Stories of babies who sleep peacefully at night are the dream of many mothers. Parents with kids who never sleep all night become envious and sometimes annoyed with mothers who brag about their children sleeping the entire night.
Before your baby successfully sleeps throughout the night, they have to be able to. This means that there are a couple of milestones they should reach. It is crucial to ensure that your child is already at a phase where they should be able and ready to sleep throughout the night.
If you know that your baby can sleep all night, but they still have a hard time doing so, then there could be an underlying reason why they can’t. There are many reasons why babies can’t sleep through the night like growth spurts or illness, sleep regressions, or inability to sleep independently.
Whether your infant is experiencing either of these problems or not; here are some of the tips that can help your baby sleep through the night:
Create a Bedtime Routine
Don’t wait until your infant is older to create a bedtime routine; it’s always best to establish one as soon as possible. We recommend that you keep the bedtime routine sustainable and straightforward. This will make it easy for you to follow it each night.
Remember that even the slightest change to your bedtime routine can make your child feel uncomfortable and make them wake up more often at night. Sleep routines include relaxing and calming activities to which your child responds positively, such as tremors and diapers. You can use a simple bedtime routine to create positive sleep associations for your child.
Try Your Best to Soothe Your Baby by Allowing Self-Soothing
As parents, we have an innate need to soothe our babies whenever they start crying or appear to be in distress. Therefore, every time our children wake up in the middle of the evening and start to cry, it is natural that people test them.
However, to make it clear that it’s their time to sleep, not eat or play, you should limit how much time you spend with them. You can calm the child by putting his hands on his chest for a few seconds to calm him and leave the space.
Use a swaddle or sack to add gentle weight on their chests and sides to make them feel like you are still comforting them. Such techniques will help break their sleep association with being held to fall back asleep, ease separation anxiety, and help them learn self-soothing.
Create and Follow a Schedule
Like a bedtime routine, schedules are also essential for babies. Hence, make sure your kid gets enough sleep during the day to help prepare him for sufficient sleep at nighttime.
Unlike adults, infants cannot differentiate between daytime and nighttime; they sleep whenever they feel the urge to do so. As they grow older, they sleep longer, with the most extended stretches happening at night.
Hence, if you let your baby sleep too much during the day, they will be fussy and won’t remain asleep throughout the night. Therefore, create a schedule and make sure everyone who handles your baby sticks to the schedule.
Stop the Night Feedings
With the say-so from your doctor, you can start weaning the night feeds and begin reducing them slowly. If night feedings remain constant, the baby will see this as a sleep association because they get fed each time they wake up.
Even when night feedings become unnecessary, your baby will still want more of it. Hence, it is crucial to wean them off slowly and start feeding them less until they aren’t used to being fed each time they wake up at night.
Be Patient
If your baby suddenly stopped sleeping through the night, it could be a growth spurt or sleep regression fault. Growth spurts only last a couple does, in which case your baby will return to their typical sleeping pattern, while sleep regressions last 1-4 weeks. During times like these, we recommend patience. Focus more on the fact that it shall pass and wait for it off.
To learn more about parenthood, visit http://childmode.com.
