Tips to help baby sleep longer at night
So I love sleep, I mean I REALLY love to sleep. So when I became pregnant I have to admit I spent about six months researching different techniques to get my baby to sleep through as long as possible so I could continue sleeping nine hours a night! Within the 4 weeks my firstborn would sleep at 8 am wake once at 1am then again at 5am most of the time. For my second baby It took about six to seven weeks. Through the years I have given these tips to other parents and they told me it helped soooo… here they are:
Tips
1. Have a different place for your baby to sleep during the day vs during the night. E.g. Never put the baby down in the crib in the bedroom during the day between 5 am and 8 pm or whenever bed time is. We had a playpen in the living room to put the baby down during the day.
2. When you put the baby down to sleep during the day I would leave the tv on, talk normally basically no tip toeing around. Trust me your baby will sleep.
3. As soon as the baby cries during the day I would take the baby out of the play pen, talk, play let her stay with me as much as possible.
4. Make sure there is a routine during the night to put your baby to sleep. This is an example of our routine below.
Routine Example
From four to seven pm I would breast feed my children as much as they wanted.
At seven pm, bathe the baby, but no eye contact, no playing.
Take the baby into our bedroom with low lights after the bath. No talking to baby, no talking to each other (parents, grandparents)
Dress the baby in clothes that you only use at night. E.g. Special onesie.
I would do a final nurse and burp. Due to marathon feeding they would hardly want any.
Put the baby down in their nighttime crib.
If the baby fussed I would start by putting my hand gently on them while making the “shushing” sound. If they continue fussing, I would make sure the diaper is dry and that they are not hungry. (Still no talking)! Then, put them back down, patting their back and shushing.
Throughout the night, if the baby woke up I would do the same thing as above. No TV, always a dim, quiet room to feed and change.
At 5 am when the baby fussed I would say “good morning”, play, make eye contact and feed the baby with the TV on. No more bedroom crib until night time.
That was it in a nut shell. The routine changed when the baby is a toddler and again it changed when they started school. I may post those at another time. I really hope these tips help you. I know it worked for us.
Will this always work?
There be will be nights when your child is ill and you have to hold them all night. There will be nights of gripe where walking up and down your corridor, while rocking your baby will be the only way to comfort them. These tips are not for those times. But if your baby is well and fed then these tips should help the household to settle into a routine.
Above all remember to keep as calm as possible as baby will sense how you are feeling.
Last tip! When your baby goes to sleep, you go to sleep as well, you need it!
