You are extremely tired and crave sleeping at night but unfortunately your baby is wide awake late into the night. This is because your baby doesn’t know how to differ between day and night yet. Isn’t it too much to expect from your little angel? Your little angel needs to learn that. You are going to be his teacher. The good news is you can put a stop to your late night doses of teas and coffees with these helpful sleep solutions:
- Make the baby feel content
What does content mean here? It means that you need to make sure that your little one is dressed in a comfortable dress, has a stomach filled with food and has a convenient room temperature. Even babies can be fussy about what they wear when going to sleep. They might like socks or no socks. It can take a bit of time to know what your baby likes and dislikes. Some babies are even fussy about the wrinkles that form on the sheet. So fix everything before making the baby sleep.
- Play white noise sounds
Remember your baby came from the womb where it was used to hearing your blood rush, your heart pumping and your stomach gurgling. He is not used to complete silence. White noise sounds can be really helpful. White noise is basically rushing sounds like the whooshing noise of the fan, gushing waterfall, waves at the beach. You can easily download white noise sound tracks from the internet in MP3 format. To make sure that your baby actually hears it, play it in a volume louder than the cries of your baby. A good idea is to make it a routine to play these sounds when it is your baby’s sleep time. This way whenever you play these noises, he will get the idea that it is actually time to sleep.
- Put down your baby when he is sleepy yet awake
You probably know of this one but it sure is a difficult job. This is how you teach your baby the skill of sleeping on your own. When you notice that your baby is all sleepy, just put him down. This way he will gradually learn how to sleep on his own. Did you know parents who rock their baby to sleep and then quietly put them in their cribs have babies who will wake up often at night? The reason is that their babies don’t know how to go back to sleep on their own. They need someone to rock them back to sleep. It might take some time but do yourself and your baby the favor of putting him down when he is sleepy yet awake.
- No more night time nursing
You don’t even have to nurse your baby in the middle of the night because 90% of 6 month old babies sleep the entire night without the need of food. You can talk to your pediatrician and ask him when to stop the night feedings. As soon as he tells you to stop the night feedings, you can gradually reduce bottles or the number of times you feed. Just cancel out one at a time in four day time. If you give your little one formula milk, you can even reduce the amount of formula you add to bottles. This way your baby will get the hint that milk is not a part of night menu anymore and will eventually stop asking for it.
- Get the baby off the pacifier
One of the biggest slumber busters is when your baby keeps losing his pacifier repeatedly. It keeps waking your baby up and also you. It is only by 8 months that babies learn to put their pacifier back in the mouth. Till he learns to do it himself, you have two options at your disposal. You either don’t give him a pacifier at all or allow the baby to cry in the middle of the night. It will take few days for the baby to realize that you can sleep with the pacifier and when it falls off, it is not necessary to have it again. Otherwise you know what happens. After every few minutes, keep waking up to put the pacifier back in your baby’s mouth. It is totally up to you to decide.
- Let the baby learn how to self-settle
Are you one of those parents who quickly run to the baby even when he whimpers? Don’t. You are ruining chances of your baby learning how to go back to sleep. Don’t be too quick to rock them back to sleep. At times, you need to allow the baby to whine and fuss a bit so that he learns the skill of going back to sleep on his own. It is okay if they fuss a bit. One day you will be so happy to see them actually go back to sleep on their own.
- Regular bedtime routine
This happens to be very important and is quiet self-explanatory. Babies mold into the routine you set for them. They are not as aloof to the surrounding as they seem to be. They like knowing what is going to come next as it make them feel secure. You need to make sure they know that the night is for sleeping and not playing. Even if they are being chatty, don’t talk back to them. Simply ignore so they get the hint that it is not the time to be awake.
