Getting Your Baby to Sleep

Getting Baby to Sleep: How Much Sleep Does Your Baby Need?

howtogetyourbabytosleep — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 23:06:22 +0000

I just wanted to encourage you about getting your baby to sleep. Baby sleep problems are normal – in fact 70% of babies have had sleep problems (night waking). But don’t let this discourage you into thinking that you just have a baby who wakes in the night and there’s nothing you can do about it. It may be normal, but it can be changed.

First of all, you need to recognize your child’s need for sleep. It is a health issue. Your child needs good sleep, just like he needs good food, security, shelter, etc. But don’t beat yourself up over this fact if your child is not getting good sleep. Use this information to motivate yourself to change it, and keep you from giving up. Your baby’s sleep habits are very changeable. (For more help with changing your baby’s sleep habits, check out Sleepytime Secrets. )

My first child had a night waking problem for almost his first year. I kept expecting it to get better on its own as he grew older, ate solid foods, etc. But it didn’t. I failed to realize his need for good sleep. I didn’t know how much I would have to facilitate it for him. I thought he would just sleep when he wanted to sleep, just like he eats when he feels hungry, right? I was wrong.

In order to facilitate his sleep, I had to make sure we had a place for him to sleep when it was time to sleep. I had to arrange my errands and engagements around his sleep schedule.

One thing no one ever told me was how much sleep my baby needed – not even his pediatrician (and I didn’t know to ask). When I finally read a book on this subject, I realized how much sleep he needed, and it was far less than what he was getting. Here’s chart on how much sleep your baby needs based on your child’s age:

Age	Total Hours	Nightime Hours	Daytime Hours	Naps
1 month	15.5	8.5	7	3
3 months	15	10	5	3
6 months	14.25	11	3.25	2
9 months	14	11	3	2
12 months	13.75	11.25	2.5	2
18 months	13.5	11.25	2.25	1
2 years	13	11	2	1
3 years	12	10.5	1.5	1

(The above information was from this website: http://www.babycenter.com/index.htm)

When I was finally trying to get my baby on a healthy sleep schedule, it helped to keep a “sleep journal” where I logged the total hours of sleep he was getting. Without that journal it would have been hard to remember from day to day (night to night) how much sleep he was getting – and it was good to be able to track his progress.

I hope this helps you with getting your baby to have good, healthy sleep schedule – and you as well!

Getting Baby to Sleep — Should Baby be in Bed with You?

howtogetyourbabytosleep — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:04:21 +0000

Should baby sleep in bed with you? — that’s a good question. The first time I heard the idea was at our hospital’s birthing class. It didn’t sound appealing to me at all. When I had my baby, though, I changed my mind about it. Newborns make so many noises when they sleep. And I couldn’t sleep because I would just lay there listening to them. Then, if I couldn’t hear his noises, I would start to worry about SIDS. Finally, I put him in bed with us and I was able to sleep much better. But… fast-forward 11 months: we had him still in our bed waking us every 2-3 hours.

I don’t necessarily think its a bad move to put your baby in bed with you. Really, I don’t. In fact, I had my second child in bed with us until she slept through the night at 2 months.

But I do take issue with a few things. One issue I have with putting your baby in bed with you is that it could foster a night waking problem with your child later on, as it did for us. And if you miss that ideal “cut off” point, for teaching your baby to sleep in the crib, switching to the crib can be difficult.

The other issue I have, and it’s related to the night waking problem, is with putting your baby to bed at a decent time at night. I know from experience that putting your baby to bed at night too late, will contribute to the night waking problems. Ideally, your baby should go to bed no later than 8pm, and even as early as 7, or 7:30. If you are trying to put your baby down at a decent bedtime, and you’re baby is at an age when he/she is able to roll over, it would be unsafe to put baby in your bed without you; yet are you willing to go to bed at 8? 7? 7:30? Most adults I know don’t go to bed that early – especially parents who need some time to themselves when baby is sleeping.

These are just things to think about. I can tell you that having my second child in bed with us was a breeze. I would put her down for bed at 8pm in her bassinet and when she woke up at 12am, I would nurse her and put her back in bed with us. But, when she slept through the night at 2 months, she just stayed in her bassinet from the time I put her down at 8pm until she woke up in the morning. It worked out much better this way and we didn’t have to re-train her to sleep in her crib.

I really think a Mini Co-Sleeper® Bassinet is a great answer to the question of having baby in bed with you. It really is the best of both worlds.

Would you like to join my facebook group? Ask questions and get support!

If you want to read more on the subject of getting your baby to sleep, please read my other articles:

“I Ain’t Going to Sleep! You’ll Never Take Me Alive!” (you have to see this one — at least to see the funny picture I put up there!)

Getting your baby to sleep: Starting Out Right

howtogetyourbabytosleep — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 21:15:20 +0000

When my husband and I decided to build our own brick patio, we didn’t know what we were doing. We got a book on the subject from Home Depot and followed it as best we could. After we were all done, we found out we didn’t put in enough gravel and sand underneath the brick to make our patio higher than our future lawn. This was a big problem, unless we wanted a pool right outside our sliding glass door (and at the foundation of our house, no less). So, we had to start ALL over (this is a 300 sq. ft patio, mind you — no small task). We pulled all the bricks out, laid down some 4×4 around the perimeter, filled in more sand, and put all the bricks back. It’s the patio we had to do twice to get it right.

Just like our patio, we had to start ALL over with getting our firstborn to sleep. After almost a year of 2-3 hour increments of sleep at night, we finally recognized we had a child with a night waking problem. It took us 11 months to realize it as a sleep problem. As a breast-feeding mom, I just figured he was hungry and it was too much to expect him to make it through the night.

We were desperate enough for sleep to try the “cry it out” method. It was a miserable experience, with our child screaming his head off in his crib, and me bawling on the other side of the door. But after 3 difficult nights, we had a child who would sleep through the night. After 3 weeks, we were able to nail down a healthy nap schedule. It was a grueling process that tugged on our new parent hearts, but it was worth it. However, just like we realized with our patio, we knew that if we had started out the right way, it would have saved us a LOT of work.

“So, how do you start out the right way?” I asked myself as I was pregnant with my second child. I found the answer in reading Babywise: How 100,000 New Parents Trained Their Babies to Sleep Through the Night the Natural Way. In the book, author Gary Ezzo teaches you how to start off right with getting your baby to sleep. Here are some of the points that are emphasized in his book:

Establish a routine for your baby of “eat-wake-sleep” — its a cycle that repeats itself all day. It starts when your baby wakes up in the morning, your baby eats first. Then he/she is awake for a period. Then your baby takes a nap. And the routine starts over.
Make sure your baby takes full feedings! It’s okay to feed your baby whenever he/she is hungry (don’t make your baby wait to fit some schedule). But make sure every time your baby eats, they take a full meal (30 minutes of breastfeeding or a full bottle).

Teach your baby to sleep unassisted by placing your baby in his/her crib awake when its time to sleep (no rocking, no nursing, no driving baby around in the car for hours to get him to sleep).

To get more complete advice on this subject, I recommend reading the Babywise book for yourself, but if you start by following the above tips you’ll be well on your way to success with getting your baby to sleep!

For more helpful articles and tips, please visit: Getting Your Baby to Sleep!