First 9 Months Sleep Advice

The most dreadful thing about having a new baby is the lack of sleep resulting from the night feeds. But by six months most babies do not need a night time feed if they have fed well during the day and are not ill.

When your baby is a newborn, after spending 9 months in a nice snug place, sometimes the adjustment to the outside world can cause more night waking than just hunger. It is important to remember newborn babies cannot differentiate night or day, so it will take time for them to fall into a pattern. However, it is perfectly possible to have them sleeping through the night by six months.

Making sure your baby is ready to sleep is most important. With newborns, they will mostly drift off to sleep when they are ready but from around 3 months this can change and they may need you to notice the signs of tiredness and help them to settle.

Ready to Sleep Checklist

• Is your baby well fed, clean and dry?
• Is your baby not feeling well? It can either make babies sleep more or make them find it hard to sleep.
• Watch out for the cue? Some babies yawn, rub their eyes or pull their ears when they are tired, watch for signs.
• Is your baby too tired? If your baby is overtired, it is very hard for the baby to settle down due to too much stimulation and lack of sleep. A nice dim lighted room, soothing music and a massage can help your baby to drift off to sleep. Try to catch your baby before he/she becomes overtired will also help.

If your baby is most of these he or she will most likely be ready for a sleep.

• Try to balance the amount of nap time your baby takes during the day so that its easier for him/her to fall asleep at night. If your baby is waking up a lot at night and you do not think its due to hunger, he/she may be sleeping too much in the day or the last nap time is too close to the night sleeping time. Make necessary adjustment.
• Does your baby sleeping place help encourage a more settled sleep. Is the room warm but not too warm? Is the room very lighted? Is the room noisy?
• Help your baby differentiate day and night. When baby take naps in the day, it is not necessary to close all certain or off the sound of the tv. At night, have a bedtime routine, dim the room and keep sounding sound soft. This will help the baby understand the different between a nap and night time sleeping.
• Swaddling your baby or putting the baby in s baby sleeping bag sometimes help. The baby will feel more secure but not all babies like it. Some may refuse to be swaddled.
• Having a bedtime routine can help as well. Giving your baby a nice lukewarm bath, a baby massage with some oil followed by a breastfeed or a warm bottle of milk in a dim lit room, perhaps even with some low music playing will help your baby realize that its sleeping time now.
• Avoid rocking, petting or feeding the baby to sleep। Your baby can begin to rely on whichever as the only way he/she can settle to sleep, so whenever your baby wakes up, he/she would need you to provide whichever aid they are used to sleeping with। Place your baby in bed before they fall asleep and let them begins to learn how to settle off to sleep by themselves.

By Glynnis Yan

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