Confused about hours of sleep

[house]

Tracy's book says that a 1-3 month old should be sleeping 8 hours at night. But it seems like everyone here recommends a 12 hour schedule of going to bed and waking up. I'm confused about the 4 hour discrepancy. Are there 4 hours during that time that the baby isn't sleeping?

[em_here]

Hi there, can't remember rightly, but I think that a 12 hour night is the ideal, but an eight hour night is the norm for 1-3 month olds, ie: a longer period of time which may be interupted by feeds, but still the lo goes back to sleep and sees this as the night period.  By the time they are reaching like 4-6 months old, the ideal would be bed at 7pm, and nighttime through to 7am, and then a 12 hour day where the naps are spread out and babe sees this as daytime.

I hope that made some sense x

[EllenS]

To clarify - you treat the 12 hours (6:30 to 6:30 or 7 to 7, or 8 to as night-time, meaning you do a bedtime routine before putting them down "for the night", and any wakings/feedings during that time are treated as "night feeds" = no awake time after the feed, no play time, lights kept dim, etc.

The baby's length of uninterupted sleep will vary with age, individual temperament, and growth spurts, but you are setting their internal clock to tell day from night.  Many babies have 2 or more feedings during that period, but if they are asleep thru the dream feed and minimally awake for 20-30 minutes for other feed(s), they could still get about 11 hours of sleep in the night, added together.

HTH!

[em_here]

That made more sense, what ellen said