Avoid Stimulating Your Baby during Night-time Feedings

As the newborn baby grows up, he gets used to sleep at night and awake during the day time. Also when the baby’s stomach is accumulating more breast milk or formula, he will be able to go for longer periods between feedings at night. Approximately at three months of age, your baby will likely be sleeping about 15 hours out of each 24-hour period and out of this, two third of that sleep will take place during the night. Most babies, by now have settled into a daily sleep routine of two or three sleep periods during the day, followed by sleeping for 6 to 7 hours at nights, after a late-night feed.
You can help in adjusting your baby towards sleeping at night, by avoiding stimulation during nighttime feedings and diaper changes. The act of breastfeeding itself provides frequent eye and voice contact, so try to keep the lights low and resist the urge to play or talk with your baby. This will reinforce the message to him that nighttime is for sleeping. Keeping the door closed to keep out any of the other members or the pet will also reduce stimulating your infant. Avoid the use of musical mobiles or toys as a way to calm your infant to sleep after night-time feedings.
The overly tired infants often have more trouble in sleeping than those who've had an appropriate amount of sleep during the day. So keeping your baby waking up may not always prove that he or she will sleep better at night. You will find out that when your infant sleeps at regular intervals during the day time, it will be easier to put him back down to sleep after night-time feedings.

Daylight Exposure

This is a fact that your baby is used to a dark and silent environment in your womb. She’s not used to the usual cues of nighttime sleeping. Nighttime, at first, is what the baby gets used to asleep or awake.

One method of getting your baby used to sleep at night is to be sure she’s exposed to lots of sunlight during the day. When its time to go to sleep in the dark; one of your rituals can be dimming the lights, even if it’s an afternoon nap. This way, she’ll get used to day and night cycles and learn that nighttime and darkness are for sleeping.

There are clocks available, called the dawn simulators; these will gradually dim into total darkness over a period of about half an hour. This can be a way to gradually dim the light in the baby’s room. When you put her in hers crib when she is still awake, you can set the clock to start to dim when you leave the room, or get a little away through the cycle. This way you’re not just flipping out the light and leaving her alone in the dark. You can do the same for her nap times too. The clocks will cycle on slowly in the morning; you want to be sure that you mute the actual alarm sound so that she does not awakes with a shock.

If you coordinate the use of any of these devices with your work/day time routines, you’ll help teach your babies the cues for going to sleep at nap time especially at nights. These are some known gentle methods that many parents prefer instead of just letting the baby cry out.

Nighttime Help

There is too much to do to get a baby to sleep; either you are single parent or not. There are some other things as well, that you can use other than your own shoulder to lull your baby.

A baby swing can be a good idea, and can leave your hands free. Set the swing at a slow and gentle sway because you don’t want this to be an exciting or adventurous experience. You want to make it relaxing, so your baby can fall asleep.

A glider or rocker is restful for both of you; baby and the parent. And a good pillow support like a Boppy® pillow is good for late-night breast feeding. It’s a comfy U-shaped pillow that provides good support to your baby, as well as for your back.

As per considering the economic factor, some parents put their baby in a baby seat and putting it on top of a dryer. If you are doing this, be sure to put the dryer on air only – you don’t want to overheat him.

A motorized cradle or bassinet can also be soothing for a baby. As a last thing, you can always bundle the baby into his car seat and drive around the neighborhood until he falls asleep. Many experts don’t recommend artificial aids like this, as it is then impossible to sustain it as you won’t get the baby used to sleeping on his own.

There are also many ambient noise machines on the market that can also help in eliminating household noises, and provide a soothing environment for the baby (and for the mother as well). You can usually set these for a variety of noises, like rainfall, wind chimes or ocean sounds. You can also leave the TV on, quietly in another room so the baby doesn’t feel completely isolated in his room.

Naptime

The new infant sleeps more, and when he is not, it means either he is hungry or needs a diaper change. It’s little hard to know in the beginning what is making your baby cry. But as both of the parents begin to settle into your routines, you’ll begin to identify the cues that your baby needs to take a nap. You will make sure that he gets good naps during the day and at all the appropriate times so that you won’t have as much trouble getting him to sleep at night.


Even a very small infant rubs his eyes when he gets tired. He’ll yawn, or perhaps he’ll get fussy. As babies get a little older, they try to avoid sleep as per change in their activities.

Make sure about the appropriate nap times during the day. If your baby sleeps 3 times a day, then a mid-morning, early afternoon and late-afternoon nap is appropriate for this baby; with a 7:30 or 8 PM bed time.

Often babies tend to get tired at dinner time, and this is a dilemma for the parents. Do you try to keep him awake through out the dinner and perhaps put him to bed a little bit earlier?

Most parents will think to keep the baby awake a little longer, so that he gets to bed at a regular bed time. But if it’s been a busy day for the little guy, let him have a very short nap and then wake him up gently for the dinner or a feeding, and offer some light play before putting him to bed for the night.

Remember to make regular rituals for naps as well as the bed time so your baby gets used to sleeping, at regular times.

Sleep Issues 1-2 Years Old

As your baby grows up, and turns to be a toddler rather than an infant; she’ll start taking less nap during the day, but 11 hours at night. If you see that your child is willing to sleep only when you're around, then you must eradicate this bad habit of hers as it will be harder to break later on. The best thing which you can do for this is to soothe her to sleep. Continue performing your night time ritual e.g. taking bath, reading books etc and you can tell her to stay in the bed as you come back in five minutes to check. This way, let her know that she's safe and you are nearby.
As per turning in to a toddler, she can be a great negotiator, no matter its bed time. As the baby enjoys the time spending with you, so she will tend to do what can prolong the time you are with her. As per this, your child may prolong the duration in performing the usual nightly routine, plus can ask repeatedly for a glass of water, or keep on requesting that you come to her room and she is in the need of some thing etc. If you suspect this all, don't let her know but instead tell her that it is bed time and that she can finish working on with her activities or anything the next day. Make the nighttime routine more “business like” when you kiss your baby and tuck her in. Don’t wait around or expect your baby to fuss. Just leave after patting her up and close the door; wait about ten minutes before you go back in the room.

Sometimes this all can be a battle versus your temperament. Your toddler wants to control her stimulus and prolong the time as much as possible. You can’t force her at once to fall asleep. Try reverse psychology (alternative ways) and tell her that she doesn’t have to go to sleep, but can play in the crib. Eventually, she’ll fall asleep on her own.

Sleep Methods

There are several known methods devised by the experts on dealing with the sleeping problems that may occur in your developing baby. But, remember to do what you feel can be the best choice for you and your baby, as the baby's nature differ from one baby to another. So you never would know what can work for you and not for others or vice versa.

The Ferber method says to let the baby cry her and she will sleep soon; if you're firm about the bed time, she'll learn to comfort herself to sleep. This never means that you just plunk the baby down in her crib and walk away. It differs from what you may already be doing that it encourages you to put the baby in her crib while she's still awake, so she gets used to falling asleep without you. But this might also mean letting her cry it out for a few weeks. This can be stressful for everyone in the household.

Another method is to "control the crying" method. Again, this involves your usual bedtime rituals of taking a bath, perhaps a snack and a story, rocking and cuddling. Put your baby in her crib and deliver her a good night kiss; If she starts to cry, wait 10 to 15 minutes before going in to comfort her. Resist in picking her up immediately, just shush her quietly and pat her on the back. Some experts suggest to not to talk, as this can reinforce the waking and crying behavior and you want to reassure your baby that you’re there, but you still want to encourage sleeping.

If you see that she is crying for about 30 minutes, increase the intervals before you check on the baby by a few minutes each time, up to about 15 to 20 minutes between checking. This can take some time and can even clench your nerves, but your baby will learn in time that you're not going away and that you're nearby. In the end your baby will not only learn self-comforting herself, but this will also give her the confidence and security that you're there for her.

Sleep Issues of 8-12 Months

At the ages of 8-12 months, your baby will begin to need less sleep during the day and should be regularly sleeping through the night. But there’s also much more activity and stimulation during the day – babies are eating up the world at this stage, they’re learning so much.

If you’re feeding him baby food during the day, and decreasing bottles, make the last bottle feeding at nighttime. You can also have a bottle in the night to soothe him if he wakes up. Babies are teething at this time as well, and that can cause them to wake up in discomfort. You may be weaning the baby from breastfeeding, and that can be a difficult transition as well.

There are different schools of thought on handling babies who are a challenge to get to sleep. Some recommend letting the baby cry it out, but this is hard on the parents, especially on mom who may have been comforting and bonding with the baby all day long. It can see cruel to just let the baby cry himself to sleep. He’s just a little guy, after all.

Take extra care at this time to make sure the nursery is conducive to sleeping. Make sure his diaper is clean and his sheets are clean and soft. If he’s teething, use a topical pain treatment that’s safe for the baby. You can also invest in some homeopathic tablets that ease teething naturally. Make sure his nose is clear and not stuffy. If you use a foam wedge to keep the baby from sleeping on his stomach, sleep with a spare one night and then put that in his bed so that your scent is close to him at night.

Make sure the room isn’t too cold or too hot; keep a humidifier in the room to maintain a good moisture balance, especially in the winter when rooms can dry out. Your baby just might be stubborn about sleeping, but try to figure out if there are physical problems that you can alleviate first.