My 4 Tips for Getting Your Baby to Sleep Through the Night ☽
From the get-go, I made it my life mission to create a “good sleeper”. I am not about getting 5 hours sleep, or less, every night — my body and mind just cannot function on that amount of sleep, I turn into an emotional-don’t-@-me- zombie… Basically I’m an all-round nicer person when I get my 8 hours, and so are our babies! :)
Over the last 10 months, I have put a lot (and I mean… a lot) of time and effort into making sure we created healthy sleep habits for Mila.
Don’t get me wrong — I’m by no means saying we are perfect, there have been nights where I was just too exhausted to “sleep train”, where we brought Mila into bed with us at 3:00am because that was easier for everyone. There is absolutely zero judgement here — I get it, we ALL do what we can in the moment to get the sleep we so desperately need. I’ve been there.
Also, bear in mind that all babies and families are different. What might work for me, may not necessarily work for you and your situation. But I always think it is helpful to share what did work, because it is all about testing different methods to figure out what works best for your baby.
This post is going to focus on babies/toddlers, not newborns. Newborns and their erratic sleep schedule need their own full blog post LOL.
MY TOP TIPS FOR GETTING YOUR BABY TO “SLEEP THROUGH”…
Teach your baby to self-soothe
REPEAT AFTER ME: A good sleeper is not a baby who sleeps without waking for 10 hours a night… The AAP (American Association of Pediatrics) defines a “good sleeper” as a baby who wakes frequently, but can get him or herself BACK to sleep, on their own. Did you know that adults, including you and me, wake up during the night a LOT. However, we have mastered the art of putting ourselves back to sleep without even realizing we woke up in the first place. Well, the same applies to babies. They will always wake up throughout the night — even the babies some of us dream about who “sleep 12 hours straight”. They are not sleeping straight through, they are waking up, they just know how to put themselves back to sleep. This is why it is so important to teach them the skill of self-soothing. Once a baby has mastered this, it’s pretty much smooth sailing from there.
Mila has always been a pretty “good” sleeper. However, she gets hit hard with the common sleep regressions. And most of the time, even these “good sleepers” need to be taught how to self-soothe at one point or another — it’s not something that just comes naturally to a baby. When babies turn 8/9 months old they develop “object permanence”, which means they now realize objects, including you, continue to exist even when they disappear. Nine months was a fun, but hard age for me; the next sleep regression kicked in, and so did bed-time separation anxiety. Separation anxiety is very normal for 8/9/10 month olds, and is mostly caused by this new developmental milestone “object permanence”. With the support of my best friend (hi Tara!) and a lot of patience, consistency, and emotional nights, I started Jo Frost’s sleep training method, “the CTCT” (Controlled Timed Crying Technique). This technique teaches your baby how to self-soothe. It was hard. I would sit outside Mila’s bedroom watching the monitor, crying, wanting to go in, scoop her up and cuddle her. However, if you stay strong and stick with it, this method works, and it works quickly. It took two nights of using the CTCT, and night wakings stopped. Mila was soothing herself back to sleep completely on her own — we were getting our 12 hours. My friends and I have all used this method successfully. If you are at breaking point, I’d highly recommend following this technique. Be consistent. Be patient. It can be exhausting, but it’s so worth it. Our babies need to understand that we have had a fun and stimulating day together, and that now bed-time means bed-time. As their parents, we need to teach them that.
Black out the bedroom… No but really, actually black it out.
This was something that took me forever to do and I have no idea why. I just always thought it was dark enough in Mila’s room. I was so wrong. Sooooo wrong. Between the hours of 4am and 6am, a babies sleep drive is really low. Even the tiniest bit of light creeping in can cause babies to wake up, and what does light do? It stimulates the brain, and therefore makes it really hard for our little love-bugs to get back to sleep (even if they have the ability to self soothe!). If you have a relatively good sleeper, but they keep waking up at 5am, or even if you don’t have a good sleeper, check the light in the bedroom and make sure you completely black it out - even for day-time naps. You can buy window film like this, I also cover the bottom of doors with towels or blankets to prevent light streaking in from there too. Yes — go to these lengths, and see if that helps! To test if the room is blacked out enough: wave your hand in front of your face, can you see it? If so, it’s too light.
Day-Time Naps
Make sure your baby is having the right amount of day-time naps for their age. Day-time naps have a HUGE affect on how a baby will sleep through the night. Check this out if you are unsure whether your baby is getting the right amount of day time sleep and change it accordingly if you need to.
Bed-Time Routine
Be consistent with your bed-time routine. Bath, book, bottle, bed. Do the same thing every single night — it might seem boring to you, but babies thrive off routine. It allows them to understand what is coming next, they will know as soon as they are reading that book that it is time for bed. It also helps them to wind-down.
