Preparing For Parenthood: Know How Much Sleep Your Newborn Needs

Bringing a child into the world is a huge decision. It is over whelming to know and realize that a small human being will be totally dependent on you for its survival. You will have to take care of it, nourish it, protect it and provide for it the best way you can for the rest of your life. It is of course a huge responsibility. Thus, you try to prepare yourself for this responsibility in any and all the ways you can.

The mother keeps herself healthy, takes care of what she eats, drinks, how she sits and walks. She would even pick up exercising for the first time in her life just to keep herself healthy for the baby. As for the father, he immediately starts worrying about setting up the nursery, the doctor’s appointments and bills, insurance, school, college, and up to as far as boys (if it’s a girl, that is.)

Besides all this, the parents have to prepare themselves for how best to take care of the baby, physically. They learn all there is to learn about handling newborns. They research into various aspects of baby care; from the best and safest way to bathe a baby to how many hours of sleep the baby needs.

This article will discuss how many hours of sleep your baby will need. The first thing to keep in mind is that in the first year of its birth, the baby will change and grow very rapidly. You may notice that in the first year the baby grows (in height and weight) faster than he would the rest of his or her life. Accordingly, the baby’s sleeping patterns and habits will change as it ages.

If the baby does not sleep properly, it may cause several problems. But, they can be easily avoided; the most important thing is recognizing that your baby’s sleeping patterns are not what they should be. Therefore, as parents you need to be aware of how much your baby needs to sleep to remain healthy.

A newborn (1 month old) needs at least 16-17 hours of sleep daily; with about 8 hours of sleep in the night, and 7 hours during the day. A 3 month old baby will need 15 hours of sleep, with 10 hours during nighttime and 5 hours during the day. Whereas a 6 month old baby needs approximately 14 hours of sleep, with 11 hours during the night and 3 hours during the day.

As the child gets older, its sleeping hours during the night become stable (around 11-12 hours) and the duration for the daytime naps decrease (around 1-2 hours.) The baby will probably never sleep, the hours it needs to sleep, in one go. It will take naps of around 2-3 hours, wake up when its hungry and fall back to sleep as soon as the mother feeds it. Therefore, it is very important for the parents to keep track of exactly how many hours the baby is sleeping for.