Good Parenting

If you’re a new parent, you’re surely sleep-deprived. You’re up most of the night with your baby. To be able to get some sleep yourself, you’re going to have to find ways to get your baby to sleep and stay asleep during the night.

Unlike other milestones in your child’s life, it isn’t easy to predict when you will be able ensure that your baby begins to sleep through the night.

But you can begin the process by getting to know your baby’s habits in order to recognize when he’s ready to go to bed.

When your baby is about two weeks old, you can start helping him distinguish between day and night, and begin to set up a sleeping schedule.

During the day, sing to your baby in a normal tone of voice. At nap time, you can allow noises, to which your infant will become acclimated.

Play or sing with your normal tone of voice during daytime hours when your baby is awake and alert. Don’t worry about noises during nap time; your infant will grow accustomed to the fact that there are noises around him during the day.

If your baby wakes up during the night though, keep the noise and lighting low to teach him that nighttime is quiet time.

Your infant will soon realize that daytime is associated with being awake and playing, and that nighttime is associated with sleeping and quiet time.

It will also help to leave your infant’s bath time until right before bedtime. The warm water and bathing process will be very soothing to your baby.

The important thing to remember is to try to keep your baby calm before bedtime.

Getting your baby to sleep through the night is an art and not a science, so you’ll probably have to experiment with different methods before you can make significant progress.

But you will eventually be successful, and you will soon be on the way to getting a good night’s sleep yourself.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 at 11:02 pm and is filed under Good Parenting.