New parents everywhere are bound by a concern common to them all. How do you get baby to sleep and get her to stay asleep, so you can get some good shut-eye yourself?
With all the parenting books, internet sites and other parents you can turn to, sleep in unfortunately the least predictable milestone in your baby's life. Other milestones are pretty standard, as in teething ages, the ability to start on solid foods and when you can anticipate her first smile. However, nobody seems able to give you a concrete idea of when you might be blessed with more than a couple of hours sleep at a time.
Starting to developing healthy sleep habits is a very important step, and should be started from day one. There is of course an initial period of learning baby's signs, but it won't take long at all before you will recognize and know the different signals she displays before it's time for bed.
Once baby reaches about two weeks of age, it's time to start helping her to distinguish the difference between day and night. This is the first step to begin developing her sleep schedule. During daytime hours, take advantage of play time or singing using your normal tone of voice. Don't stop yourself from daytime tasks. Baby needs to distinguish and grow accustomed to the variety of noises around him during the day.
It's time to change things around when your baby wakes up during the night. Dim the lights and reduce noise as much as possible to avoid stimulation. This will help teach baby that night time is a quiet time. When he wakes up to feed, try not to talk very much, and remember not to be playful. The realization will occur soon enough that day time is play time, and nights are for sleeping.
Bedtime routines play a very important part in your quest to getting a bit more sleep. One thing that often helps is leaving bath time until right before bed. The warm water can be very soothing to your little one, as can the entire bathing process. Sometimes however, you may notice your baby getting too excited during bath time, which defeats the purpose of a calming experience. If this is the case with your little one, it might be a better idea to chance this to a morning ritual instead. Establishing new bedtime rituals such as soft music or story time may also help with this transition.
Outside of routine, many babies have challenges when it comes to calming themselves to fall asleep and there are different thoughts how to best help baby accomplish this.
One technique that many parents have found helpful is the crying down method that can be used when when baby reaches about 6 weeks old. If you're sure your baby is not hungry and any other potential issues are taken care of, you might let your baby cry a little until she calms down. At first start with 5-10 minutes, but expect that if your baby has become over-tired or over-excited this could take as long as 20 minutes. If you are having trouble ignoring the crying try and wait 5-10 minutes before returning to baby's room. Repeat this procedure until the baby can fall asleep on her own without the crying.
If you think that it would be a little tough to let such a young baby cry itself out, there are other techniques that may be better for you. For example, many parents prefer to pay closer attention to clues that indicate baby is ready to fall asleep, meaning bedtime may vary from night to night. Other parents may begin by lying down with baby and touching and talking to baby to provide comfort. Over time, the parent starts to provide less comforting interaction and moves further away, weaning the baby from the need to have the parent nearby to fall asleep.
Any way you approach it, babies are precious to their parents and so is sleep. With a few tips and a little patience, baby will eventually settle into a pattern that allows all of you to get a good night's rest. - 16755
With all the parenting books, internet sites and other parents you can turn to, sleep in unfortunately the least predictable milestone in your baby's life. Other milestones are pretty standard, as in teething ages, the ability to start on solid foods and when you can anticipate her first smile. However, nobody seems able to give you a concrete idea of when you might be blessed with more than a couple of hours sleep at a time.
Starting to developing healthy sleep habits is a very important step, and should be started from day one. There is of course an initial period of learning baby's signs, but it won't take long at all before you will recognize and know the different signals she displays before it's time for bed.
Once baby reaches about two weeks of age, it's time to start helping her to distinguish the difference between day and night. This is the first step to begin developing her sleep schedule. During daytime hours, take advantage of play time or singing using your normal tone of voice. Don't stop yourself from daytime tasks. Baby needs to distinguish and grow accustomed to the variety of noises around him during the day.
It's time to change things around when your baby wakes up during the night. Dim the lights and reduce noise as much as possible to avoid stimulation. This will help teach baby that night time is a quiet time. When he wakes up to feed, try not to talk very much, and remember not to be playful. The realization will occur soon enough that day time is play time, and nights are for sleeping.
Bedtime routines play a very important part in your quest to getting a bit more sleep. One thing that often helps is leaving bath time until right before bed. The warm water can be very soothing to your little one, as can the entire bathing process. Sometimes however, you may notice your baby getting too excited during bath time, which defeats the purpose of a calming experience. If this is the case with your little one, it might be a better idea to chance this to a morning ritual instead. Establishing new bedtime rituals such as soft music or story time may also help with this transition.
Outside of routine, many babies have challenges when it comes to calming themselves to fall asleep and there are different thoughts how to best help baby accomplish this.
One technique that many parents have found helpful is the crying down method that can be used when when baby reaches about 6 weeks old. If you're sure your baby is not hungry and any other potential issues are taken care of, you might let your baby cry a little until she calms down. At first start with 5-10 minutes, but expect that if your baby has become over-tired or over-excited this could take as long as 20 minutes. If you are having trouble ignoring the crying try and wait 5-10 minutes before returning to baby's room. Repeat this procedure until the baby can fall asleep on her own without the crying.
If you think that it would be a little tough to let such a young baby cry itself out, there are other techniques that may be better for you. For example, many parents prefer to pay closer attention to clues that indicate baby is ready to fall asleep, meaning bedtime may vary from night to night. Other parents may begin by lying down with baby and touching and talking to baby to provide comfort. Over time, the parent starts to provide less comforting interaction and moves further away, weaning the baby from the need to have the parent nearby to fall asleep.
Any way you approach it, babies are precious to their parents and so is sleep. With a few tips and a little patience, baby will eventually settle into a pattern that allows all of you to get a good night's rest. - 16755
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