How can i encourage my baby to sleep through the night

While room-sharing is safe, putting your baby to sleep in bed with you is not. Bed-sharing increases the risk of SIDS and other sleep-related deaths. If you haven't already, start a bedtime routine that will be familiar and relaxing for your baby. Bathing, reading, and singing can soothe babies and signal an end to the day. Some babies like to be swaddled wrapped in a light blanket , which can be done until they start to roll. Be consistent and your baby will soon associate these steps with sleeping.

If you rock your baby to sleep before bedtime, your little one may expect to be rocked to sleep after nighttime awakenings. Instead, try putting your baby into a crib or bassinet while drowsy but still awake. This way your baby will learn to fall asleep on his or her own. Some babies squirm, whine, and even cry a little before falling back to sleep on their own.

Unless you think that your baby is hungry or ill, see what happens if you leave your baby alone for a few minutes — he or she might settle down. If your baby wakes during the period that you want him or her to sleep, keep activity to a minimum. Try to keep the lights low and resist the urge to play with or talk to your baby. Change or feed your baby and return him or her to the crib or bassinet.

If your baby is waking early for a morning feeding, some small changes may allow a slight shift in schedule. You might try waking your baby for the late-night feeding at a time that suits your sleep schedule:.

It may take a few nights to establish this routine, but being consistent will improve your chances of success. Some infants at this age will start sleeping through the night, but there is a wide range of normal.

If you haven't had a good night's sleep since your baby was born, you're not alone. Sleepless nights are a rite of passage for most new parents — but don't despair. You can help your baby sleep all night. Newborns sleep 16 or more hours a day, but often in stretches of just a few hours at a time. Although the pattern might be erratic at first, a more consistent sleep schedule will emerge as your baby matures and can go longer between feedings.

By age 3 to 4 months, many babies sleep at least five hours at a time. At some point during a baby's first year — every baby is different — he or she will start sleeping for about 10 hours each night. Ideally, your baby should sleep in your room with you, but alone in a crib, bassinet or other structure designed for infants, for at least six months, and, if possible, up to one year. This might help decrease the risk of sudden infant death syndrome SIDS.

Adult beds aren't safe for infants. A baby can become trapped and suffocate between the headboard slats, the space between the mattress and the bed frame, or the space between the mattress and the wall. A baby can also suffocate if a sleeping parent accidentally rolls over and covers the baby's nose and mouth.

For the first few months, middle-of-the-night feedings are sure to disrupt sleep for parents and babies alike — but it's never too soon to help your baby become a good sleeper. Consider these tips:. Remember, getting your baby to sleep through the night isn't a measure of your parenting skills. I remember the moment vividly, when a colleague I barely knew got down on the office floor to demonstrate to me, due any day with my first baby, how to breastfeed while lying on your side.

I was horrified. Not only by this awkward new level of familiarity, but by the concept. Breastfeeding against gravity? It seemed impossible, in the way that everything around having a baby seemed impossible.

And a newborn in my bed? No way. And then I had my baby. She came via C-section, which was rough, but thankfully breastfeeding turned out not to be. And we figured it out. Sleep came easily and sweetly for many months after that.

I was one of those parents who slept with her baby. And I loved it. I knew how to make bed-sharing safer, so I did just that: kept her far from blankets and pillows in a safe little nook with my body curved around her. These were the practical reasons that made sense to me at the time. But the many other little things that kept her in my bed were just as important. The way her body would inch closer to me through the night. The smell, softness and warmth of her head just under my chin. Watching her sleep.

The secrets we mostly me shared in the dark. Waking up together lazily, beaming the smiles of happily rested people. She was wiggly, chatty and wanting to play. Why did she want to ruin the good thing we had going? I realized we needed our space. The transition to her own room, her own crib, was—shockingly then, predictably in hindsight—harder on me.

We sleep easily on our own for the most part now. But I never turn her away when she pads into the darkness of my room and slips in beside me. One whiff of that head and I drift away. Safe sleep guidelines: The Canadian Paediatric Society provides these important tips to create a safe sleep environment for your baby: 1. The sleep environment must be free of quilts, comforters, bumper pads, pillows and other soft items, like toys.