Baby

Even though Lianne Sherriff had been through it three times before, dealing with her newborn son's night waking was quite a shock. "I couldn't figure out if I'd just forgotten what it was like, or if I was going crazy," she says. "I'm an experienced mother, I'd been through it before, but by the time Griffin was two months old I was ready to crash and begging for mercy."

Babies, Sherriff has been forced to admit, just don't sleep like adults. Some will nap for longer stretches than others, but many, like Griffin, wake frequently during both daylight and nighttime hours. His sleeping (or non-sleeping) pattern may be different from that of his older siblings, but it's normal.

"When it comes to sleeping, whatever your baby does is normal," says James McKenna, a professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame who has been studying infant sleep for more than a decade. "If one thing has damaged parents' enjoyment of their babies, it's rigid expectations about how and when the baby should sleep."

So what should you expect from your newborn when it comes to sleep? Babies' sleep cycles differ from those of their parents. Babies spend more time in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep - where they are more likely to waken - than adults who tend to descend rapidly into deeper sleep states and stay there for longer periods. Nature has designed babies to waken more frequently to ensure their survival; feeding regularly around the clock gives babies the nourishment they need to sustain the rapid growth of infancy. In fact, if your baby is a sound sleeper and not showing steady weight gain in infancy, your doctor may recommend that you wake the baby for feedings through the night.

Originally published in Today's Parent Baby & Toddler, Spring/Summer 2000