4-6 Months Baby's Sleep
Sleep Hours
So far, your baby's internal clock has started and she can distinguish between night and day. He should be on his way to a certain sleep pattern. During this time, babies need an average of 14 hours of sleep a day. At 4 months, the baby can go 8 hours without feeding; at 5 months, he can sleep for 11 hours. Babies sleep for four to five hours with 3 sleep episodes throughout the day. By 6 months of age, babies need an average of 11 hours of uninterrupted sleep each night, and their 3.5-hour daytime thighs are spread over two or three sleeps.
Time to Move?
This is usually when a baby becomes too big for his cot and can preferably sleep uninterruptedly in his own room. Don't feel bad as a parent when you decide to separate her from the room. This will be a day and you need to decide on the time of moving as soon as possible.
Act consistently.
Children want to be habitual, so it's important for the baby to spend boarding time. Nadav Traeger, M.D., director of pediatric sleep medicine at Maria Fareri Children's Hospital at Westchester Medical Centre, says: “Once you've decided on the next bedtime, you'll see that the baby prefers bedtime.” And do you know the “fascinating hour” that many new moms are talking about? It usually happens in the evening, and the main reason for this is that the baby is tired. If your baby is fussy around 6 a.m., start getting them ready for bed by 5:30 so they fall asleep before they start crying.
Don't underestimate short naps.
Babies get more tired at night if they don't sleep at noon, and their insomnia, along with their increased fatigue, makes it harder for them to sleep, contrary to what you might think.
Recognizing Sleep Signals.
Your baby will send you amazing clear signs that she's ready to go to sleep. Often children have their own personal sleep signals, and parents should be open to these signs. This means that the child is tired, ready for sleep, and you need to capture the magic moment when they fall asleep. At this moment, there's a slight silence and he looks at you calmly. Other signals are like yawning, rubbing eyes, and losing interest in other people or their toys. The key is to put your baby to bed before he gets so tired; otherwise, he'll start crying.
Start Sleep Training.
We all wake up several times during the night. As adults simply turn around and return to a dormant state, many babies wait for you to enter the room and ask for help to go to them. It's important that your baby learns to feel comfortable. It's up to you to help your baby fall asleep without crying or not waking up while asleep.
Overfeeding
If you haven't already, start cutting off their feed day and night. “I really want to focus on meeting the baby's nutritional needs during the day, so he doesn't eat at night,” West says. She must have eaten after sleeping through the night or only once at night. To accomplish this goal, West suggests a program that you feed more often in the afternoon or early evening. “This can help calm him down, improve his evening sleep, and relax you if he's full enough at night,” she says.
End Separation Anxiety.
Your baby's fear of being separated from you peaks in the first 6 months, and your baby may resist sleep to be with you or fight to wake up several times during the night before bed. Helping your child to attract his willpower can alleviate this problem. “A special plush animal or blanket, called a transitional object, can be a useful tool for reducing separation anxiety and weakening other uncomfortable nighttime habits,” West says.
What is Night Terror (Parasomnia)?
Night terrors, known as parasomnia, are a sleep disorder. It can start around 3-4 years of age and continue until adolescence.
The difference between Night Terror and Nightmare
Sleep consists of 2 stages: REM (where dreams are seen) and nonREM (transition to sleep -deep sleep). While nightmares are seen during REM, sleep terror is observed in the 3rd Stage 4 . It is seen during the transition to the stage. (That is, after an average of 90 minutes)
The situation seen in the early period can be more of a nightmare.
In the night terror, the child seems to have woken up, but not really woken up. He is caught between sleep and wakefulness. Consciousness is closed. When he wakes up in the morning, he can't remember what happened at night. Even if the shouting and excessive movement continues at that moment, take safety measures and help him fall asleep again without trying to force him/her to wake up. Because in night terror, the child will be able to go back to sleep spontaneously as if nothing had happened.
However, they may need you to calm down in the nightmare.
If both situations recur frequently, it is recommended to go to a specialist.
Some neurological and psychiatric diseases and night terrors are very similar; this needs to be distinguished.
What causes night terrors?
There is a deterioration in sleep due to reasons such as febrile diseases, drugs used, and the child's exposure to periodic stress. The seizure may take 2-3 minutes and it may take up to half an hour for him/her to calm down and fall asleep again.
Signs of sleep terror
Heartbeat and respiration are rapid, sweating may occur. It may seem awake, swinging the body uncontrollably. He can sit on the bed and scream
So what needs to be done?
First of all, parents should keep their calm, take safety measures around, and not wake the child. It can be ensured that the child is put to bed calmly and the child should not be intervened except for behaviors that may harm him/her.
Precautions you can take:
Note the time it took to fall asleep when the sleep terror occurred and the time it started. No matter how long it took after sleep, make sure he wakes up the next day 15 minutes before that time due to either drinking water or going to the toilet. In this way, you will create a change in the sleep cycle. Continue this for a week and consult a neurologist /psychiatrist if it still continues.
Measurements such as EEG and Polysomnography are applications to observe whether there is a change in brain waves or respiration in the case of sleep terror.
All About Sleep Training and Sleep Routine
At the end of the happy and emotional moments that are eagerly awaited for 9 months to reunite with her, that magical moment comes and as soon as you take her in your arms and smell her, your goal will be to ensure that your baby grows up healthy and happy...
Although breastfeeding and feeding are in the first place for mothers in the growth of the baby, sleep, which is the cornerstone of brain development and a newborn baby spends 16 hours a day, is equally important. Explaining that "nutrition, sleep and excretion are a whole for the healthy development of a baby", Canbebe Specialist Newborn Nurse Esra Ertuğrul underlined the following headings on the subject: "Mothers care about their concerns about breastfeeding. In fact, regular sleep and a healthy excretory system are just as important as feeding a baby. If there is a minor problem in any of the sleep, nutrition and excretory systems, which are 3 important parts of the intertwined whole, the others are also affected. "
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy1WBKbyrHU
Is sleep routine or diet the priority?
Newborn Nurse Esra Ertuğrul, who recommends and approves that babies be fed only with breast milk in the first 6 months, states that the baby should be breastfed whenever he/she wants and sleep during the remaining hours. Ertuğrul also underlines that the first 4 months of the baby are a period of frequent breastfeeding and short intervals and short sleeps because the baby's stomach capacity is small, and says the following about the nutrition and sleep pattern balance of babies in the first four months: "The first 10 and 12 days of the baby's birth are a somewhat complicated and difficult period in terms of both feeding and balancing his sleep. From 10 to 12 days, the baby should be breastfed whenever he wants, even every five minutes; because when babies are first born, their stomachs reach the size of cherries, on the 3rd day they reach the size of an apricot, and on the 10th day they reach the size of a walnut. In this process, we usually say 3 hours, but sometimes breastfeeding can be at intervals of 2 – 2.5 hours. When we reach the 10th day, if the baby has reached birth weight and everything is fine, breastfeeding breaks are increased to 3 hours at night without exceeding 2 – 2.5 hours during the day and the first month is completed. If the baby has gained a good weight at the end of the first month and there is no problem, breastfeeding intervals can be opened. As the feeding intervals are opened, the sleep time may naturally increase. In the next period, we need to wake up every 3- 3.5 hours, 4 – 4.5 hours at night after the 4th month, breastfeed and continue the day. In other words, if your baby is younger than 5.5 months, you do not have to worry that he/she cannot go to deep sleep for your baby and wakes up very quickly. By the fifth month, the baby becomes very uncomfortable if he/she is not fed enough and his/her sleep is interrupted very often. For this reason, I recommend that the baby's diet be established before starting the sleep routine process and that the sleep training process be started after the first 4 months. "
Before Sleep Training, a Sleep Routine Should Be Established.
Referring to the importance of reading the baby's signs correctly and creating a routine, Esra Ertuğrul says: "Tracy Hogg, who is well-known in the world and in our country with her books on sleep education for babies, says that the baby should be known very well before education is given. In his book, he divided babies into angel baby, book baby, grumpy baby, active baby, and spoiled baby according to their character structure. It also applies a sleep education system according to the character of each baby. There are many schools other than Tracy Hogg on this subject. He recommends that you choose one that fits your baby and continue. However, this training should not be started before 5-5.5 months. It should not be forgotten that our priority should be to get to know the baby very well and to read the signs that the baby shows us correctly and to create a routine accordingly. If a 2-month-old baby wakes up too often, the cause should be investigated and a solution found. In newborn babies who are exclusively breastfed, the distress is usually very related to feeding. Can the baby be fed enough? Or is she having trouble passing gas after breastfeeding? These questions need to be answered. Babies cannot expel the gas on their own for the first month, they should be supported to expel the gas by hitting their backs very lightly. But after breastfeeding, the baby does not pull his feet up, if he is in a loose state, the baby is immediately put to bed and expected to fall asleep. Another issue is that babies always like a certain order in the first year. This is called establishing a routine. After 1 – 1.5 hours of breastfeeding, the baby should have a nice bath, then calm down with a massage, put on his pajamas and go to sleep at night after breastfeeding, and this should be done routinely every evening. After a while, as soon as the child takes a bath, he learns that he needs to sleep. She knows what to do next after the bath. If you disrupt the routine, you should go back to the beginning and do the same things for at least 2 weeks. If the baby's feeding and sleeping pattern is always at the same time in the morning-noon-evening and at night, the baby now accepts this biologically. Already uninterrupted-long sleep is something related to the order and routine in the baby. “
Sleep Routine Startable From 15th Day
Stating that the routine, which is the main source of sleep training, can be started 15-20 days after the baby comes home, Ertuğrul explains the issue as follows: After the maturation process of breast milk has passed, that is, after 15 days, the sleep routine can be started gradually.
Newborn babies do not know the concept of night and day when they are just born and come home. Towards the 1st month, the life of the whole family starts to get in order while the mild routines of the babies are sitting.
Routine Creation Stress
There are many factors that affect sleep in babies. First of all, the factors that affect the transition of babies to sleep and cause stress in them should be identified and solutions should be found to those problems. Newborn Nurse Esra Ertuğrul, one of the Canbebe experts, explained the issue with examples as follows: “Colic attacks that occur with crying bouts at certain times from the 10th or 12th day in newborn babies are one of these sources of stress. If the baby has colic, they may have crying attacks for about 5-6 hours. It is necessary to determine this attack time, to take a bath beforehand, and then to make a half swaddle on your body by fixing your arms with a slightly heated blanket, to lightly cook and to hear the white noise and go to sleep. With the half swaddle, giving that feeling of tightness, shaking it up and down, shaking it slightly and making the ‘shhhhh’ sound towards the ear, the baby feels itself in the womb and goes to sleep comfortably. Bathing, half swaddling, shivering and white noise routine are very useful in the attack process of colic babies. Half swaddling is useful not only for colic babies, but for all newborn babies. Babies have a reflex called the moro reflex, which wakes the baby from sleep by jumping. With this half swaddle, the baby is prevented from jumping in the state of moro reflex, and the baby feels safe by being trapped like in the womb. When he/she hears the white noise, the baby can safely go to sleep with the feeling in the womb. In the meantime, half a swaddle should not be done in a way that causes hip dislocation as it was done in Anatolia. It should be an arson method where only the arms are inserted into the diaper without squeezing the hip.
What is Night Terror (Parasomnia)?
Sleep
Night terrors, known as parasomnia, are a sleep disorder. It can start around 3-4 years of age and continue until adolescence.
The difference between Night Terror and Nightmare
Sleep consists of 2 stages: REM (where dreams are seen) and nonREM (transition to sleep -deep sleep). While nightmares are seen during REM, sleep terror is observed in the 3rd Stage 4 . It is seen during the transition to the stage. (That is, after an average of 90 minutes)
The situation seen in the early period can be more of a nightmare.
In the night terror, the child seems to have woken up, but not really woken up. He is caught between sleep and wakefulness. Consciousness is closed. When he wakes up in the morning, he can't remember what happened at night. Even if the shouting and excessive movement continues at that moment, take safety measures and help him fall asleep again without trying to force him/her to wake up. Because in night terror, the child will be able to go back to sleep spontaneously as if nothing had happened.
However, they may need you to calm down in the nightmare.
If both situations recur frequently, it is recommended to go to a specialist.
Some neurological and psychiatric diseases and night terrors are very similar; this needs to be distinguished.
What causes night terrors?
There is a deterioration in sleep due to reasons such as febrile diseases, drugs used, and the child's exposure to periodic stress. The seizure may take 2-3 minutes and it may take up to half an hour for him/her to calm down and fall asleep again.
Signs of sleep terror
Heartbeat and respiration are rapid, sweating may occur. It may seem awake, swinging the body uncontrollably. He can sit on the bed and scream
So what needs to be done?
First of all, parents should keep their calm, take safety measures around, and not wake the child. It can be ensured that the child is put to bed calmly and the child should not be intervened except for behaviors that may harm him/her.
Precautions you can take:
Note the time it took to fall asleep when the sleep terror occurred and the time it started. No matter how long it took after sleep, make sure he wakes up the next day 15 minutes before that time due to either drinking water or going to the toilet. In this way, you will create a change in the sleep cycle. Continue this for a week and consult a neurologist /psychiatrist if it still continues.
Measurements such as EEG and Polysomnography are applications to observe whether there is a change in brain waves or respiration in the case of sleep terror.