Getting Your Baby to Sleep through the Night

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How do you get your baby to sleep through the night? After a few months of nights that are interrupted by your little one, you may feel a very desperate need for a quick answer to this question.

Before you begin looking for the answer, keep two things in mind. First, there is no right answer. What works for one baby may not work for yours, and that’s ok. You are looking for a process or solution that works for your baby and your family. Second, once you have decided that it is time, sleep training is as much for your baby as it is for mom and the rest of the family. Sleep deprivation is not a pretty thing.

To get started, make a plan for sleep training.

1. Do your research.

There is much information available on the internet, but be careful. You will find many people have opinions about the different approaches to sleep training even if they aren’t familiar with the actual process suggested. Take note of these opinions, but also look for others. Talk to other parents (even those with older children), your pediatrician, or even a childcare provider for any words of wisdom that might be helpful.

Then, pick a couple of books and get started. It’s hard to get reading done with a new baby, but try to give yourself a few minutes a night. Over the course of a couple of weeks, you can get through a few sleep books. Here are some of the popular sleep books:

• Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems
• Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child
• The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night
• The 90-Minute Baby Sleep Program

2. Don’t go it alone.

Once you’ve selected a program to try, get dad on board. In the wee hours of the night when you might be implementing a process that baby vehemently disagrees with, you need all of the adults in the house to be on the same page. Ideally, you should have dad read the book too. If that’s never going to happen, pick a few sections that communicate the gist of the program, and ask him to read those.

3. Mark the calendar.

Pick a start date for your sleep training. You might want to start on a weekend if dad early morning work schedules are involved. Or you might want to check with your neighbors to see if they will be traveling anytime soon. Set the training up so that you have the best case scenario to succeed.

Don’t give up. One program may not work perfectly for your baby, but a combination of two may work perfectly. Follow your mother’s intuition, and work with your pediatrician to find the sleep answer for your little one.

Let us know how your sleep training is going in the comment section below. Are you an experienced mom who has been through sleep training already? Share your secrets with new moms using the comment section below.

In addition to Type-A Mom, Kim share hints, tips, and adventures in mommy-hood (including her experience with sleep training) on her site, kimworld.com.

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