Have you been asking yourself every morning at 3am “When will my baby start sleeping through the night?!“
The truth is, your baby needs sleep. For everyone to be happy in the house ya’ll need to get some sleep. And when baby isn’t sleeping, no one is sleeping. That makes for some rough days (and nights!)
I was determined to get my baby to sleep through the night, because let’s be honest, I NEED my sleep. The first time my baby slept for 6 hours straight I cried because I was so happy. But it wasn’t as life-changing as when my sweet little babe started sleeping for 10 HOURS A NIGHT at just 4 months. Now THAT was a freaking miracle. Especially coming from a baby who had acid reflux and was held every single night and day while he slept for the first 2 months.
Yes, you CAN get your baby to sleep through the night. And it’s easier than you think! There’s 11 things we did to get our baby to sleep through the night. And let me tell you, once you start doing these it’s going to make all the difference in the world. Get ready for more sleep!
How to get your baby to sleep through the night
1 FEED BABY ALL THE OZ HE NEEDS DURING THE DAY
There’s one major factor in determining how long your baby will sleep at night – and that is how much your baby eats during the day.
It wasn’t until after the first few months when I realized that I could condense his ounces he was eating in 24 hour period into just 12-14 hours during the day. Once your baby is getting enough to eat during the day they WILL sleep through the night. (It’s important to note that your baby will not sleep through the night until this happens.)
Once baby is getting the ounces he needs during the day he will start sleeping longer at nights. But, how do you add in ounces?
- Start by adding in a 1/2 an ounce if bottle feeding, or an extra 10-15 minutes if breastfeeding each time baby eats.
- Add in a dream feed at around 11-11:30pm to top baby off at night. This will keep their little bellies full just a little bit longer to give you that added stretch of sleep.
2 KEEP A CONSISTENT MORNING & NIGHT ROUTINE
Babies thrive on routines and once you start keeping a consistent morning and night routine it is LIFE-CHANGING for you and baby. How to keep a consistent routine:
- Feed baby at the same time every morning and every night (stay at least within 20 minutes of the set time.)
- If you want your baby to start waking up at 8am every day then don’t start your morning feeding until 8am. What this does is gets your babies used to eating and being hungry at 8am. If you feed them earlier then they’ll be used to eating earlier and therefore wake up earlier.
- Do the same thing at night, always feed your baby at the same time each night staying within 20 minutes of the designated time. I like to start with a late bedtime of around 9 or 10, then as your baby gets older you can move it up.
- Stay consistent for 1 week with your set morning and night feedings. After about a week they will start extending their sleep in the morning. (If your baby is less than 12 pounds you may need to do an earlier feeding depending on when their night feeding is. You still want to feed your baby at 8am or whatever morning time you’d like, even if it’s just a little bit to get them used to eating at that time.)
Sometimes baby wants to wake up earlier or stay up later, that means that we have to have some extra baby snuggles until it’s time to eat! Babies are pretty near perfect but there timing isn’t always. Once your baby gets used to eating at a specific time they’ll be content to chatter away in their crib, play on the floor or enjoy some extra snuggles until it’s time to eat.
3 TRY MULTIPLE SWADDLES/SLEEP SACKS
It’s true that babies love being swaddled, but not all babies like to be TIGHTLY swaddled. I was gifted with a baby who could roll onto his side from day 1. Because of this we didn’t dare swaddle him at nights in a blanket or muslin swaddle just in case he teetered over onto his stomach. He also hated his arms tight in a swaddle, he’d struggle for a good 30 minutes to get them out until we would finally take his arms out for him.
Note: I prefer to use a sleep sack – a swaddle that you can zip baby in. This makes it a lot easier when you have a baby who moves a ton or wants their arms out.
- If you still have a newborn baby who can’t roll over, try using a regular muslin swaddle. (If you’re not sure how to swaddle tightly check out this video on Youtube of the MOST ADORABLE little babe being swaddled.)
- Ask friends or family to borrow different sleep sacks or swaddles they may have used. (It’s honestly a trial and error when finding a swaddle that works best for baby. We’ve tried 5 to 7 different swaddles until finding one that he liked.)
- The key to using a swaddle or sleep slack is being CONSISTENT. Try it out for at least 5 nights to let them get used to it.
- Our favorite sleep sack has been the Nested Bean Zen Sack. They’re the ones that are just slightly weighted so it feels like there’s still a hand on their back or stomach to make them more comfortable. Because of baby boy’s infant reflux he started sleeping on his stomach at nights since his reflux didn’t bother him on his stomach. (Yes, this was one rolly polly little boy who could roll over both ways.) Since he was on his stomach at nights I wanted something where his hands could be out so we started using the Nested Bean sleep sack. He’s used his Nested Bean since he was about 3 months and it has been AMAZING sleep ever since!
4 SHORTEN YOUR BEDTIME ROUTINE
Some babies just get fussy and cranky at night, they’re getting tired and are NOT patient when waiting to eat at nights. This is why I keep our night time routine as short as possible.
- Keep stimulation at a minimum. Babies don’t need a long, drawn out bedtime routine. The more stimulation they’re getting at night the harder it’s going to be for them to fall asleep. Keep it short, keep it simple.
- Don’t bath baby every night if it’s causing too much stress. We don’t have the time to give baby boy a bath every night and sometimes he gets cranky at nights making bath time even worse. Plus baths dry out their skin easily and they typically stay pretty clean during the day.
- Keep your bedtime routine the same. We do the same things each night, put on lotion, pajamas and read scriptures together while baby boy is having his last feeding. The lotion is something different from his morning routine that helps differentiate them.
- Keep the lights low and use a sound machine. We only have minimal light and turn on the sound machine and rock baby boy. Within minutes he’s dozing off and we place him in the crib drowsy, but awake. (This is important, if you can master the drowsy but awake put down it’ll make sleep time so much calmer.)
5 USE A SOUND MACHINE
Sound machines are heaven sent. Without it my baby would be waking up constantly. He jumps at every sound especially when sleeping.
- Use a sound machine every night and naptime. Let baby get used to it and ONLY turn it on when it is time to go to sleep. This way they know that the sound machine = sleep.
- You don’t have to just use white noise. Our sound machine has multiple sound options, the one we always use is of ocean waves.
- Get a sound machine that doubles as a nightlight. We found this sound machine on Amazon that’s also a nightlight making it easier to put baby down at night or find the pacifier they threw out of the crib.
6 LET BABY TRANSITION THROUGH SLEEP CYCLES
Babies are doing everything for the first time. And to our surprise, they don’t know how to transition to the next sleep cycle even with 9 months of practice.
- Don’t pick up baby right away if they start to fuss or cry out, leave them for 5-10 minutes. A babies sleep cycle lasts anywhere from 30 – 45 minutes. This is when they’ll start to fuss or even cry out and that’s actually completely NORMAL. Most of the time if you leave baby alone for 5-10 minutes they will naturally put themselves back to sleep. Sometimes they may need a little extra help with a pacifier or a gentle hand on their stomach or back.
- If your baby is regularly waking up after 30 – 45 minutes first try feeding them. It may just be that they’re still hungry. If baby isn’t hungry but still waking up within that time frame this is when you need to start teaching them to fall asleep on their own. Start putting them down drowsy but awake for naps and nighttime so they can learn to self soothe and fall asleep on their own.
- The sooner they learn to transition sleep cycles the more sleep everyone will get. Don’t go and grab your baby right when they start fussing or crying, give them 5-10 minutes (while napping or sleeping) until you run in to check on them.
I know it can be hard to hear your baby cry and not run immediately to soothe them, but if they don’t learn to make the sleep transition and fall back asleep on their own it’s going to make everyone (including baby) miserable. Babies NEED sleep to develop. And it’s perfectly OKAY to let your baby cry for a short period of time. If they’re screaming their heads off then please check on them to make sure nothing is wrong, if it’s just a little fussing and crying you can give them some time to learn to self soothe and practice falling asleep on their own.
7 MOVE UP YOUR BEDTIME
I know this sounds counterproductive, but if your baby acts tired before their actual bedtime and is continually waking up early you may need to move up their bedtime.
- If your baby is waking up around 4-5:30am and having a hard time staying asleep at night they probably need an earlier bedtime. What happens is your baby gets overtired and instead of sleeping longer in the morning they tend to wake up earlier or wake up multiple times throughout the night.
- Push your bedtime up by half an hour. As hard as we tried for baby boy to have a late bedtime, he was falling asleep in our arms by about 7:30pm each night. We knew we had to push his bedtime to 7:30 even though I wanted it at 8:30. Once we did that, he started sleeping an hour LONGER in the morning. We were actually putting him down when he was tired, he was no longer overtired.
8 LESSEN SLEEP DURING THE DAY
Just how a baby can get overtired, a baby can also be undertired and be getting TOO MUCH sleep. Babies can only sleep so much in a 24 hour period. Even though as an adult I feel like I could easily sleep almost all of that 24 hours and be just fine, a baby has limits.
- Depending on age a baby will only need a certain amount of sleep in a 24 hour period. If your baby is getting in too much sleep during the day, that’s going to limit how much sleep they get at night.
- Use the chart below to find out how many hours of sleep your baby needs at whatever age they’re at. From 3 months – 9 months babies will typically average 10 hours a night of sleep, sometimes more or less. Start out at 10 hours a night and figure out how much sleep your baby needs during the day.
If your baby needs 15 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period then shoot for 10 hours at night and make sure they’re only getting 4-5 during the day.
9 START FEEDING LESS AT THE EARLY MORNING FEEDINGS
Once your baby hits 12 pounds they can start sleeping for longer periods of time as long as they are still steadily gaining weight. By 4 months my baby boy was still waking up every morning between 4-5am to eat. The problem was he started eating less at the 7:30am feeding. That’s when I knew he was just used to waking up at that early time to eat but didn’t need it.
- After you’ve established a consistent morning feeding and your baby is still waking up in the early, early morning start feeding 1/2 oz less every 2 days. For example, if you typically feed 4 oz at 4am start giving him 3 1/2 oz for two days, then go to 3 oz for the next two days after that. Soon enough they’ll no longer become dependent on that feeding and wait until the morning feeding you have established.
- If you have a feeling your baby is only waking up in the extremely early mornings because of habit, try to let them cry it out for 5 to 10 minutes before giving in and feeding them. Offer a pacifier, a quick rock in the chair or just leave them be.
10 USE A HUMIDIFER
Baby noses are tiny and can very easily get stuffed up. What happens when a baby is stuffed up? They can’t breathe as well so they wake up and want to be held!
- Keep a humidifier going each night to help keep the tiny baby noses clear.
- Babies can also get allergies from dust, pollen and even animal hair. Having an air purifier in their room can also help.
11 READ THE BABYWISE BOOK
There were countless people who told me to read the Babywise book and I always put it off. Not reading it sooner is one of my biggest regrets, it could have solved our sleep problems so much sooner! There are so many tips on helping babies not only sleep at night but nap during the day.
Get the Babywise book here on Amazon now, you’ll thank me later when you start sleeping better in 3 days!
A NOTE FOR THE TIRED MOM
Getting your baby to sleep through the night may seem impossible right now. And I know everyone says, ‘It goes by so fast’ but it doesn’t ever feel fast in the moment. However, I can promise that it will come faster than you think. One night soon your baby is going to sleep longer and give you the rest you need. The 11 tips above can help you reach that night a little faster!
Leave a Reply