Sleep: 10 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

1 NEWBORNS SLEEP A LOT!

A newborn baby sleeps for most of the day – between 16 and 20 hours out of 24. Use this opportunity, and catch up on your own lost sleep. It’s not long before Baby’s going to be awake for longer stretches and you’ll have more opportunity to play and communicate with her.

2 WAKING UP AT NIGHT IS NORMAL – AND NECESSARY

Newborns sleep between two- and four-hour stretches at a time. No longer. After a few hours of sleep, she’ll wake up for a feed and fall asleep again after about 30 to 45 minutes. A newborn’s tummy is minute, and her milk diet is swiftly digested, so she needs to feed regularly – night and day.

“Babies are not supposed to sleep through – they’ve been designed to wake. “They’re light sleepers and wake up often to ensure their needs are met: that they feel secure, feed well, and that they’re safe. Your baby’s not being naughty – her behaviour is appropriate for our species. Waking up at night is in other words not necessarily a problem that needs to be ‘corrected’.”