Two Moves to Make if You Want Your Baby to Sleep Through the Night

If your baby or toddler isn't sleeping well, you've probably found yourself spending a good amount of time on Google, asking questions such as, "How do I get my baby to sleep through the night" or "Why does my baby wake up every 2 hours?" Upon researching, you'll more than likely find a ton of information - often so much information, and so much conflicting information that you end up even less sure about what to do than you were before you started Googling. 

It's no secret that getting your baby to fall asleep and stay asleep all night long is a complicated feat. It involves so many things! There are 2 changes you can make, however, that I see make a huge difference in sleep for every family that I work with. 

1. Put your baby in his crib fully awake at bedtime. You've probably heard people say to put your baby down drowsy but awake by now. This is a great strategy when your baby is a newborn because it helps your baby get used to sleeping in the bassinet or crib. Once you're out of the newborn stage, however, drowsy but awake doesn't do anything to help your baby make sleep gains. Aim to put your baby in his crib fully awake at least 80% of the time. This may mean moving the bedtime feed to the beginning of the bedtime routine so that your baby is fully awake. By being awake in his crib, your baby will be able to practice falling asleep from fully awake. If he can do it at bedtime, he'll likely begin to do it in the middle of the night as well. To be clear, this doesn't mean leaving your baby to cry it out! You can support your baby or toddler with this transition through fading crib side comforting methods (check out the Shush/Pat method, the Soothing Ladder and the Pick Up / Put Down method). 

2. Give your baby a little time to self-settle before going in to support.  It's so tempting to run right in to comfort your baby when she cries in the middle of the night. I've been there! Quite often,  however, when given a short amount of time to work things out, babies and toddlers will fall right back asleep on their own; much more quickly than they would have if you had intervened! I often recommend that families wait 10 minutes before going in to support their baby in the middle of the night. If this feels like too much, start with 2 minutes and work your way up to 10 over time. You'll very likely be surprised at how often your baby falls right back to sleep. The other important part to this? Really tune IN to your baby's cries! Over time, you'll know which cry means that your baby is going to fall right back asleep, which cries mean that she's not actually even awake, but is crying in her sleep, and  which cries mean that she needs you for a feeding or for comfort. Knowing your baby's cries can really help overall with sleep, because you'll know when going in to comfort your baby will help, and when it will make it harder for her to fall back asleep. 

While these to things may not totally do the trick for all babies, they will certainly help you make some good headway on your child's sleep journey. Don't forget to keep a sleep journal so that you can see just how far your baby's sleep has come!

Done messing around and ready to help your child get the sleep he or she needs to thrive?  Book a free 20 minute sleep consultation with me to learn more about how my 1:1 coaching packages can help you get your baby or toddler falling asleep easily and sleeping through the night in just 2-3 weeks.