Top tips to help your baby sleep
Sleep. Or rather, lack of it is often new parents’ biggest concern.
Life with a newborn can feel like a bit of a blur. The first few days and weeks can be tough as parents adjust to their little one’s sleep routine.
Your baby’s first year of life is filled with many amazing milestones – with sleeping through the night on a regular basis perhaps the one that parents most look forward to. And whilst there’s no magic remedy when it comes to sleep, there are lots of tips and tricks that can help both you and your baby adjust.
So, what are they I hear you ask…
Get your baby used to day and night
It’s a good idea to teach your baby that night time is different from daytime from as early as possible. During the day, open curtains, play games and don’t worry about everyday noises when your baby is sleeping.
However, when it comes to night, you might find it helpful to:
- Keep the lights dimmed
- Keep your voice quiet and limit talking
- Put your baby down as soon as they’ve been fed and changed
- Only change nappies when necessary
- Don’t play with your baby when they wake during the night
Your baby will gradually learn that night time is for sleeping.
Establish a bedtime routine
Introducing a simple, soothing bedtime routine when your baby is around three months old can help your baby learn to sleep through the night. During the first few months, your baby’s sleep schedule will largely be dictated by their eating pattern. However, as they grow, they’ll begin to go longer and longer between feeds.
Carrying out the same bedtime routine every night can help your baby associate night with sleeping:
- Having a bath
- Changing into a sleepsuit and a fresh nappy
- Brushing their teeth (if they have any wool)
- Reading a bedtime story
- Dimming the lights in the room to create a calm atmosphere
- Singing a lullaby or turning on a musical mobile once you put them into bed
- Give a night time feed
- Give a goodnight kiss and cuddle
Remember, in time, the sleep-deprived fog of this newborn phase will clear. Eventually your baby will sleep for longer stretches – but until then get rest whenever you can and ask for help when you need it.
One day you’ll look back fondly on this bleary-eyed period and remember those night time feeds when it was just you with baby snuggled safely in your arms!
