How do I get my baby to sleep through the night?

How do I get my baby to sleep through the night?

Simple tips to get you a good (or longer) nights sleep for newborns to 6 months.

Hello sleep deprived parent! Oh the joys of a new baby. They are incredibly cute, but also incredibly hungry (and stinky) which often leaves you more than a little sleep deprived! If you are reading this, you are probably where I was in my life a couple of months ago. Constantly researching (to the point of buying books and keeping logs to the point of data-mining) on how to get a baby to sleep through the night.

Good news! Instead of making you read a whole book, I am going to lay down some simple steps that are easy to follow in your sleep-deprived state. These may seem incredibly obvious to you – but to me (a sleep-deprived first time mum they took a while to find out).

In terms of sleep – I have good and bad news for you (depending on the age of your baby).

For newborns

They are not (if very rarely) going to sleep long periods of time (especially the first couple of weeks during their growth spurt). *Cue closing tab*. Newborns are hungry creatures with very small stomachs so therefore are incapable of sleeping through as they require constant feeding.

However, there are a few things you can do to help them sleep better at night:

1. Start a bedtime routine
   • Yes, you might be thinking – a routine!? For a newborn?! Not.going.to.work. I agree – it is impossible to stick to a routine for a newborn. However – what you can do is focus on doing the same things in the same order. They may not be at the same time each evening – but do it in the same order. For my little boy, it was:
     1. Relaxing bath
     2. Quiet time and bottle in a dimly lit room
     3. Lullaby and baby massage / patting to sleep

3-6 months

Some time in this period is where a baby’s sleep pattern starts to change to be similar to an adults and they do have the ability to sleep through. The main reasons they wake up are similar to an adults – they are either hungry, hot / cold or not tired (like the final trimester…am I right ladies?). Yes you may be thinking…what about the four month sleep regression? Well that unfortunately cannot be avoided as it’s just part of a baby’s development (so they no longer wake every 1-2 hours!) When your baby is going through this – or even teething – these tips may not work but if continued they will definitely not hinder sleep.

They have an even greater chance at sleeping through if you follow these tips:

1. Start a bedtime routine (if you haven’t already)
   • As mentioned above – bedtime routine is key – here is an example of my little boys:
     • Relaxing bath
     • Quiet time and bottle in a dimly lit room
     • Lullaby and baby massage / patting to sleep
2. Feed every 1-2 hours after sun down (expressed bottle feeding even better)
   • This one I learnt quite early. My lo tended to snack all.the.time at night. I ended this by expressing milk of a morning and evening then feeding him only bottles 
3. Make sure they are the right temperature
   • In the first couple of weeks, I’m sure now that I was definitely dressing my little boy incorrectly. I came across this ‘dressing your baby’ infographic from Baby Centre on how to dress babies based on the temperature of the room and follow it religiously.
4. Curb daytime naps – know how much your little one sleeps and follow sleep windows
   • After so much research, I came across the Little Ones site and started following their advice for daytime naps. They say never to wake a sleeping baby – but sometimes you have to for feeds! I am currently not letting my 5mo nap longer than 3 hours during the day. Any longer and he will sleep more like 6 hours (with several wakes) that night. He’s a baby that is lucky to sleep 12 hours in a 24 hour period (instead of 14-17) though.
   • Another important point is awake windows – i.e the amount of time a baby can stay awake. According to Little Ones – a baby that is between 3-6 months is capable of being awake for 2.5 hours so that is the ideal time to space the naps. Find awake windows for older babies.

I have been following all these religiously every night for the last two months and have gradually gotten my (then three-month-old) to sleep a whole 7-8 hours straight (bit of an improvement from waking up 1-3 times a night!)

I hope these tips and tricks work for you. Let me know in the comments how you go and what age your child is!

Best of luck and Happy sleeping!!