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How to Get My Baby to Sleep Through the Night
When I had my daughter, one of the things that threw me off balance was having my sleep schedule shaken. Even though I’d had a rough pregnancy dealing with hyperemesis, my sleep routine had remained fairly normal.
Now there was a new boss in the picture with her very own timetable of when I could sleep and when I needed to tend to her needs, which were many, I might add.
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A lot of new (and even old) mothers find themselves in this position when their babies arrive. One minute you’re sleeping just fine, the next, you’re keeping vigil with a baby who’d slept through the day and decides to stay awake most of the night.
Several researches have found that new parents get an average of five hours of sleep every night. Your baby having a sleep pattern where he sleeps for only two hours and wakes up to feed or he sleeps through the day and in short bursts at night, can take some getting used to (if at all)
Sleep deprivation is one of the top complaints of new parents and you will find you have to resort to certain techniques or tricks to get a little extra sleep.
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5 Tips That Work Every Time
If you’re wondering how to get your baby to sleep through the night, here are
1) Establish a Sleep Routine
Understanding your baby’s sleep routine will make it easier to develop a sleep schedule.
You should get her calm in the time leading up to her sleep time and put her to her crib when she starts to get sleepy.
Be consistent with these activities when you develop them as being inconsistent could affect your baby, making her wake at night.
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2) Wean the Nighttime Feeding
Newborns, seeing as they have a smaller stomach, need to feed regularly – every 2-3 hours. However, as they grow, most babies can go for longer without needing to feed that often.
Infant sleep expert, Dr. Natalie Barnette confirms that quite a number of babies aged 4-6 months can go through the night without feeding, however, by six months, almost all healthy babies can.
You should start weaning your baby of this nighttime feeding from four months so you both can begin to sleep for longer through the night.
3) Let Her Self-Soothe
Your baby will always wake at night and cry for attention, and it’s natural for a mother to want to soothe her back to sleep.
However, sleep experts warn recommended attending to her less, so she can learn to self-soothe.
One of the ways mothers can teach their babies to self-soothe is to adopt the Ferber method developed by Richard Ferber, MD, director of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Children’s Hospital Boston.
Ferber advocates letting your baby cry it out as a way to learn to self-soothe.
The first night, you should wait a minute before going to her and console her for 2-3 minutes, without lifting her from her crib or bassinet.
If she cries again, you wait for longer – say three minutes before going in to console her.
A new study conducted by the Flinders University in Australia has found that contrary to previously held notions, letting a baby cry it out so he falls asleep doesn’t cause any long-term emotional or behavior damage to the child.
4) Get Her Comfortable Enough
Putting your baby to sleep when he appea etcrs drowsy will also ease him to sleep. You should make him as comfortable as possible; by removing any toy in the crib and placing him to sleep on his back.
You also should let him sleep without a pillow the first month of his life to ease his breathing prevent a bent spine, and significantly reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SID).
5) Play a Gentle Music
Research has found that babies who have music played during their nighttime sleeping have improved sleep quality.
Playing night music is also recommended as it helps babies get used to gentle noise when they sleep, so they are less likely to wake when there is a sudden noise.
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