and movements. They may appear restless, but this behavior is entirely normal and should not be interrupted.

“When parents or caregivers are not aware of this situation, it is common for them to cover the child or hold him, interrupting his normal sleep and interfering with his maturation”.

Dr. Joaquim Bosch Castells

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Approximately half an hour after this phase, they enter a deeper sleep known as “quiet sleep”. During this period, the baby is relaxed and breathes deeply.

“The baby combines both sleep stages for 3 or 4 hours until he wakes up; he follows this routine practically during his first two months of life”.

Tips for sleeping the newborn

Bosch Castells comments that the first two months of a baby’s life are challenging for parents; it is essential to establish a routine for the little one to sleep continuously at night.

Here are some of his recommendations:

• Keep the baby awake while he eats.
• Breastfeed in half-hour intervals on each breast.
• Hold him awake for 15 minutes after each meal.
• It is recommended that the mother follow the baby’s same sleep schedule.
• After changing the diaper, put him in his crib, always awake. He will learn to fall asleep by himself..

Sleep habits since we are babies

The Mayo Clinic organization gives the following tips to help your little one sleep:

• Establish a bedtime routine: Try bathing him, snuggling him, singing to him, playing quiet music, or reading to him. Try to do these in a quiet room with little light.
• Put him to bed when he is sleepy but awake: doing this, your little one will associate the bed with sleeping. Remember to place the baby on his back so that he falls asleep and remove blankets or other items from the crib or bassinet that may impede his breathing.
• Give him time to settle in: He may be restless or cry before finding a comfortable position and falling asleep. If the crying doesn’t stop, talk to him and leave the room. He may require your presence to feel calm and go back to sleep.
• Keep a quiet environment: If he wakes up at night, speak quietly, keeps the lights dim, and move slowly. This will indicate that it is time to sleep and not to play.

Remember that you are getting to know your baby in the first months of life, and he is getting to know you, so the fact that you have difficulty putting him to sleep is very normal, but soon they will establish a routine.

Translated by: Ligia M. Oliver Manrique de Lara

Spanish version