How To Get Baby To Sleep Through The Night - The Advice You’ve Never Heard

Your labor is complete.  The delivery is over.   You’ve brought that baby home and everything is bliss.  At least for a moment.   You think that this baby sleep thing is no problem because your baby has been sleeping for almost two days straight.  But then reality hits.

Babies not sleeping through the night is the hardest part of recovery.  Yes, even more than the physical healing that you have to go through.  When sleep deprivation hits, it will define a new level of exhaustion that you never thought was possible.

But there are things you can do to help your little one sleep as much as possible through the night, thus saving yourself from collapsing into bed constantly.  Why can’t they sleep through the night anyway?

How To Get Baby To Sleep Through The Night

When you were pregnant, the moving around all day was constantly rocking your baby to sleep.  But the moment when you lay down in bed, that rocking motion is gone, so your baby wakes up.  Makes sense?  That’s why babies are born with their internal clocks the opposite of our own.  They don’t have as much of a sense between day and night that we do.

And it’s important to know that it can take at least two to three weeks before your baby can adjust to a proper day and night routine.  Once you get through that first few weeks relief starts to come.  Just hold on.

I remember being up in the night with my first little boy, and I started to cry once a few weeks in because I was just so tired.  He didn’t go back to sleep very well and I would walk around for hours trying to get him to sleep.

You will cry too.  It’s okay.  There is a light at the end of your tunnel and I’ll help you get there a little faster.

 I know, we’re always told to NEVER wake a sleeping baby.  And that’s true … at night.

Steps To Take

But first, just know that you cannot expect a newborn baby to keep your schedule for the first while.

• One of the most important things to help your baby adjust to the right day and night is to wake them from their naps.  I know, we’re always told to NEVER wake a sleeping baby.  And that’s true … at night.  But when your little one is sleeping for big stretches of four hours or more during the day, it’s throwing a wrench into their night time sleep.  What would happen if you slept that long during the day?  Would you be up half the night?
• Don’t let your baby nap for longer than two hours during the day as a newborn.  Gently wake them up and change their diaper, play, feed them, whatever works in your routine.  Just get them up.

Next, your baby likely will not be able to stay awake for more than an hour and a half to two hours in between naps.  This is okay.  Just let them go back to sleep for the next nap.  They’ll take around four naps every single day on this routine.

• Then when early evening comes, just after dinner time or so, put them to bed for the night and let them sleep as long as possible.  Don’t wake them up for anything.

Related:  How To Swaddle A Newborn With Love In 10 Easy Steps

When they do wake in the night there are a few things you can do to try and help them go back to sleep quicker.

1. Don’t change their diaper unless they absolutely need it, like it’s fully sodden or full of poop.
2. Keep the room as dark as possible when they’re awake nursing.
3. Have a white noise constantly playing, like a fan or white noise machine.
4. Don’t let them fall asleep in your arms if at all possible.  Make sure they’re quite sleepy once you put them back in their crib or bassinet.

After a few weeks, you’ll start to recognize a pattern in your baby and how they fall asleep best.  Every baby is unique and different.  It takes time to figure out what will work and what won’t.

Find What Works For You

Every mother has their own preferences and methods.  I personally have my babies close by in a cradle for the first few months.  Then they’re in a crib in their own room once I’m done with maternity leave.  You may co-sleep with your baby and can make those adjustments.  Whatever you feel works best for you and your baby, do it.

The key thing in helping your baby switch to a normal day and night sleeping routine is so encourage them to sleep the bulk of their time at night.  You do that by not letting them sleeping super long during the day.  If you insist on letting them naturally figure things out, you can certainly do that.  But realize that this means it will take much longer for you and them to get back to a proper sleep routine.

There’s an excellent website that I LOVE that teaches so much about your baby’s sleep.  I visited it many times when I had my first baby and find all of their resources very valuable.  If you’re looking for more info and have a more troublesome situation, I know you’ll find the help you need there.

>> Check Out The Baby Sleep Site <<

It seems that once you’re about to collapse from exhaustion from a week long spurt of bad nights, your baby takes a leap and progresses forward in giving you a night of much-needed sleep.  They WILL get better at it, and you WILL have a day when you’ll be able to sleep through the night.  It will come.

What do you do to help your baby sleep through the night?

Favorites In This Post:

• Marpac Dohm-DS White Noise Sound Machine, because your baby needs the calming sound they know from your belly