most parents and kids find the afternoon rest is still of great advantage until 4 years or so. Some like myself, will continue that routine longer, and even continue to use it for any child who exhibits tiredness or low energy in the early afternoon.
   So, if a baby needs, say, 18 hours sleep a day in the first few weeks of its life, how come new mothers are always so exhausted? Many mothers find that whilst their baby is settled enough during the day, night time turns into play time for baby and nightmare time for tired parents! Since a young baby has a very loose understanding of day and night, he is simply responding to the sensory input around him. Darkness means nothing to see, bright lights invite stimulating activity. So we must teach them the difference between day sleep and night sleep by just doing the basics during the night wakes and then putting him down again straightaway. It is the daytime wakes when he has the need to get fully conscious and active.
   During the day it is quite suitable for a baby to sleep in full daylight (not full sunlight though). Darkening a room as if it were night is not advised. This will confuse his timing of when he has woken up. If you then take him out into the light, when he wakes in the night he will expect you will take him out into the light for some action. Anyone would agree, it is better that he wakes fully in the day and has a productive activity period then, than in the nights.
   For day sleeps, I always used a portable basket with an insect net or a thin blanket as a roof over the handles so that I could carry the babies around, nearer to where I was - in the kitchen, the laundry, on the verandah, under a shady tree - not right at my activity but a quiet place not far away. Once a baby has outgrown the basket stage, around the age of 3 months, their appreciation of day and night will be clearer, his sleep patterns more predictable, his need for instant attention upon waking far less. At this time a cot or mattress in a quiet room is more suitable.
   During the nights it is important to keep stimulation to an absolute minimum. In the first few months of life, a baby has a biological need to wake every few hours and feed. His digestive system is not able to cope with anything other than small, regular amounts of nourishment, so trying to force feed solids or complementary formula to a small baby at the end of the day, in the hope he will sleep longer at night, is not at all advised, nor is it likely to result in any better sleep at night. With this approach you are more likely to give your baby indigestion from overfeeding,

or possibly allergies by introducing solids too early. The most sensible approach in the night is to attend to their hunger and nappy needs as quickly and quietly as possible - a quick change, a satisfying feed and then straight back to sleep. To make these night rituals even more efficient and less disturbing for them, an older baby, say around 4 months old, can be put into a double nappy at bedtime, thereby reducing the need for a nappy change. Rather than turning on their room light to fossick for things, or bringing the baby out into a well lit room with lots going on for a cuddle with Daddy because he's been out at work all day, it is best to attend to the baby's needs on or near his bed with the least light possible, just enough to see the nappy pin. No talking is needed at this time as that will only make him listen more to the sounds around and to think that you want to communicate with him. In the night all a baby needs, to be reassured that his mother is present, is her smell and touch, rather than her voice and her well lit image. If this approach is kept consistent for all of their night feeds, once the baby's stomach can be satisfied with the last evening feed (maybe 6 pm or 10 pm), he will be less likely to wake at night if he knows from experience that not much goes on in the dark. Should they show interest in waking up fully, then you have to firmly let them know it is NOT play time by putting them down again, straight away, rather than thinking that a bit of a carry around or some time in the lounge room with you and the other people will help them back to sleep. It won't. It will only cause the habit of night time waking.
   Many couples now try to share the night time duties of feeds and changes or often the "non-worker" assumes that role in place of the "worker". A shift away from these things being the mother's sole duty therefore necessitates either bottle-feeding of formula or expressed milk, or Dad doing the changing and cuddling with Mum providing only the breasts. I believe such options create more problems than they solve. If the man has been absent for most of the day, his arrival as the caregiver at say 3 am in the morning can either excite the baby (who is happy to see him), or frustrate the baby because it is really the mother they want and expect. In the event that the baby fails to settle from the father's best efforts, the mother is invariably called onto the scene and, come the morning, both adults have suffered from the broken sleep. What makes greater sense, is that there is a continuity both day and night. This is especially important for a baby under 6 months of age. There is nothing wrong with the man sleepin undisturbed at night