When will my baby sleep through the night?

Are you fed up with sleepless nights? Find out when will baby sleep through the night.

Even before giving birth, we know well that we sleepless nights are ahead of us. But, unfortunately, it is impossible to get enough sleep "in advance" and after a few months of sleep interrupted by feeding and crying, young parents start looking for an answer to the question of when the baby will through the night.

So, when does a breastfed baby sleep through the night?

The question of when an infant sleeps at night is simple, but only in theory. Because theoretically, a toddler can fall asleep in the evening and wake up in the morning after 6 months of age. This is when babies stop needing to be fed at night. The baby is able to eat a portion of milk before going to bed that is enough up until the morning. In fact, there are children who start sleeping all night between 6 and 9 months of age, but it absolutely does not mean that there is something wrong with children who still wake up at night being at that age.

When can a baby sleep through the night without feeding?

Parents of toddlers who are fed with formula milk usually start to enjoy the baby's sleep at night earlier. Although natural food is the best for a child, a toddler digests it faster than formula food and becomes hungry faster. That means waking up for feeding at night. In addition, feeding with a bottle, parents also know if the baby has eaten a standard portion of food and is full.

Although the temptation to have the full night slept through is high, it is not worth giving up breastfeeding in favor of modified milk only for this reason.

Around the end of the first year of their life, babies who are breastfed start to eat more and more until they are able to eat enough milk to sleep until morning. Then comes the moment long awaited by the parents, when the baby sleeps all night.

Remember the rituals

Newborns sleep almost 24 hours a day, but in the following months, periods of activity become longer. The baby gets used to the 24-hour division of the day, and the six-month-old baby should now function according to the day and night cycle. That is why it is worth introducing rituals for yourself and your toddler from the first days of life. It organizes the baby's day, provides safe rhythm of the day, easily translates the division into day and night, and speeds up the moment when the baby begins to sleep through the night. The rituals are, above all, a great convenience for parents. A baby who is used to the stable rhythm of the day calms down much easier and sleeps longer.

How much does a newborn, infant and a 1-year-old sleep?

Again, let's start with the fact that every child is different. The standard time frame for children to sleep at particular ages is only indicative. It is certain, however, that newborns and infants need sleep in order to develop properly, and it is the parents who have to ensure that there is enough of it.

How long should babies sleep? Newborns sleep most of the day, waking up for the change of diapers, bathing and feeding, plus short periods of activity - they sleep even 17-20 hours a day in total.

When 2-3 months of age, infants need 16 hours of sleep, 4-6 month-olds between 14 and 16 hours, with 2-3 naps a day. In the following months, the little ones are satisfied with about 13 hours of sleep and 1 nap a day. 2-3-year olds sleep about 12 hours a night and once a day.

The period between 6 months and a toddler is the time when the baby sleeps all night.

How to help your baby sleep through the night?

Although children have different needs and different children have different routines, we can at least try to help them. How?

Let's make sure that your little one can distinguish day from night as quickly as possible. Remember that one should have his/her evening rituals - bathing, feeding and sleeping, which should be associated with a night's sleep. Let's try to provide the baby with the best possible conditions for sleep. The baby's room should be aired and the place of falling asleep at night should be the same every day.

Humming teddy bears also help your baby fall asleep peacefully. myHummy bears emit various types of white and pink noise that remind a newborn baby of the sounds they hear in their mother's tummy. The toddler feels safe, calms down and falls asleep faster. myHummy version with the sleep sensor will turn on by itself at night, when the baby starts whining or there is some noise around. The teddy bear will hush the toddler to sleep again.

The most common sleep problems

It happens that a baby is determined to sleep, however constantly wakes up, moans and cries. There can be many reasons for waking up at night.

One of them could be simply empty tummy. We need to be patient here, we need to wait for the baby to learn to eat to the full and over time the baby will eat more and more and sleep longer.

Although this may come as a surprise to young parents, sometimes the child cannot sleep because he/she is too tired. Visiting family, a trip, shopping etc. - new stimuli are a great experience for a newborn. These are often big changes to the daily rhythm and a baby ends up fatigued. This does not mean that when tired, your baby will fall asleep faster. Most often it is quite the opposite - unable to fall asleep, cries from exhaustion.

It shouldn’t be of surprise either when an infant who slept a lot during the day, has trouble sleeping at night. A long car trip or a long walk in fresh air often lengthens the child's usual nap and when the evening comes, the baby does not feel like sleeping at all.

Very sensitive children

There are also babies born with increased sensitivity to stimuli - about 10 percent of newborns. Such children often have great sleep problems. Some babies do fall asleep quickly, but are woken up even by mere sounds. Others find it difficult to calm down to sleep because they are distracted by the slightest stimuli. And here with a rescue come the humming teddy bears that soothe the little ones by masking the sounds from the environment.

A child only falls asleep in the stroller

Most babies love to sleep while walking in a stroller or while traveling by car. Many parents use these methods in their bedtime rituals. The baby cries, he/she cannot calm down and fall asleep, so parents take them for a walk or a short ride. But unfortunately, the baby gets used to it very quickly and after a few nights he/she won’t fall asleep differently, e.g. at home, in a crib.

From the first weeks of life, it is worth getting your baby used to sleeping in his own bed or putting them away quickly after falling asleep. They will feel that the crib is their space in which they feel safe and reminds them of sound sleep.

Sometimes it takes a lot of patience and persistence for a parent to introduce good sleep rituals, but it's really worth it. This will provide both the baby and parents with much more peace, predictability and speed up the moment when the baby starts to sleep all night.