5 Tips to Get Your Baby to Sleep Through the Night
My first daughter was an amazing sleeper pretty much from day one, my second not so much. However, now I have both a toddler and a six month old sleeping through the night together in the same room you guys. That's a freakin miracle to me, maybe I'm just lucky or maybe it was these next five tips that helped my babies sleep through the night early on. Good luck & I hope you find something that works for your little babes.
Make sure they are taking in enough calories during waking hours. My babe was still wanting to nurse twice during the night, I was able to slowly cut these out by nursing her more during the day and adding more solids as she was ready for them. I also think part of it was that she was comfort nursing, but this momma needed her sleep. So, even though it took a few nights of tears on both our parts we made it through cutting those times out of our nightly schedule.
Establish a bedtime routine. We start our bedtime routine pretty early. If I really think about it, the routine actually begins with her “dinner” of solids at 6 PM. By 6:30 she’s in the bathtub, depending on her mood for about 10-15 minutes. Next we get her jammies on and read while she has a bottle. When she finishes her bottle I sing to her for a few minutes while we rock in the chair. I do not lay her down while she is fully passed out, instead I wait until I can tell she is very sleepy and close to falling asleep on her own. Then I'll lay her down in her crib and she is typically out within ten minutes, and tear free to boot!
Make baths a part of your bedtime routine, there’s just something about getting all snuggly in jammies after a bath that is sleep inducing. That being said DO NOT use soap on your baby every night, even though baby soap smells like heaven. They just don’t really need it and it will dry out their soft baby skin.
Use some kind of white noise. We have Spotify and use our ipad to play ocean sounds throughout the night. We have done white noise pretty much from day one with both of my babies and it is a literal life saver. I don’t think I could have functioned without the sleep I got while my babies stayed asleep with white noise playing.
If they’re still young enough try a swaddle, we used the SwaddleMe Original. If they’re too big for a swaddle try something transitional like the Magic Merlin Sleep Suit. This snow suit looking thing is seriously a game changer you guys. Coming from a momma of a swaddle addict, we transitioned to this and she slept through the night within three days of use.
That's it! Those are all the tricks up my sleeve, I hope some of them are helpful and you and your baby get some rest. Good luck!
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