4 INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT BABY’S SLEEP

1. Babies under 4 months and young children DO NOT AUTOMATICALLY fall asleep when they’re tired.

• Unlike adults, when you are tired, you will sleep better. For babies, when they are tired, there are some unique "sleepy cues" for each baby (usually yawning, rubbing their eyes, looking away, etc.). This is the right time to put your baby to bed, your baby will fall asleep easier and sleep longer.

• But if the mother misses these signals, the baby's body will release cortisol and adrenaline to "pull" the baby through sleepiness. The child seems alert and playful, but inside he is tired already. The child is "overtired" - too tired, or "over excited" - too excited, making it difficult for the child to achieve a state of relaxation to fall asleep and/or more difficult to prolong sleep.

• Because mothers cannot always grasp their baby's sleepy cues, especially after 4 months of age, we do highly recommend following the age-appropriate wake window. It helps to avoid an overtired baby, help you establish a predictable routine throughout the day as well.

2. Babies are not naturally understanding: night is bedtime => day and night confusion

• Adults will regulate their sleep-wake cycle using their circadian rhythms. Circadian rhythm is regulated by hormones + sunlight.

• For newborns, while still in the mother's womb, this circadian rhythm has not yet developed and must rely on hormones from the mother + the mother's daily rhythm to adjust. When they go out, the above two conditions disappear. Therefore, to distinguish day and night, children need time to develop their own circadian rhythm (about 8-10 weeks).

• Recommendation: try to keep your baby awake and playing with as much natural light as possible during awake time, while keep the sleeping environment as dark as possible, minimize any stimulation.

• However, the above method is not always successful when we try. Simply, "confusion between day and night" is a physiological phenomenon, we need to patiently wait until our child's "biological clock" develops.

3. Sleep through the night and night feedings

• There are many definitions of sleeping through the night. For example:

1. Ms. Cara Dumaplin - takingcarababies: sleeping through the night means the baby can sleep 11-12 hours/night without the support of their parents, which may include a night feeding, then they go back to sleep.

This is also the viewpoint that I support!

2. Ms. Nicole Johnson – the baby sleep site: when the baby can sleep for 5-7 hours without eating, it is considered sleeping through the night, because it is very suitable for their development, especially for children <6m)

3. Dr. Harvey Karp: Sleeping through the night is when your baby can sleep continuously, without needing to eat, for at least 6 hours. During this stretch, your child may wake up but then quickly fall back to sleep on his own without parental assistance.

• The age when babies can sleep through the night varies: some babies can sleep through the night at 2 months old, while others cannot sleep that long stretch (at least 6 hours) without eating until at 6 months old. And to be able to sleep 11-12 hours/night without eating, many babies must pass the 9-month-old mark (for breastfed babies it can also be up to 12 months).

=> You don't have to stop night feeding completely at 3 or 4 months old (or 12 lbs) to achieve the goal “sleep through the night”.

4. 20% of babies under 4 months have COLIC

• “Colic” is when a child is crying for a very long time, and difficult to comfort - for 3 hours or more, occurring at least 3 days/week, lasting the first 3-4 months of life. It peaks when your baby is 6 or 8 weeks old and gradually decreases when your baby is 3 or 4 months old.

• The cause of "colic" is unknown, not only related to the baby's digestion

=> Just burping your baby will not stop crying.

• EASY routine does not stop your baby from crying.

• Try to follow the age-appropriate wake window - will avoid fatigue, avoid overtired and help him relax more easily

• Furthermore, for colicky babies, sleep training with the “wait time” for more than 10 minutes of crying (including all babies under 4 months in general) is NOT RECOMMENDED.

=> Instead of sleep training, the most effective way to ease the struggle time is cuddling your child, rocking them, get through it by skin to skin.