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Getting your newborn on a sleeping pattern can sometimes be difficult. Babies are born with no schedule of when and how to sleep or feed so it is all new to them. They are suppose to get up to 18 hours of sleep a day their first week of life. After that, and up to 3 months of age, they can get anywhere from 14-16 hours a day. Once you know how much sleep they need it will be much easier to get them on a schedule. To start your schedule or sleeping pattern you should also know that babies normally only sleep up to a few hours at a time. At 6 months old they are old enough to sleep 5-6 hours at a time, and this gets them sleeping mostly through the night.

To start your sleep pattern you will want to figure in all factors, when are you going to be sleeping, when do you want to bathe the baby, etc. You will also have to coordinate feedings with the sleep pattern and give room for adjustment because babies often sleep and eat more during certain times of growth spurts. The general rule is 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months are the most common times for these growth spurts.

Feeding the baby and then laying him or her down awake after will teach them to go to sleep on their own. This will make it much easier as they get older. Setting up a schedule for the whole day will help you get the baby sleeping in a pattern. Just make sure you schedule enough time for them to sleep and not to expect too much. You could start by getting them up in the morning, playing or reading with them for awhile and just keeping them up for awhile will be good. Then you can do a feeding and lay them down and expect them to go to sleep on their own for a couple of hours. When they get up do the same thing, and during the night just do the feedings then lay them back to sleep, of course on their backs, for protection from sids.

This should get you started on getting your baby to sleep during the first couple of months, and maximizing how much sleep you can get also.