1. Watch for “signs of drowsiness.” The key to helping babies learn to calm themselves to sleep is getting them to bed before they get too tired. If a baby is already crying, it is too late. The baby is already too tired. Signs of drowsiness to watch for include yawning, rubbing your eyes, staring into space, and a general decrease in activity level. The last two “signs of drowsiness” mentioned can be very subtle, so watch closely until you learn to easily recognize your child’s signs of drowsiness. The decrease in activity level may seem like a slight “pause” in your child’s activity or play. If you don’t recognize this pause, you can let your baby stay awake too long. Once they become overly tired, their energy level may actually increase so that the baby appears “wired” or overstimulated. If your baby starts crying, it means that he is already too tired. When a baby or toddler is overly tired, their body releases cortisol, a stress hormone, and the baby will seem to fight sleep. If you begin to calm your baby and put him to bed when he begins to show signs of drowsiness, it will be much easier for the baby to fall asleep than if you begin to calm him when the baby is already too tired.

2. Respect the window of 1 to 2 hours. Newborns and young babies cannot stay awake for long, initially. For the first few days of the week, your baby will likely sleep most of the time between meals. You may even have to wake your baby to feed him, sometimes. After you get out of this early and very sleepy period, your baby will start to have more moments of alertness, but you will need to be very alert to start calming your baby back to sleep when he begins to notice signs of drowsiness, even if en It’s only been fifteen minutes or so! If you let your baby get too tired, it is likely that you will start to enter the cycle of crying and difficulty falling asleep, which will make your baby more tired and cry more … During the first few months, your goal should be be You should have your baby in bed no more than two hours after waking up. This includes mealtime, perhaps a little playtime or tummy time, and a calming-down routine, which may or may not include other feeding. Let me emphasize again that you are not starting to soothe your baby after two hours, you should aim to finish soothing your baby and have him back in bed by the end of the two hour window. If you follow this rule, it may seem like you would be napping your baby many, many times a day, but it actually fits pretty well into Dr. Weissbluth’s suggested nap schedule. The way it worked for my daughter was that we would start the day around 7:00 to 7:30 in the morning with her first feed of the day. Then after a diaper change, a little tummy time, and another feeding, she was going to take her first nap around 9 a.m. and slept until 11 or 11:30. The afternoon nap started around 1:00 p.m. M. And it lasted until 2:30 p.m. M. Or 3:00 p.m. M. Your third nap would be the shortest, around 4:00 p.m. Until 4:45 p.m. M. More or less, and then naturally she was ready to go to sleep around 6:15 pm. M. At 6:30 p. M.

3. Learn the natural rhythms of your baby’s sleep. During the first few months, your baby’s sleep times can be somewhat random, but if you follow the first two guidelines, you will eventually start to notice a pattern as to when your baby begins to show signs of drowsiness. These correspond to your baby’s natural sleep and wake rhythms. Start paying attention to the clock when you see the signs of drowsiness. When you see that they occur at around the same time every day, you can start planning your daily routines around these times and setting them up as your baby’s regular naps. Once this natural schedule arises, you won’t have to be as vigilant for signs of drowsiness as you know what time to have your baby in bed. If you have trouble seeing this pattern, you can try keeping a sleep log of your baby where you record all the times your baby falls asleep and wakes up, for a week or more, and then check the sleep log to see if some pattern emerges.

4. Develop consistent calming routines at bedtime. Most people are familiar with the concept of bedtime routines, and the earlier you start them, the better. A bedtime routine can be as simple as a feeding and a lullaby, or it can include a bath, a story, a stroll ride, whatever helps your baby fall asleep. The important thing is to keep the routine constant. It may change and evolve as your baby grows, but for the most part it should be the same from day to day. This helps your child associate certain activities with sleep and eases the transition from waking time to bedtime. Over time, bedtime routines will help your child learn to calm down to sleep. Although consistency is important, it can vary slightly depending on the circumstances. For example, if your child is excited after an unusually busy or fun day, you may want to lengthen the relaxing routine a bit to help him calm down and get ready for sleep. You can also use a different routine for daytime naps versus relaxing nighttime routines, as daytime sleep differs qualitatively from nighttime sleep. Just keep consistent day routines every day and consistent night routines every night. One more tip for relaxing routines: it’s okay to include a stroll walk, a car ride, or a little time on a baby swing, if that’s what it takes to get your baby to sleep, but once the baby is asleep, you need to stop movement and, if possible, transfer the baby to his crib or crib. Still sleep is the best. In other words, babies do not sleep as soundly when they are in motion as when they are stationary.

5. Try to go to bed earlier.This may seem counterintuitive, but when children get overly tired, their bodies release stress hormones to keep them awake. These hormones actually create a heightened state of arousal that makes it difficult for them to fall asleep (see step 1). If you advance your child’s bedtime each night by 15-20 minutes until you find a time when your baby or child will fall asleep easily, then you will ensure that they do not get too tired before bedtime. Many parents fear that if they put their children to bed earlier, they will wake up earlier. In fact, the opposite is true. Children who used to get up too early actually sleep later and wake up happier when they have an earlier bedtime. The more rested a child is, the easier they will fall asleep and stay asleep.

While all children are unique, there are certain principles that apply to all children. By using these 5 guidelines to help your baby fall asleep, you are well on your way to helping your child develop healthy sleep habits. However, as with all generic guidelines, feel free to adapt them to your own unique situation and your child.