It’s the dream of every new parent: sleeping more during the night. For some parents, sleeping through the night is nothing but a fond yet distant memory, but it doesn’t have to be that way! We are talking today about some general tips and ideas that you can start implementing today (or tonight!) in order to help get your little one down to sleep longer so that you can get the most out of those merciful few hours each night to rest.
Start With Full Feeds During The Daytime
Making sure that your infant has fed enough during the daylight hours is important, especially as it can impact their ability to sleep longer stretches during the night. Make sure that each feeding during the day is as full and complete as possible. Offer the baby several opportunities for more food before officially stopping the feeding session and putting them back down for their next nap. Try burping the baby and then offering more food a few minutes later. Sometimes an air bubble will interfere with their sense of fullness and when it leaves it can make them feel hungry again.
Make Sure You Are Keeping Appropriate Wake Windows During The Day
You want to be as consistent as possible with your wake windows each day in order to help your child sleep better at night. This means not keeping your baby up too much or too little during the day. If they have too few sleep sessions due to longer wake windows, then they will have trouble getting to sleep at night due to being overtired or overstimulated from the increased activity. The key is in setting a regular sleep/wake schedule and sticking to it. You can set alarms or even calendar reminders to help you along the way!
Build In Plenty Of Activities During The Day
If you want your little one to sleep soundly and fully during the night then it helps to engage and stimulate them during the day with different activities. There are a surprising amount of fun and engaging activities that you can do with your baby starting from the first week onward! Here are a few to get the creative juices flowing. Comment below to add your favorite newborn activities!
- Reading a book.
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- That’s right, reading to your child can start as early as the first week. You can really choose any book you want, but start with a book targeted toward infants with large simple images with contrasting shapes and colors. But, you can really read anything you want! Cradle them on your lap and read them some of your most cherished passages in your favorite books or you can even read them some of your favorite jokes you found on the internet! The sky truly is the limit.
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- Listen to music.
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- Try to keep it as “age appropriate” as possible, but feel free to put on some of your favorite songs and share them with your little one. Talk them through why you like it or why the song is meaningful to you. They will love your story!
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- Tummy time
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- Again, tummy time is something that you can start to do very early (as soon at the umbilical cord falls off), typically within the first few weeks if done correctly and with care. Tummy time can help to get your baby some much needed physical activity and will help to stimulate them and tire them out so they sleep much better at night. Start with 3-5 minutes a few times per day, then work up to every awake period.
Parting Thoughts
A good amount of sleep is vital for your infant and can have significant impacts on their mood and development. Lack of sleep has been linked to colic, witching hours, shorter attention spans, obesity, and other issues later in life. All in all, sleep is important to parents and infants alike! We hope these tips have helped you along your journey. If you have any questions about getting your baby to sleep, or your baby in general, please reach out to us HERE. We are experts in all things baby and sleep and would love to help!
