A lovely, sleeping baby and a loving, well-rested parent? This is for sure a great image, but we all know how tricky it can be to get your baby to sleep in reality. Hours of crying, waking up in the middle of the night and refusing to fall asleep in the evening; these are problems that every parent will face. How can you solve them?
Understand why your baby does not sleep. Once you ruled out any possible medical cause, it’s time to think about the rest: is your baby hungry? Is your baby tired? Is your baby hot or cold? Is he comfortable and safe?
Make sure your baby gets plenty of sleep during the day
In their first months of life, babies should sleep most of the day. Some parents believe that if they keep the baby awake and get him tired, he will sleep better at night. This is completely wrong! The more the baby is tired, the more he will have problems falling asleep and to express his discomfort and tiredness he will cry!
In the moment you see your baby showing signs of sleepiness (rubbing the eyes, yawning) put him to sleep.
Create a routine
This will make things easier for both you and the baby. It is important to have a sleeping routine both for day time and night time.
During the daytime, try to put your baby to sleep at the same times every day. In the evening, when you are getting ready to go to bed, reduce the noise from the house, close the TV, sing to your baby a sleeping song even before going to the bed. This will make him understand that it is night time and time for sleep.
A mistake that many parents do is to pull the blinds in the baby’s room during the daytime to force the baby to sleep more, in dark. While the baby will indeed sleep better in the dark, he will confuse day and night. The result? A baby that is wide awake and ready to play at 11 P.M!
Keep the crib familiar
For sure you noticed that your baby can barely fall asleep if you are in another home or in another room than the regular one. This is why because starting with 4-5 months old, babies need to feel that they are in a familiar place in order to go to sleep.
Maintain the toys around him in the same position, don’t move the position of the crib too often and don’t use detergents that have a very strong smell. If you have to leave your home, take in your designer diaper bag the blanket of your baby; it will be much easier to put him to sleep.
Try white noise
Babies don’t like to fall asleep in complete silence, since in the womb there was plenty of noise all the time. That is why turning on the hair dryer or the vacuum cleaner (not too loud or close to the baby) will make him fall asleep. You can even play online videos with white noise!
The white noise, however, can not be replaced by TV, so don’t think that leaving the TV on all night long is a good thing. This will only overstimulate your baby and make it even more difficult for you to put him to sleep.
Get to know your baby better and better and see which ones of these tips work for both of you! With time you will understand his needs and you will both get some well deserved sleep!