Every baby’s sleep pattern is different. Some sleep through the night from the start making their parents very lucky, and others won’t sleep more than an hour or two at a time until they’re far older. There is no way to force a baby to follow a certain sleep pattern. You can introduce a bedtime routine and after discovering their natural sleep, patterns for any given time try to tweak this to your preference.

Though as stated every baby is different here are the common sleep patterns for each stage in an infants life up to toddlerhood.

Birth: Newborns sleep 12-16 hours a day in short 1-2 hour blocks of time as they can’t yet determine night from day, these sleep periods usually have no real schedule. They sleep when they are tired.

Two weeks to three months: Somewhere around the 1-2 week mark babies begin to pick up on the difference between night and day. They may begin to have longer sleep periods at night or more frequent sleep periods during this time. Most babies still only sleep 2-3 hours at a time however.

Three to six months: Around this time, sleep needs start to decline being more like 12-15 hours a day. Baby also becomes capable of sleeping for longer stretches of time. Some babies may sleep a whole 8 hour even, though 4-6 is more typical.

Six to nine months: Around the 6-9 month range, babies often start to develop a recognizable pattern. They sleep long blocks at night ranging from 4-8 hours and then have usually 2-3 naps during the day.

Nine months to the first year: Finally, by the 9-12 month desired sleep has declined to around 11-14 hours a day and your baby probably has a well established sleep pattern. He or she sleeps at night, and take 1-2 naps around 1-4 hours a piece during the day.

At any age, you can begin a bedtime routine. This is simply a set of things you do every single night before bedtime that indicates it is bedtime. For example you may turn down the nights an hour before bed time, or give your baby a bath, sing a lullaby or read a book. This should be something that as the child ages, he or she will associate with going to bed. It’s best to build this routine around your baby’s sleep patterns at first, and then slowly adapt your baby after the first year to follow your desired sleep pattern. A bed time routine will eventually help your baby sleep through the night, however there is no way to make a baby sleep all night. He or she will do so when she/he is ready.