A baby’s sleeping patterns, or lack of, seem to be a major preoccupation of new parents these days. I often hear that loaded question, “does your baby sleep through the night?” and am fascinated by the answers. On most occasions I will challenge a group to find out what sleeping through the night means to each of them. The answers are very varied – from a five hour stint of midnight to 5am, all the way to a twelve hour uninterrupted 7 til 7. The majority of Mums are happy with a sleep through from a late-night (dream) feed til morning, i.e. the 7 or 8 hour stretch that we need to feel revitalised! The question is, how can we optimise good sleeping and what are safe practices?
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