The biggest and most difficult task for new parents is getting the babies to sleep. You may use several tricks to get them to sleep throughout the night. Still, is your baby awake at night? Don’t worry. Here we will look at some of the ways you can use to make your baby sleep in the first 6 months.
Babies’ sleep patterns just change so quickly in the early months. As they reach 6 to 8 months, they adapt to a routine. Sleepless nights for parents for sure, but is baby sleeping all about parents’ sanity? No!
“A baby sleeping is fundamental for the baby’s development. The brain is very active during sleep. This is the time when your brain lives out its own existence,” says Andre Fenton, Director of Neurobiology of Cognition Lab, New York University.
In short, baby sleep is pretty important for them as well as parents. Now appears the biggest challenge: how to get your baby to sleep? Firstly, let’s see how they sleep.
Baby Sleeping Patterns
In the first 8 weeks, they sleep an enormous amount of time; 16 to 17 hours a day. By 8 weeks they sleep less during the day, and do more in the night. However, most babies sleep through the night by 4-6 months. There are exceptional cases for sure, but this is the normal development of baby sleeping.
How to Get Your Baby to Sleep?
Getting you baby to sleep through the night turns out to be the universal human challenge. Some babies wake up more than a dozen times a night, but parents are left with one choice: put them to sleep in any way. Here, let’s look at 10 methods to get your baby to sleep.
Give a chance to nap: In the early weeks give your baby a chance to take a nap every 2 hours. Longer waiting for sleep may cause trouble for the baby to get proper sleep.
Interact with baby during daytime: Teach your baby to distinguish day from night after 2 weeks onwards. You can interact and play with your baby during daytime. It eventually leads to a better sleep in the night.
Make night dull: In the night, your baby should understand it’s time to sleep. To get the particular feeling you should dim the light, lower the voice, and keep energy calm. Don’t play with the baby. This process is training babies to sleep as well.
Note signs of sleepiness: If the baby is in the mood for sleep, he/she exhibits different signs to let you know. Rubbing eyes, pulling on ears, being fussy are their signs for tiredness and sleepiness. Recognize those signs and put them to nap.
Swaddle baby: Swaddling is an effective method to get them to sleep. It’s said that inside the swaddle babies feel like being in the womb. To do it in the best way you need to get a good newborn swaddle.
Play soothing sound: A dull music or sound can lead even an adult to sleep. The same applies to babies too. Choose a calm music and play in your room. A wide variety of sleeping music for babies is available on Spotify, and you can choose what is the best for your little one.
Sing lullaby: Undoubtedly, lullaby is every parent’s first choice to get the baby to sleep. Whatever method you choose, lullaby comes automatically. Fundamentally, rhythmic music has a super power. You can sing your favorite lullaby; even if it doesn’t have proper lyrics.
Get a comfortable baby bed: Comfort of the bed is pivotal for having a sound sleep. You can buy either a newborn bed or a mosquito net bed with a pillow. It not only provides comfort but protects your baby from mosquitoes bites.
Avoid eye contact and conversation: Eye contact with the baby or conversation don’t help the baby to sleep. It distracts the babies from sleeping and makes them active. It needs to be done mostly in the middle-of-the-night care.
Be cautious about intervening: During sleep babies live in a parallel world. Sometimes they just wake up for a while and go back to sleep as it is. Those wake-ups have no intention to disturb parents. However, some parents misunderstand that the babies are done with sleeping. Be patient and see what happens, and accordingly.
Conclusion: First six months are the toughest for the new parents, and it involves stress and frustration. To overcome this, parents have to understand the baby's sleeping patterns and choose the right methods to get him/her to sleep. In some cases, a doctor’s consultation would also be necessary. In short, the parents or babies should not end up in sleeplessness.
