6 TO 12 WEEKS

The honeymoon is over. The melatonin (sleep hormone) that was still circulating in your baby’s blood after birth is gone and her little body hasn’t started manufacturing its own melatonin yet. For that you will have to wait until somewhere between 12 and 16 weeks, which is when baby’s own sleep patterns begin to form.

You will notice that your baby needs a little less sleep now; somewhere between 12 and 16 hours in a 24-hour cycle. Most likely she will need three naps during the day: two short ones and a longer one. After about 60 to 80 minutes awake, you will notice that she becomes tired.

Your baby still needs to feed at night, but typically one of the night feeds (usually the earlier one) starts to fall away. Your baby could manage 6-7 hours of sleep before waking up for a feed.

Don’t force things. Don’t try and force her to sleep or to skip a feed. Her body has to be ready for this step. Also don’t be tempted to start pushing solid food because you think this will help her to sleep through. It will backfire.

Another change you might notice is that your baby now requires some silence to sleep, whereas before she could sleep through anything. To drown out other noises you could play soothing background music.