Nighttime waking is a common problem for many parents of infants. Even babies who once slept through the night can get out of that pattern and begin waking up. Unfortunately, there is no magic potion or simple remedy to help your baby sleep through the night. But the good news is, there are plenty of steps you can take to help your baby get there.
Routine
According to the Medical Advisory Board at Baby Center, establishing a bedtime routine can help calm your baby so they fall asleep easier and for longer periods of time. For example, if your little one likes to be held, try rocking him before lying him down in his crib. Or add a few steps to let baby know it’s getting to be bedtime. For instance, give a bath, swaddle, read a story and rock him every night before bed. Once you put baby in the bath, he’ll soon know that bedtime is nearing. Be sure to leave enough time to squeeze in your entire routine so baby always knows what’s coming next.
Swaddle
According to Dr. Harvey Karp, author of “The Happiest Kid on the Block,” babies need tight boundaries. He suggests swaddling as one way to help calm your baby. It helps them to feel secure. She spent nine months in the womb, so when she is wrapped up all nice and tight, it helps her feel like she did while she was in the womb–safe and warm.
Separate Day from Night
It’s never too early to start helping baby differentiate between day/awake time and night/sleep time. Try keeping him in well-lit areas during the day, even during naps. At night, you can even speak quieter and try to keep the lights down low. Baby will eventually start to associate darkness with nighttime and sleep.
Sleep-sharing or Co-sleeping
Co-sleeping is when everyone in the household sleeps in the same bed. According to the Mother-Baby Behavioral Sleep Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame, both baby and parents sleep much better when they’re in such close proximity to each other than do solitary sleeping babies. And when baby has to nurse, she can nurse without much disruption. This will help her get back to sleep quickly.
The Mother-Baby Behavioral Sleep Laboratory has also revealed that when babies wake up in the co-sleeping environment, they are awake for shorter periods of time than babies who wake up in separate rooms and require attention before going back to sleep.
While sleep-sharing may have many benefits, there are also a number of safety concerns that you should be aware of before bringing baby into bed with you. For instance, never co-sleep in a water bed. Also, avoid using heavy bedding, placing baby in any crevices where she can get stuck, don’t smoke in bed and avoid medications that may make you drowsy.
Ferber Method
You may have heard about “Ferberizing” your baby. This popular yet controversial method was created and named after Dr. Richard Ferber in 1985. The basic approach to this method requires you to let your child “cry it out” in the hopes that he will learn to soothe himself to sleep without your help.
Dr. Ferber recommends following a bedtime routine and then placing your baby in his crib while he’s awake and leaving the room for gradually longer periods of time–even if he cries. According to Dr. Ferber, this will teach him to go to sleep on his own.
Parents are encouraged to comfort their baby after each pre-set period of time, but not to pick up or feed him. This strategy is called progressive waiting. Dr. Ferber charts the suggested waiting times in his book, Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems.
After a few days to a week of following this method, Dr. Ferber theorizes that most babies learn to fall asleep on their own.
Trial and Error
Parenting is not always a one-size-fits-all endeavor. Part of being effective is learning what works and what doesn’t, and understanding that you don’t always have to do things “by the book.” That said, you may end up trying a number of different methods with limited or no success. This is normal. It’s all right as parents to take elements of the different methods you’ve tried and create your own method that works for you and your baby. For example, you may find that swaddling helps baby sleep for most of the night, but then you bring her to bed with you for the final few hours of sleep.
About this Author
Chris Kinsey works as an editor for a medical publisher, and has experience dealing with most topics, ranging from athlete’s foot to cancer and brain injury. Kinsey has a great deal of freelance experience writing for sports and parenting magazines as well. He currently writes for LIVESTRONG.
