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Newborn babies are an absolute pleasure be around during the day, with all their gooey-gooey actions. However, the same crying becomes a pain during the night. With incessant crying, many a parent have experienced torrid times in the night trying to catch up on sleep. For working parents, all the more important that they get to sleep. It is, however, very important to get your child to sleep healthy and for you to sleep healthy as well.

There are a few simple, yet telling changes that are visible in your child when he needs sleep. You can gauge from a few actions that your newborn is sleepy, and it is essential to let them sleep for as long as their stomach feels full. And that you needn’t worry about because newborns wake up, cry, have breastmilk, sleep, and repeat. This is how their day goes. They have no sense of day or night and need nourishment every two hours or so because that is how long their tiny stomachs can hold food. A newborn ideally sleeps for the most part of the day, around 18 hours, in the form of 2-3-hour time intervals. This is the most torrid time for parents as they do not get the sleep that they used to. However, the baby settles into a long sleeping pattern from 2-3 months of age.

There are a few steps to let your child sleep healthy. First is to recognize that your child is sleepy, the next is to start setting a cycle for the child to sleep, and then do not sleep-feed your baby, and never disturb your baby during sleep. You need to be patient with your child because patience is a virtue.

How to find if Your Child is Sleepy?

Your child shows a few signs when he feels sleepy. Here are a few examples:

• The baby starts to rub his eyes
• Looks away from you when you look at him
• Becomes cranky and irritated
• Yawns uncontrollably

When you see any of these signs, you know that your child is sleepy, and it is best to put him to sleep rather than keep him up because a sleepy child is crankier than ever. By keeping him up, you are only putting the child sleeping pattern into trouble, and the baby will not sleep and cry even harder when he should.

Maintaining a Cycle is Important

It is necessary to let your baby learn the nuances of day-night schedules early, and it is better to start off once the child starts settling into a proper sleeping pattern. You can stimulate the child about day-night schedules by keeping the daytime occupied with activities to keep your child active. Once the sun sets, it is better to dim the lighting at home and have sober time, letting your child find out that it is time to sleep. This helps in developing a proper sleep cycle very early in the baby’s life, thereby, developing a healthy sleeping pattern.

Sleep-Feeding Isn’t Good for Your Baby

Your newborn should know to differentiate hunger and sleep. It is not uncommon for many of us to feel sleepy while eating, even adults. It is the same for children, but they cannot resist themselves as their actions are involuntary. Therefore, if your child falls asleep while eating, stop there and let your child sleep. Force feeding your child not only makes him cranky but makes it difficult for him to fall asleep after that.

Most importantly, do not let your child fall asleep with a baby bottle in their mouths, it is both harmful and a choking hazard.

Waking Your Baby from Sleep is a Bad Idea

 While even adults are cranky if they are woken up from sleep or just when they’ve woken up themselves, babies are crankier. Once your child crosses the 2-3-month mark, it is not advisable to wake him up and feed him. Children will wake up and wail at the top of their voices when they are hungry, and you needn’t worry. Your child sleeping pattern is hurt in the process as well. So, to get your child to sleep healthy, it is better to let him sleep and wake up before feeding him.

Patience is a Virtue

Being patient is one thing that you have to learn as a parent. Your child cannot do everything with the same that you are doing and maybe cannot even do things that you do. It is better to sit back, relax, and enjoy parenting rather than fussing over every bit of the baby’s development. It is good to tune your baby, but not force your baby to do stuff. Being a patient parent is one method to keep your child health in check as well. Forcing your schedules on the child might be detrimental to the overall health of the child.

Preparing for parenting is a whole level of difficulty and maintaining a proper sleepingpattern for your child is healthy, for which you have to make a few sacrifices on the road. Joy by Nature gives you a comprehensive collection of baby care materials to aid you in the process of parenting.