Establishing Newborn Sleep Patterns – For Healthy Sleep Habits Welcoming a Newborn into your family is one of the most joyous, life-changing experiences you’ll ever enjoy. Unfortunately, it also means you can kiss goodbye to a good night’s sleep for the next few months! Newborns rarely sleep more than two to three hours at a time as their tiny bellies aren’t big enough to hold enough milk to keep them sleeping for longer than that. However, there are several steps you can take to start instilling the healthy sleep habits right from day one.
Tip 1: Beware Sleep Props A “sleep prop” is anything your baby needs in order to fall asleep. For example, if your baby always wants to be rocked or breastfed to sleep, or can’t fall asleep without a dummy / soother in his mouth, she has formed a reliance on a prop, and that reliance will become increasingly hard to break as she gets older. It’s better to encourage your baby to develop self-soothing strategies so she can fall asleep on his own. The best way to do this is to put her in her crib while she’s sleepy but still awake so she can develop the skills necessary to fall asleep independently without a prop.