Sleep Training Your Baby

Sleep training. Anything that involves training involves time, effort, patience, practice, and a lot of love.  You will hear tons of advice on how to get your baby to sleep through the night.  When I was sleep deprived, all the advice was kind of irritating to me because nothing worked!  Here are a few facts and tips that helped me make it through the sleep training phase.

A child isn’t born with the understanding of night and day.  In my opinion, that’s why it is important to start “sleep training” as soon as they're born.  Train them by using bright lights and music during the day, and night lights and quiet time at night. 

Hunger is the biggest culprit.  Their tiny little bodies are growing fast and need a lot of nourishment.  Their stomachs are very small too, so no wonder they need to eat often.  Sometimes I experienced feedings every 2 hours in the beginning. 

Sleep promotes more sleep.  I learned this concept from the many books and online articles that I read.  The more long stretches of sleep they experience, the more their bodies learn how to sleep.  Naps are very important for this part of training.  If they miss a nap, they will not make it up at night.  Lost sleep is lost and never regained.  This is why many moms protect their children’s naps J  Click here to see how many hours per day your child should be sleeping.

As babies get older and pass the newborn stage, it’s important to start a bedtime routine.  Lots of books will suggest the routine begin with bath time.  The most important part is what time.  I learned that 8:00 pm is the magic time, and it has been for our daughter.  She responds well to an 8:00 pm bedtime. 

I will continue to elaborate on sleep training in future posts J