LEAPS AND SLEEP

There is always something going on with our babies, right?!

Just like the physical growth spurts, babies can go through mental developments that occur through a process of “leaps.” Research has shown that babies make 10 major leaps during the first 20 months of their lives. With each leap comes a drastic change in your baby’s mental development, which affects not only their mood, but also their health, intelligence, sleeping patterns, and the “three C’s” (crying, clinging and crankiness).

Some of the most common signs your baby is going through a developmental leap are crying and fussiness, sleep regressions, and separation anxiety.  While all of this can feel overwhelming for you, it’s a huge sign of mental development in your little one.  Often the crankiness is simply frustration tied to learning new skills.  You can be rest assured that this is all for a good reason and your baby will soon be back to their normal happy, sleeping self!  Hang in there!

So what about their sleep?!

During this time, sleep can temporally be thrown off.  Some common sleep issues during a leap are short naps, early rising, protesting bedtime, and more frequent night wakings.  The more consistent you are in sticking to your plan during these rough patches, the faster your baby will move through this tough time. If you start responding differently by holding them to sleep, patting to sleep, feeding to sleep, etc., it can prolong this difficult time and make sleep harder for the weeks to come.  Hold to your plan and you will get through this!  

One last tip: If your baby was born early or late, remember to adjust based on their estimated due date . In other words, if your baby was born at 38 weeks, all of their leaps will occur about 2 weeks later.

Written by: Rachel Donovan