Sleep like a baby

Believe it or not: It’s normal for small babies to have good sleep habits. This is how you create the right environment.

As a new parent, brace yourself, in between the congratulations from friends and family, you’ll hear the same warning again and again, “Good luck, guys, you’ll never sleep again.”

It’s a pity, says Petro Thamm, a sleep expert and director of the sleep consultancy Good Night. “Good sleep habits are normal for babies, just like the ability to walk and eat – as long as parents know from the get-go how to create the right environment for fostering sleeping habits.” However, you can expect a period of little sleep and perhaps tiredness at first, and no-one can really prepare you for that, says Meg Faure, a Cape Town based occupational therapist and co-author of Baby Sense. But if you have the right expectations from the beginning, it will be easier to handle your baby’s sleep patterns. “In the beginning, your baby wakes up every two to three hours to nurse. Also be aware that Baby does not yet know the difference between day and night,” Meg says. But fortunately, it’s easy to correct the latter problem, she says: “Make the day interesting and full of feeds. Encourage the release of the sleep hormone melatonin at night by keeping feeds boring, making the room dark and not talking to your baby.”

YOUR BABY’S WAY OF SLEEPING

Research has shown that your baby’s sleep pattern is actually quite simple, say the experts at Good Night.

Your newborn has two sleep phases: active and quiet. During the first nine months, these phases only last 50 to 60 minutes each, and that’s why your baby wakes so often.

Active sleep comes first and is your baby’s version of REM sleep. REM is the abbreviation for rapid eye movement, and that’s the phase during which we usually dream. Just like your baby, you could easily wake up during this phase. Your baby’s eyelids will flutter, his breath will be rapid and uneven, his body will move now and again, and he might growl or cry softly.

Active sleep is very important for newborns, because this is when they store the things they learnt during their awake times in the deeper centres of the brain. Researchers at the University of Florida in the United States call babies “data sponges” that use their sleep to file their new knowledge for later use. Newborns spend at least 75 percent of their sleeptime in a 24-hour cycle in light active sleep.

About halfway during the sleep cycle, your baby shifts to the quiet sleep or nonREM phase.

During this phase, breath is slower and more rhythmic, Baby does not move much and looks peaceful, and loud noises won’t easily wake him.

Quiet sleep represents the end of your baby’s sleep cycle. Once the phase is over, the sleep cycle will either begin afresh or your baby will wake up.

LEAVE THEM IN PEACE

The first piece of sleep advice from Dr Jack Kussel, a Johannesburg-based paediatrician who has been in the business for more than half a century, for new parents is to allow their baby to get enough sleep during the day and not wake them during naps. “The biggest reason newborns fight sleep is when they become overstimulated during the day,” he says. “Serotonin is the hormone that keeps your baby awake. The moment you allow him to rest, the serotonin level in his brain drops, and the melatonin level goes up, and melatonin makes him sleep well at night.”

So, protect your new baby against all the visitors with good intentions who want to hold him, and keep your own cooing in check too.“Keeping your baby up longer during the day doesn’t mean he’ll sleep for longer during the night. It just makes him overtired,” Dr Kussel warns.

He also doesn’t believe in waking a sleeping baby for a feed.

“If you do this, you interrupt his sleep cycle, and the hormones that keep him awake soar.”

BACK IN THE WOMB

For nine months, this small human was warm and cosy in your womb. After the birth, he suddenly finds himself in a world full of foreign sounds, feelings and smells. This can upset him and keep him awake. During the first three months of his life, recreating the feeling he experienced during the time in your womb will help tremendously in terms of sleep, Petro says.

This is how you do it:

Swaddle him snugly in a blanket to mimic the cosy feeling of the womb. New babies don’t like the uncontrolled movements they make with their limbs, and they will quickly calm down if you swaddle them. This also helps to prevent the startle reflex from waking your newborn. A baby sleeping bag that imitates the pressure of the womb is also handy. The safest sleep position for your baby is on his back, but it’s comforting if you hold him on his right side or tummy in your arms, with his face turned slightly down.

With your baby snugly swaddled in your arms, you can gently rock from one side to the other. Be careful of moving too quickly. Some babies will calm down and allow you to lay them down while others will still be fairly awake. Others will need to be rocked to sleep, as they need more sensory input, Meg says. Don’t worry that this might teach your

baby never to fall asleep without rocking. He hasn’t formed habits yet at this stage. Your baby heard sounds in the womb, so it doesn’t make sense to keep him in a dead quiet environment, Petro says. Make loud repetitive hushing sounds (“shush”) to copy the white noise your baby heard in the womb. You can also play a CD with white noise. The familiar sound of your voice will also calm baby down. Encourage your baby’s suck reflex – it has a calming effect. Meg says already in utero, the mouth is full of sensory receptors, and it doesn’t make sense to withhold this pleasure from your baby after birth. Small babies may still struggle to find their own thumb, and Meg recommends using a dummy from birth.

YOU MATTER TOO

After nine months of pregnancy, and the labour process or a c-section, it’s normal for a new ma to feel tired. Petro reminds parents to ensure not only that their newborns get enough sleep but also that they themselves get enough rest.

You might think it’s impractical to lie down when your baby sleeps, but the 15 minutes on the couch can give your body and soul the necessary boost to adapt to baby’s broken sleep pattern.

DO WHAT WORKS FOR YOU

During the first few weeks of your baby’s life it doesn’t really matter where he sleeps, as long as the sleep space is calm and comfortable. Petro says it’s only from 12 to 16 weeks that your baby starts forming a link between sleep and the place you put him down.

“In the early days, it’s a good idea to have your baby near you to make night feeds easier,” she says.

So, let go of your initial rule about baby only being allowed to sleep in his own room and never in bed with you at first. “The parents should be comfortable with how they do things, and it should be practical. Anyways, it’s about survival more than doing everything ‘right’ during those early days.”

Petro says you shouldn’t worry about spoiling your baby or fostering bad habits by allowing him to fall asleep on your chest or in your bed.

“In the first days it’s more practical for a young baby to sleep in a sleeping bag with Mom than in the sterile environment of his cot, far from those caring for him.” If baby sleeps in bed with you, it should be safe. Co-sleeping is out for smokers or those on meds, and Baby should be in his own blanket, between you.