These tips will surely help your baby sleep through the night, allowing you to have more quality sleep and less stress! They’re simple but very effective!
This post is sponsored by Whisbear, but all opinions are 100% my own. This post may also contain affiliate links. You can read my full disclosure here.
When I had my first son, Samuel, I had no idea of anything parenting-related. I had never babysat a child in my whole life and had no idea of how to care for them. It didn’t even cross my mind that having a solid routine could really impact them in a good way.
I was trying to drag our son to all of the events we used to attend before we were parents. Not that we were out and about every day, but I was taking my son even to night services at the church. This didn’t happen only one time, it happened numerous times.
Until one day, I had an awakening talk with a friend, who really made me understand the power of having a routine. Not only so that my baby could sleep through the night, but so that he could also be happy and alert during the day!
This talk changed everything!
I started reading all about baby sleep and started understanding that the more relaxed they are, the easier it is for them to fall asleep. So I implemented different soothing strategies to help Sam sleep through the night, and it was a total success!
Now, let’s get to the point!
6 game-changing tips that will help your baby sleep through the night
Most people think that keeping the baby awake for a long time will get them tired and ready to sleep through the night, but it’s exactly the opposite. If they have enough naps or quiet time during the day, they will be happy and relaxed, which will make bedtime easier at night.
An overtired and stressed baby will not fall asleep easily. So make sure you give them enough age-appropriate rest during the day.
#1. The power of having a routine
It’s never too early to start establishing a routine for your baby. The earlier you introduce your baby to the family routine, the quicker they will adapt.
When you follow the same pattern every day, it becomes a little predictable to the baby, giving them a sense of security. They feel safe and less stressed.
Knowing what time baby is going to sleep or eat also allows you to plan your daily activities better.
I remember being really stressed during Sam’s first few months at home. I never knew when he was going to eat, sleep, or when I could finally do something for myself.
If I had put a routine in place right from the start, he would’ve been a lot calmer. And I wouldn’t have had to stress over not being able to schedule anything in advance.
A routine will bring peace to both you and your baby!
Now, remember one thing: your baby is always growing and his needs are constantly changing! Because of that, you’ll have to adjust the routine from time to time, according to their needs.
#2. Early bedtime
When you establish your routine, make sure bedtime is early enough for your baby to have all the sleep they need.
Starting from 3 months old, your baby needs at least 11 hours of sleep during the night. So if your family wakes up at 7 am next day, make sure baby goes to bed before 8 pm.
It might not be 11 hours of uninterrupted sleep at first, but soon it will be.
Also, remember that each child is different, so take their cues into consideration. For example, my kids usually sleep 12 hours at night, so they go to bed at 6:30 pm/7 pm and wake up at 6:30 am/7:00 am.
That’s how it’s been since we established a routine in our home, and that works perfectly for us. So find what works for your family (making sure your child gets enough sleep through the night).
#3. Quiet activities
When bedtime is approaching, it’s important to keep the activities quiet and relaxing. Reading books, talking to your baby, or playing with toys that don’t stimulate them a lot.
Create a quiet atmosphere that will help your baby calm down and start getting ready for bedtime.
Avoid screen time or loud and fast music that could stress them out.
In our home, this is how bedtime routine goes:
- Family dinner
- Bath time
- Reading time/story time (while the milk is being warmed up)
Then, we bring them to their bedroom, where the lights are off and the atmosphere is perfect for a good night of sleep.
#4. Diaper change/potty
It’s important to change baby’s diaper one last time before starting the final steps to bedtime. This way you’ll decrease the chances of them waking up in the middle of the night just for a diaper change.
The same goes for your potty-trained child! This is the time to take them potty and make sure they go to bed with an empty bladder.
#5. Final steps to bedtime routine (keep the lights off!)
Here in our home, our final steps are warm milk, brushing teeth in bed, and prayer. Since these are the absolute final steps, we do all of them with the lights off.
Can we see anything? How do we brush their teeth with the lights off?
Well, we keep the bedroom door open and the hallway lights on. This way, we can still see what we need, but the room is dark enough for them to start getting drowsy.
How to create the perfect atmosphere to help baby sleep through the night
The tips above were all for the moments leading up to bedtime but not the actual bedtime.
So now, I’m going to talk about what we do during bedtime, or better said, what happens during bedtime that helps our kids sleep through the night.
This is where the magic happens. We learned this when we lived in Concord, CA, in a really busy street. Samuel would wake up almost every night during the months we lived there.
Until we decided to try something new and it worked!
#6. White noise machine + special stuffed animal
The special stuffed animal, we started using since he was 4 months old and it was always a success. Even if we were out and about and he wanted to take a little nap, if we had his little stuffed animal, he’d fall asleep right away.
So it became a part of his sleep habits, and I believe it’s helped soothe him and make him feel safe during bedtime.
The white noise, we started using when we lived on a busy street. It was always so loud from cars driving by, fire trucks, police, and music, that we had to come up with something to muffle that noise.
So we started using white noise and that’s when we started having peaceful nights in our home. Because now he wasn’t able to hear all the background noises as loudly as he would before, so he didn’t wake up anymore.
Recently, we had the pleasure to try Whisbear, which is a combination of a really cute and soft stuffed animal with a white noise machine! This is what we use now for bedtime and our kids love it. We can also bring it wherever we go, making naptime easier and convenient, even on the go.
Whisbear has a CRYsensor function that activates the white noise when your baby cries in the middle of the night, soothing them back to sleep.
Here’s how Whisbear works. When you turn it on at bedtime, it shushes for 40 minutes, then it fades away and switches to a standby mode. If the baby cries, it will automatically start shushing until baby falls asleep again.
If it was around when our first son was born, I’m sure we’d have had a lot less stressful and sleepless nights!
Now, let’s get this baby to sleep!
I really hope these tips help you and your baby get more sleep! I know how frustrating and exhausting it can be to not be able to sleep all night, day after day. You deserve to sleep well, mama.
Always remember to take good care of yourself!
If you have any questions or any other tips I didn’t cover in the post, would you go ahead and share them in our comment section down below? I’m sure all the other mamas are dying to hear them all (well… I am)!
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