Get Your Baby to Sleep Through the Night, Part 1
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Not getting enough sleep is the eternal complaint of all moms. You may be the mom who co-sleeps with their child and doesn’t even stir when baby wakes up to nurse or you have that rare child that began sleeping through the night at 6 weeks, but for the other 99% of us, we get so little sleep that when we do, we dream of sleeping. Maybe you tried everything or you are finally ready to try something. Here is my method for getting your child to sleep through the night in 10 difficult steps:
1.You must be completely desperate. You haven’t slept for more than two or three hours consecutively in several months. This method only works when you are absolutely so desperate for a full night’s sleep that you are concerned you may hurt someone, or yourself, if you don’t get it. If it has been three months, you aren’t desperate enough. Six months? You’re getting there. Nine months? You’re pretty loopy. A year or more? What are you waiting for?
2.Move your baby into their own room. If they have their own room, make it as nice and comforting as possible with all the things they would love to see. Put your dirty shirt in the crib and a photo of baby’s parents where they can see it. If baby does not have their own room, then you and your partner sleep in the living room and let baby sleep in your room. If you don’t co-sleep in the same room as baby, than skip this step.
3.Make sure baby is taking one or two naps during the day, every day, at the same time.
4.Create a bedtime routine and follow it every night as exact as possible. For example, eat dinner, take a bath, put on pajamas, read a book, nurse and go to sleep. Do not stray from this routine until it is ingrained in your family’s life. Continue it on vacation and when you return. Baby should go to sleep the same time every night around 7 or 8 p.m.
(to be continued…)
Click here for Part 2
