Your Baby To Sleep

Does your baby need to be rocked to sleep by you or wake up in the middle of the night demanding a breast bottle or cuddle before drifting back to sleep.

Your baby to sleep.

So they sleep with no regard for what time it is. Then you go back in at increasingly long intervals to briefly reassure your baby. Respect your baby s preferences. You say goodnight and leave the room even if your baby cries.

As your baby grows they ll need fewer night feeds and will be able to sleep for longer. The goal is for your child to learn to fall asleep without your help so that when your baby inevitably wakes up in the middle of the night he or she will be able to go back to sleep on his or her own. If your baby is waking up in the middle of the night to feed then it is also impossible to put them back to sleep awake since they are likely nursing while they are partly asleep anyways. This will tell your baby that it s time to sleep not play.

Your baby may sleep from 10 to 18 hours a day sometimes for 3 to 4 hours at a time. Safety is the number one priority so remember that they need to be put to bed on their back on a firm. By 4 months they may be spending around twice as long sleeping at night as they do during the day. The first step is to do all you can to establish an optimal sleep environment for your baby.

If your baby is a night owl or an early bird you might want to adjust routines and schedules based on these natural patterns. Some babies will sleep for 8 hours or longer at night but not all. If your little one is at least 4 months old it may be time to start sleep training. Using breastfeeding is not a bad way to soothe a baby and to comfort them when they are having sadness or anxiety.