Infants wake up every few hours and many do not develop a regular sleep cycle until 6 months of age, according to Healthy Children. This means that you may find yourself overtired while caring for your baby. Adding to the frustration is the fact that your baby may have a hard time falling asleep on his own. Fortunately, there are some things you can do to make it easier for your baby to settle down for bed.
Step 1
Do only quiet activities toward the end of the day. University of Illinois Extension recommends against doing anything that could make your baby too excited, which can make it harder for her to fall asleep.
Step 2
Establish a regular bedtime routine that you can stick to every night. Choose 3 or 4 activities, such as a feeding, bath, reading a book and having massage. Repeat these activities every night before putting your baby down to sleep. This will help him realize that it’s time for bed. Babycenter.com states that the rhythmic method of reading a story before bed may help your baby sleep better.
Step 3
Put your baby to sleep while she is drowsy but still awake. This will help her learn to fall asleep on her own, which will be helpful if she wakes herself up in the middle of the night. If she is fussy, wait a few minutes before going to get her.
Step 4
Play some sort of white noise in her room. You can use a white noise machine, fan, humidifier or CD in order to drown out any other outside noises that could startle your baby. The white noise may lull her to sleep and help her to stay sleeping for a longer period of time.
Step 5
Offer a clean, dry pacifier if your baby has a hard time settling himself to sleep. Kids Health states that he may be accustomed to nursing or bottle feeding in order to fall asleep, and the act of sucking on a pacifier could help to settle him down.
Tips and Warnings
- During the day, keep the lights on and offer a lot of activity. This will help your baby to distinguish between daytime and nighttime, when it should be dark and quiet.
- Do not put your baby in her crib or bassinet with any blankets or quilts. According to Babycenter, this increases the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in babies under 1 year of age.
Things You'll Need
- White noise machine
- Pacifier
