Infant Sleep And Crying

Well, let me start off my saying congraduations! Although this new baby is bound to bring joy and excitement, it will delivery many counts of overwhelms. Many parents, like yourself, will have the most difficulties with sleep and crying. It is a trial and error period that will last longer that you want it too. Hopefully, this presentation will help with the understanding of the newborn sleep and crying.

Newborn babies don't know the difference between day and night. They will need food every few hours, no matter what time of the day or night it is. A newborn may sleep as much as 16 hours a day (or even more), often in stretches of 3 to 4 hours at a time and like the sleep of adults, babies will experience the different phases: drowsiness, REM sleep, light sleep, deep sleep, and very deep sleep (“Sleep and Newborns”). Establishing a routine right from the beginning can be very helpful, how we sleep is based part on habit and what our bodies use as signals, to let us know that it time to go to bed. Always putting your baby in the crib for sleeping will help signal to the infant that this is the place for sleep (“Sleep and Newborns”). You can help adjust your baby's body clock toward sleeping at night by avoiding stimulation during nighttime feedings and diaper changes. Some other key items to remember is to keep the lights low and try not to play or talk with your baby. A great way to get your baby geared for bedtime is to have a bedtime routine. This can involve a bath, reading a calming book, or listening to calming music. The important fact is to do it everyday at the same time. This can take several weeks to master, eventually your baby will get the message.

New born crying can seam like it will never end. As a parent, your job is to figure out why your baby is crying and what for. There are many different factors that can lead to a baby crying. One

thought I would like to share is that this process of understanding your baby's cries can take a little time to get, you must have patience and remember that your baby's only way to say that something is wrong is crying. Your baby could be thinking: I'm hungry, I need to burp, I pooped, I'm tired, I'd rather be bundled, I want to move, I'm lonely, I'm hot, I want to suck on something, I've had enough, and it's just that time of day(“What to do When Your Newborn Cries”).