For the past couple nights Baby A has been kind enough to give her good looking, caring parents a full night’s sleep. Now that we’ve had a taste of what sleep used to be, we are going to do everything short of drugging her to keep it that way….hmm a shot of NyQuil before bed shouldn’t hurt.
So how do you program you baby so she’ll sleep through the night? Well… you can’t. All babies are different, some will sleep through the night immediately while it can take years for others. But what you can do is teach your baby good sleeping habits early.
Below are a few tips you can use to help regulate your baby’s sleep pattern to give you a fighting chance of getting a full night’s sleep.
Baby Sleep Tips
- Have a comfort object. Chances are this comfort object – such as a stuffed animal or blanket – will become a cherished possession that will help soothe your baby. If startled awake at night, your baby will find comfort and security with their favorite blanket and will often so back so sleep on their own.
- Separate day from night. Many newborns have their days and nights mixed up. To help reverse this, start a bedtime routine and stick to it. Give them a bath, turn down the lights, and play quietly. Whatever you do, just try to help your baby relax and not to do anything stimulating.
- Keep nighttime meals business only. When your baby starts to fuss in the middle of the night, don’t wait. Go to her immediately and feed her before she has a chance to wake up. Don’t talk or turn the light on, keep the atmosphere calm and quiet so that baby doesn’t think it is playtime.
- Teach your baby to fall asleep on her own. As a newborn your baby will undoubtedly fall asleep while being held, feeding, etc. Eventually you will want your baby to get used to the idea of going to sleep on her own. To do this, you want to put your baby in their crib sleepy but still awake. If she becomes accustomed to falling asleep while feeding, rocking her, or just being held, she will be upset (to put it mildly) if she wakes up in the middle of the night to see that her comfort is gone.
Teaching Baby A to fall asleep on her own is a huge priority for the wife and I. The last thing we wanted is for her to be dependent on us to get her to sleep. We have relatives with children that had to be rocked asleep or would throw a fit. Not only is it tiring for the parent, it sets up nasty habits for the future.
By putting her in her crib while she is still awake has worked wonders. We now know how to tell when she is tired and ready for bed so the second we see those cues we rush her to the crib and tuck her in with her blanket. I must say that (knock on wood) we haven’t had any problems yet!
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Nyquill is a no-no? I think it worked on me? lol…
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Hah, just remember… you didn’t hear it from me.
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Falling asleep on their own was key for us. I just knew that holding our daughters till they fell asleep would lead to hard times.
However, the comfort object has come back to haunt us with our 4 yr old. She gets in moods and want’s to take it everywhere
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I disagree that having baby dependent on you to fall asleep is a bad thing. I think sometimes parents are overly scared of setting a pattern that will last forever, but babies are dependent on us for many things that they will grow out of naturally when they are old enough. Putting baby down sleepy is not a bad idea, but parents should remember to be guided by love so that the fear of creating a kid who can’t sleep by themselves doesn’t lead the parent to letting the baby cry it out!
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Diana,
Thanks for stopping by. You make a great point worth noting. They will grow out of it when they’re old enough. The art of parenting seems to come down to picking your battles, and what works for one child may not work for another.
Cheers!
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