Light plays a huge role in our sleep cycles. When its light out we are up and moving. When its dark we are in our beds ready to enjoy some relaxing sleep. When we were at the hospital, I started introducing William to the natural lights. During daytime hours blinds were open and I was up walking him along with making as much noise as possible. This doesn’t mean screaming and yelling. I simply didn’t change anything about the noise level even when he was napping. At night curtains were closed lights were off and the tv was at a dull roar.
2. Let Your Baby Self-Soothe
If you don’t want to hold your baby 24/7 and have him attached to you like a leech, I recommend allowing him to self soothe. This means leaving your child alone to fall asleep and to stop crying without you rocking or shh him. I also started this process while in the hospital. How I did it was I would feed him and watch him to see if he showed signs of drowsiness. Once he showed those signs, I would swaddle him and place him in the bassinet. He would squirm for a bit and sometimes cried but if I didn’t bother him, he eventually put himself to sleep. When we got home from the hospital William slept alone in his crib every night.
3. Feed Before Sleep
This has always worked for me. Make sure your baby’s tummy full before bedtime. This helped with not having him wake up all hours of the night because he was hungry. I also fed my son an extra ounce for his last bottle for the night.
4. Establish a Bedtime
The goal is to get your little one to sleep though the night, so you must be realistic with your bedtime. If you want your baby to sleep though the night till about 6am don’t make bedtime at 8pm. My son has had the same bedtime since we came home from the hospital and that is 11:30pm-12:00am. Yes, there was nights where he overstepped and was awake till 1 but most of the nights I stuck to my plan.
5. Bath Before Bedtime.
You can’t exactly bathe your baby the first few weeks due to them still having the bellybutton, but you can do a rag bath. I always used Johnson’s Bedtime Bath along with the Johnson’s Bedtime Baby Lotion. Once my son’s bellybutton fell off and he could get a tubby it was so much easier! Not only does a bath relax your baby it allows them to relieve gas build up too! Gassy babies tend not to sleep well due to the pain of gas. You shouldn’t really bathe you baby everyday so the days that I didn’t do bath time I would just use the Johnson’s Bedtime Lotion before putting him into his pajamas.
6. Let Your Baby Sleep
In the beginning I was always scared when my son slept for more than 2 hours and not waking up for the boob. I was waking him up every two hours to eat and he would drink a sip or two then pass back out. It was pointless to disturb him. So, if your baby is sleeping let them sleep, they will wake up when they are hungry.
7. Dry Diapers
No one wants to sleep in their own owweee gooey mess. I can only image how uncomfortable that would be! Every night after my son is washed up and lotion is applied, I make sure a nice clean diaper is on his behind. I have used Pampers Swaddlers from the day he was born, and he slept through the night even with a little accident in it. I highly recommend.
8. Swaddle Your Baby
This was key in the beginning month. Every night after bath and feeding I would swaddle him when he was drowsy and place him in his crib. A lot of parents say their child doesn’t like to be swaddled but chances are they aren’t doing it correctly. There are tons of videos online that show ways on how to properly wrap you little one and its extremely simple once you get the hang of it.
9. Background Noise
Most parents use a sound machine of some sort, but I have never tried them. When I brought my son home it was mid-July in Pennsylvania so of course I had the AC and some fans running throughout the house. Also, I had the television on as well but at dull roar. I think the little noises helped him sleep along with comforting him, so he didn’t think he was alone.
10.Consistency
Consistency is not only important for your sanity, but it is key to having an effective sleep routine and schedule. These tips might not work the first day or two but sticking to your guns and not giving up you will see the results. The more you enforce these new techniques the better it will be for you and baby in the long run. I promise you will see results with theses simple tips and have a baby who sleeps through the night.
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