By following the ten simple steps below, you can easily and quickly improve your baby's sleep patterns. 1 - Teach your baby to transition from awake to asleep by himself. This doesn't have to involve lots of crying. By following the next 9 steps, it will be easier than you think. 2 - Establish a bedtime routine. At night time, this could be a bath, massage, sleep suit and cuddle with a familiar baby comforter. And finally a milk feed. These props will become essential in establishing sleep cues for your baby. For naps, a shortened version of this, such as face wash, nappy change, lullaby, baby comforter and cuddle is all that's needed. Do everything in the same order each sleep time and your baby will learn very quickly that it's time for sleep. 3 - Follow a daily pattern. This doesn't have to be a rigid schedule. Some days your baby will be hungrier than others, or need more sleep. But a familar daily pattern that you follow will help. Notice when your baby usually gets tired and follow his lead. For example, your baby may become tired for his first nap, earlier than you think - 1 hour, or 1.5 hours after waking for a young baby. Following this, he may have between 1 to 3 further naps in the day, depending on his age. Get to know him, watch for signs of fussiness or turning away from you, and put him down for a nap. Within days an outline of a nap schedule will have started to establish itself. 4 - Create the right environment. Would you like to sleep in the middle of the kitchen? Give your baby a place to sleep where he won't be disturbed, darken the room, put some music or white noise on and find soft, comfortable sleeping clothes for him. 5 - Awake time is important too. Offer lots of stimulation. Daylight has been proven to aid night time sleep. So take your baby out for walks in the fresh air, play with him, and give him physical exercise. 6 - Don't let your baby become overtired. Most infants shouldn't be awake for more than 45 minutes, increasing to two hours by four months (although the first nap of the day might still be 1.5 hours after waking). 7 - Always put your baby down to sleep when he is still AWAKE! This is the key, essential ingredient to having a great sleeper. Help him become relaxed and drowsy by following a familiar routine and then place him in his cot when his eyes are still open. If he cries, reassure him, hold him until he is calm again if you need to, but when you put him back down, he should still be awake. As long as he is tired, it won't take very long for him to get the hang of it. 8 - Consider introducing a dreamfeed. This is a late feed between 10pm and 11:30pm where you simply take your baby out of the cot, feed him, and put him back to bed, without waking him. The benefit of this is that you are more likely to try methods of helping your baby go back to sleep at night that don't involve feeding, if you think he has a full tummy. A dummy, a cuddle, a reassuring pat in the cot... these sorts of things will help a baby who isn't hungry to go back to sleep. And don't worry, if your baby really is hungry, he just won't go back to sleep, he'll probably scream at the top of his lungs - you know the sound a hunger cry! 9 - Be confident, feel good about yourself and what you are doing. In the first two years of his life, you will help your baby learn how to crawl, eat solid food, walk and talk. One of our jobs as parents is to give our children independence. Which means they can sleep on their own, walk by themselves, develop healthy eating habits and later enter the big wide world with confidence. It's hard to imagine it now, but teaching your baby to feel safe when going to sleep is just the first step on his road to independence. Your baby's senses are hyper alert. Through his senses, he can pick up on what you're feeling. Know that putting him down awake so that he goes to sleep without your help is the right thing to do for everyone, and he will respond to this by trusting in you. If you're feeling like it's wrong, or selfish, or have any anxiety about the process, he will pick up on it. And then he's more likely to cry, making the process horrible for you both. If it doesn't feel right, then don't do it. Because your baby's instincts are so tied up with yours it will be very hard for you both if do anything that goes against what feels right for you. Relax and let your feelings guide you and you and your baby will be happy. 10 - Make sure your baby's had enough to eat. Regular milk feeds or solid food throughout the day should do this. But if your baby is genuinely waking up hungry at 4am and he's six months or over, you may need to look at fitting in more calories in the day. The dreamfeed helps with this. As does a seven o'clock start and a fairly regular feeding schedule that suits your family and your baby. And just one last thought. Teaching a baby to sleep doesn't have to be hard, but it may take time. You need to know your baby and be prepared to try and test different things. Some babies like white noise, others like Mozart, some like lullabies and others need complete silence. Your friend's baby may sleep anywhere, whilst yours might only be able to sleep in total darkness and peace. Through trial and error and taking the time to get to know your baby, you can create an environment where sleep is important and where your baby learns to sleep well. And the whole family will benefit from this.
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