Teaching a baby to sleep throughout the night.

You are not alone, a quarter of children under fives have sleep problems, if your newborn baby is waking up in the night your sleep patterns will be disturbed.
Lots of babies, especially new born babies are night-time babies. New born babies should sleep 1.5 to 2 hours at a time during the day.

New born babies sleep 16-18 hours out of 24hours though they wake up often. So what can you do? It is better to try and reset the baby's clock starting from 8 weeks by trying a bedtime routine of a bath and massage between 6pm-7pm, it is tiring I know, you need to be persistent and your efforts will pay off.

Get the baby up in the morning at normal waking time, rather than letting her sleep to make up for the lost time. It may be tempting to let the baby sleep so you can catch up on sleep yourself, or get a few minutes of peace and quiet.
Give your baby a simple wash (top and tail) and change her out of her night clothes.
Your baby will soon learn that daytime is for fun and night-time is for sleeping, the process may take several days or even a few weeks, but if you stick to it, you will soon have yourself a daytime baby.
Play with her as much as you can throughout the day so the she won't go to sleep. Even if she's sleeping soundly wake her up for feeds. For the last feed between 7pm-7:30pm it is advisable to give baby a top up feed if your breastfeeding, just to make sure the baby is full up, as breast milk is lighter in the evenings.
Keep the curtains open in her room and be your noisy self. Do not turn the ringer off the phone or avoid turning on the dishwasher. That way your baby won't become a light sleeper.
Do not play with her in the night. Keep her room dark, with just the minimum amount of light for feeds and nappy changes, be quiet and soothing.
Your baby will soon learn that daytime is for fun and night- time is for sleeping.

5 thoughts on “Teaching a baby to sleep throughout the night.”

madeline

Follow a schedule.
Make sure your baby is getting the right amount of daytime sleep to prepare them to get the right amount of nighttime sleep. As newborns, babies can’t differentiate between day and night, they just sleep ‘round the clock. As they get older, they start sleeping longer periods, the longest stretches being at night. If they’re sleeping too much during the day they won’t stay asleep as long at night.

January 26, 2022 at 10:43am

chelsy

following a schedule can be very helpful. you’re training your child to sleep at roughly the same time each night. a skill that we all,now older, wish we had learned younger as many around the world struggle with sleep which subsequently ruins their day plans. you must also remember that the process will take time!! so be patient with your kid but don’t break the schedule so they can stop crying or stay up later!!

August 6, 2021 at 23:01pm

Gladys Nerome

It is crucial for new born babies to learn how to sleep through out the night as lack of enough sleep for the next one year or so for them both is stressful.

January 26, 2022 at 10:40am

Geoffrey

Thanks Eryeza for your comment. That’s true, a well rested parent is in best position to offer good and effective care. On the other hand, a well rested baby is a healthy baby and establishing a sleep routine earlier helps as the baby learns to sleep throughout the night.
Furthermore, it has even a bigger impact on the productivity of children right through to adulthood if the right sleeping habits are maintained. Did your little one sleep throughout the night as a new born?

May 12, 2017 at 14:58pm

Eryeza

This quite an invention. It will go along way into helping parents cope up with the bleesing of children.
Thanks especially for the posts.

February 14, 2017 at 11:36am

Teaching a baby to sleep throughout the night.