Baby and Child Sleep- From Precious Little Bunnies
Hi, I’m Katie, Mum of three and Director of Precious Little Bunnies, Baby and Child Sleep Consultancy.
I am passionate about sleep and I love that my job involves helping families support their children’s sleep in an attachment based manageable way. I get to problem solve and improve sleep, without using the “cry it out” method.
At Precious Little Bunnies, we offer one-to-one sessions to create bespoke sleep plans. We help parents understand sleep science, sleep norms and what to expect; to support them with any questions they have, either generally about sleep or relating to particular sleep concerns. When you are in the midst of parenting and exhaustion, often it’s hard to see the wood from the trees. What we can help with is providing a clear plan, giving you a tool box of solutions and being there to support you.
So, you’ve just had your baby. How many people have said to you ‘Is he/she a good baby?’ Followed by ‘Is she/he a good sleeper?’ The thing is, what they really mean to ask is: ‘Do you have an easy baby and an easy sleeper?’ A lot of the answer depends on the temperament and personality of the child. However, as a first time parent this makes you look around and compare to others, but everyone has their own (different) challenges and most people aren’t that honest about their struggles.
Thinking about those really early weeks, the reality is you will first be focussed on feeding not sleeping. Once the feeding is sorted then you might start thinking about sleep. Those first few weeks are chaos, you might have a very sleepy baby and be waking your little one to feed or you might have a very hungry baby who is seemingly always awake and wanting to feed. All scenarios are pretty normal.
What to expect in those early days:
Bedtime - for a typical newborn (2 weeks plus) bedtime once things have settled down is sometime between 8-10pm. What does bedtime even mean at that age? It could mean a longer stretch of sleep after this time (4 plus hours) or it could mean the baby has been cluster feeding up to this point and then is ready for sleeping. As your baby gets closer to 3 months, I would expect bedtime to normalise at somewhere between 6-8pm (usually around 7pm)
Wake time - most newborns will have an awake time of about 45-60 minutes. It’s often just enough time to feed before falling asleep again (they might even fall asleep whilst feeding). Some newborns will have really long awake periods (maybe even 3 hours) and at other times will fall asleep very quickly. All of this is normal
Whilst Sleeping - newborns are often quite noisy sleepers. You may hear your baby making noises and moving around whilst they are asleep. They are in REM (dream) sleep. I’d love to know what they dream about!! Older children and adults in REM sleep are normally rendered immobile, the muscles are sent a message to relax whilst the brain is active. Newborn babies are too immature to shut down the muscles which is why they move and groan. This is also very normal
So what can you do to set up good habits in the early days?
First, remember in those early months….YOU CANNOT CREATE BAD HABITS AT THIS AGE. By responding to your baby’s needs YOU ARE NOT CREATING A ROD FOR YOUR BACK. Enjoy the newborn cuddles, they don’t last that long
Second, there is a point (between 3 and 6 months) where your baby’s sleep architecture changes. They will develop more complex sleep layers and have lighter sleep phases. This maturation is often called the Four Month Sleep Regression. At this point some children are more sensitive to the input when they fall asleep (ie if you always feed/rock/pat them to sleep they may wake between sleep cycles looking for that same input). In order to avoid this it is advisable to work towards putting your baby down awake. This can be done gradually and doesn’t need to involve leaving them to cry
Third, consider following the EASY sleep method. This involves structuring your babies day to Eat Awake, Sleep, You time. Ie if you feed the baby when it wakes, then your little one can have awake time before the next nap. This avoids feeding to sleep and potentially avoids feeding becoming a sleep association.
For more information or if you do run into problems then please know you don’t have to suffer through. We hope you do have an easy sleep time but we are here to help.
Happy sleeping!
Katie x
www.preciouslittlebunnies.com, @precious_little_bunnies
