Helping Your Baby Go To Sleep

Little man is not a baby who sleeps through the night (not yet anyway). Unfortunately, he was also a baby who woke up about 3-4 times a night for many months. Other moms would look at me in horror when we'd compare our children's sleep schedules. Little would usually fall asleep about 12 midnight,
and awaken about about 7 am. Due to the fact he also woke up several times over night, it was obvious he wasn't even getting seven hours of sleep a night (which meant I wasn't either).

I recently met a woman socially who made an entire career out of helping babies sleep. She not only advises parents on how to help their baby develop a good sleeping pattern, but she often spends the night in their homes, walking them through the process. (Talk about finding a niche!) When I told her about little man's odd sleeping patterns, she shared some of her favorite tips for helping babies get their zzz's, which I'm sharing with you below:

Tips to Getting Baby to Sleep

❤ Pick a bedtime that you can commit to. The best bedtime for babies is about 8 pm.
❤ Make sure the crib is clutter and toy-free.
❤ Have a calm bedtime routine, one that is ideally 10-15 minutes. TV or toys should not be part of it.
❤ Keep the temperature between 68 and 72 degrees. Many parents make the mistake of keeping the room too warm, which can cause fitful sleeping.
❤ Keep the room very dark. It should be hard to see (do not have a nightlight shining into the crib- move it elsewhere).
❤ Use white noise to soothe your baby and cancel out househould and outside noises.

I didn't know babies should be asleep by 8 pm (I figured little man was a night owl like his mom and dad). I had a nightlight near his crib, and we didn't stick to a bedtime routine at all. Little man usually falls asleep nursing. And white noise? We use the Cloud b Sleep Sheep because he loves the sound of the rain, but it stops after about 30 minutes. According to the sleep expert mama, white noise should be on all night. The one she recommends is the Marpac sound conditioner. We always kept the crib toy and clutter free for safety reasons. I plan to start trying to put him to sleep at 8 pm.  I also cut out one of his daytime naps. Three naps a day kept his night sleeping short, but two naps a day resulted in him sleeping over eight hours a few nights in a row. They were not straight through- he is still in the habit of waking up once a night- so this week's project is to hone in on what I'm still not doing and see if things improve even more.

I'm looking forward to eight hours of straight sleep at night!