Babies Under Three Months

Surveys indicate that almost half of parents of two-month-olds and 70 percent of parents of three-month-olds report that their infants sleep through the night. "Sleeping through the night" at these ages means that the baby sleeps unaided from midnight to 5 A.M. without crying out for parental help to go back to sleep. Most parents can function pretty well with five to six hours of uninterrupted sleep.

NEWBORN SLEEP STRATEGIES
The following "focal feeding plus stretching" procedure (developed by Joanne Cuthbertson and Susie Schevill in their book HELPING YOUR BABY SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT) will greatly increase the likelihood that your baby will be sleeping through by two or three months of age:

Phase One
• Beginning on the third day of life, always feed your baby between 10 P.M. and midnight even if you have to wake her. This is called the "focal feeding." Be sure this feeding is a substantial one.

• Avoid teaching your newborn to depend on you to fall asleep. Put your baby down to sleep while his eyes are open and leave the room. Your infant may whimper or cry for a few minutes as a way of releasing tension and settling down but will soon fall asleep on his own.

• Babies will naturally sleep through normal household noises, so don't tip-toe around or your infant will learn to depend on an artificially quiet environment to sleep.

• When you wake your baby every few hours during the day for feedings, play with her before and/or after these feedings to expand wakeful times during the day.