There are many sleepless nights in the life of a new parent. A newborn needs to be attended about every 2 hours to have all its urges met. But right after the first 6 weeks, you should start developing healthy sleeping habits and sticking to a routine so your baby can learn to sleep through the night.
But how? How to make baby sleep through the night? There are 5 easy steps for you to follow. They require patience and consistency but the result will come and eventually your little one will start to sleep through the night.
Always take into consideration the natural sleeping patterns that your baby has and see how it reacts to all these actions.
1. Keep a bedtime routine
Start with creating and sticking to an evening bedtime routine. It needs to be simple so you can repeat it every night before you put your baby to sleep. These activities are supposed to calm your baby and to associate these activities with going to sleep.
A bedtime routine can consist of a warm bath, a bedtime story, putting on the pajamas or even a gentle massage. Make this time a real ritual. Calm, quiet and peaceful so your baby gets all drowsy and ready to go to sleep.
2. Put it down drowsy
A mistake that many parents do is that they rock the baby in their arms and put it in the crib when it is completely asleep. When it eventually wakes up it is confused as its surroundings are different – the parent is not there anymore.
So you can rock your baby in your arms but put it into the crib right before it falls asleep completely.
3. Create the right ambiance
A calm and quiet atmosphere in the bedroom will definitely help your baby with its sleeping habits. Thanks to these little cues your little one will start to understand the difference between day and night and it will associate this ambiance with bedtime.
A great trick to take this step to the next level is to put on some white noise. Not only it acts as a great cue to sleep, but it also helps with the overall quality of your baby’s sleep.
4. Let it soothe itself
If your little sweetheart starts crying your natural reaction is to go rock it in your arms and soothe it. That may not be the best reaction. Your baby will become used to this prime service and eventually will require it every time it wakes up even in the middle of the night.
An approach that many suggest is that you just come to check on it and tell it everything is fine and it is time to go to sleep. Leave the room to wait is the crying stops. if not, repeat the process and make each interval of wait longer and the time you spend there shorter.
5. Limit night feedings
You might want to consult your doctor for this last step, but if he agrees (depending on the age of your baby), you should start to limit the feeding you give your baby during nighttime.
Babies don’t need to feed every time they wake up, but if you do it regularly they will become accustomed to it. But if you do feed, make sure the process is calm and quiet so the baby understands the difference between day and night.
