Your Baby To Sleep

Respect your baby s preferences.

Your baby to sleep.

When your baby needs care or feeding during the night use dim lights a soft voice and calm movements. By 4 months they may be spending around twice as long sleeping at night as they do during the day. One of the ways a baby learns it s time to go to sleep is from cues in the environment notes deborah givan m d director of the sleep disorders center at riley hospital for children in. The first step is to do all you can to establish an optimal sleep environment for your baby.

If your baby is a night owl or an early bird you might want to adjust routines and schedules based on these natural patterns. If your little one is at least 4 months old it may be time to start sleep training. You say goodnight and leave the room even if your baby cries. So they sleep with no regard for what time it is.

As your baby grows they ll need fewer night feeds and will be able to sleep for longer. The goal is for your child to learn to fall asleep without your help so that when your baby inevitably wakes up in the middle of the night he or she will be able to go back to sleep on his or her own. This will tell your baby that it s time to sleep not play. If your baby is waking up in the middle of the night to feed then it is also impossible to put them back to sleep awake since they are likely nursing while they are partly asleep anyways.

But babies don t know the difference between day and night. Safety is the number one priority so remember that they need to be put to bed on their back on a firm. Then you go back in at increasingly long intervals to briefly reassure your baby. Your baby may sleep from 10 to 18 hours a day sometimes for 3 to 4 hours at a time.