Becoming a new parent is incredibly exciting, but it can also be very stressful. What are you doing right? What are you doing wrong? What could you be doing better? Mix the endless with questions with very little sleep and it’s easy to feel like it’s all too much. So here is a collection of top tips to help your newborn baby to sleep through the night.
Have an early bedtime
Don’t fight the early bedtime because if your baby stays up later, it doesn’t mean they’re likely to sleep later the following day. Give them an early bedtime, around 7.30/8pm is ideal and try to prevent afternoon napping.
Have a routine
It doesn’t need to be complicated but a predictable routine will help settle your new baby. Putting a routine in place will go a long way to encourage your newborn baby to sleep through the night.
Keep them content
Working out what makes your baby feel cosy is a great tip to help them settle at night. Sometimes the smallest thing could upset them so it could take some time to learn what they do and don’t like.
Hang back a couple of minutes
Teaching your baby to self-settle is key to them sleeping through. Rushing in at the first murmur could disrupt them learning to settle back into sleep so just pause a few minutes before going in.
Get rid of the pacifier
If your baby relies on their pacifier to get to sleep, they’re more likely to wake multiple times in the night – every time the pacifier falls out of their mouth.
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Read More:
4 Effective Ways to Bond with Your Baby
Simple Tips to Safe Co-Sleeping with Your Baby
Newborn Sleep Facts Every New Parent Should Know
How to Create a Cozy & Safe Nursery for Your Newborn Baby
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Put them down sleepy but awake
A great way to get your newborn baby to sleep through the night is to put them down when they’re sleepy yet still awake. This will help your baby to learn how to fall asleep on their own and therefore won’t become reliant on being rocked or nursed to sleep.
Play some white noise
If you find that even the slightest noise causes your baby to jump back to wakefulness, then perhaps playing some white noise will help them adjust to sounds around them. The soft humming of the background noise will become a standard sound and help lull them off to sleep.
Get the quantity right
Knowing how many hours your baby needs to sleep might not seem like a solution to help your newborn to sleep through the night but it will give you a better idea of the number of hours you should be encouraging sleep. This means that you can then plan around this and know what to expect. Oversleeping won’t help and so it’s important to find the right balance.
Resources:
http://www.whattoexpect.com/wom/baby/my-5-tips-for-helping-your-baby-sleep-through-the-night.aspx
https://www.parents.com/baby/sleep/issues/5-sleep-through-the-night-strategies/