Getting a good night's sleep

Re: my baby wont settle herself can you help?
Asked by janine7

Question:

Hi,

My baby girl is 4 months old and not long after she was born i started getting her to sleep in my arms. Now she cant and

will not settle herself day or night.

This would not be so much of a problem but i go back to work in 3 weeks and she will be going to nursery and i want her to enjoy her time there and be settled sleeping. I am really worried about this and want to get this sorted.

I need help, i know i have left this a while and i have made a rod for my own back

But please HELP!

Thank you so much

Janine

My Advice:

How you can establish good sleep habits

It so hard when you have to go back to work. my willow would not sleep at all without being cuddled for the first 6 months i came to a piont where i have enough so i set up the following routine untill she was 6 months thenni tried my tuff love routin which i explianed in another acrticle. document.write(”); window.google_render_ad();

At this age, these are some of the best things you can do to help your child settle and sleep at night:

Establish set bedtimes and naptimes — and stick to them.
When your baby was a newborn, deciding when to put her down for the night was as easy as watching for her signs of sleepiness (eye-rubbing, ear-pulling, and so on). Now that she’s a little older, you should establish a specific bedtime, as well as consistant nap times to regulate her sleep patterns. A good baby bedtime is usually between 7 and 8:30 p.m.; any later and she’s likely to get overtired and have a hard time falling asleep. Your baby may not seem tired late at night — on the contrary, she may appear very energetic, almost bouncing off the walls. But that’s often a sign it’s past her bedtime. You can set naptimes the same way you set bedtimes — plan them for a specific time each day — or go more by feel, putting your baby down when you know she’s tired and needs to recharge. as long as she is getting into a proper sleep routine either approach is fine.

Begin to develop a bedtime routine.
now is a great time to devlop a good sleep routine if you have done so already you can an example would be

bath, book , bottle, bed. if wak

Wake your child in the morning to reset her daily clock.
If your baby tends to sleep more than 10 hours at night, it’s okay to wake her up in the morning to help her reset her daily clock. While it may seem like 10 hours at night isn’t a problem, your baby needs to follow a regular sleep / wake pattern and recharge with naps during the day. Waking her at the same time every morning will help keep her sleep schedule predictable.

Potential pitfalls

Night waking developing sleep associations which depend on your presence — when your baby learns to depend on something like rocking, holding or breast feeding your baby to sleep — affect newborns and older babies alike. By 4 months, your child will probably be able to soothe himself, but you may still need to help him develop self-comforting techniques.

Some three to six-month-olds may have a new problem: difficulty falling asleep. In these cases, putting your baby to bed can be daunting for new parents. You never know if she’s going to scream her head off or whimper softly just to get the last word in.

If your baby is having a hard time getting to sleep at night, first make sure she’s not staying up too late (as we mentioned, an overtired baby can make for a difficult bedtime). If that’s not the case, she may have developed one or more problematic sleep associations. If you want her to sleep through the night without calling for you, she needs to learn to fall asleep on her own not because she’s been soothed to sleep by your arms, your breast, or a dummy
If that’s not the case and your baby is still having difficulty falling asleep, there are various strategies you can adopt. Some of these are outlined below. Of course, what will work best for you depends on your personal beliefs and sleep philosophy.

Approaches to sleep problems

What’s the best way to respond to your child once you’ve tucked her in? Experts are quite divided on this issue. All agree, however, that the way to calm or ease your child to sleep changes over time. A newborn needs cuddling, while a toddler needs a consistent routine and a firm goodnight. When it comes to getting your three to six-month-old baby to sleep, look through some of the suggestions below from a variety of experts and choose a strategy which you feel could work for you:

Approach 1
Do a simple checking routine. If your child is crying, go back into her room. Pat her on the back and tell her that everything is okay, but that it is time to go to sleep. Don’t pick her up or cuddle her; be gentle but firm. Leave. Wait about five minutes, then check again. Do this repeatedly until she falls asleep, extending the time between each visit.

Approach 2
Take a close look at your bedtime routine. It’s important to put your baby down when she’s awake so she’ll learn to settle herself to sleep, both when you first put her down and if she wakes up during the night. If you’re not doing this, consider changing your nighttime routine.

Approach 3
If your baby is crying and you’re sure she’s fed, dry, and healthy, wait five minutes before going to her. Then reassure her you’re there by talking to her — don’t pick her up, turn on the lights, or touch her. When you go in, stay calm and keep it brief. If she keeps crying, wait a little longer each time before you go in, then repeat the above sequence. The key is to be consistent and firm.

Approach 4
Don’t put your baby to sleep by rocking her in your arms or letting her suck at the breast or bottle; she’ll learn to associate these things with settling to sleep rather than depending on herself. Instead, get her in bed while she’s still awake, sit by her, give her a transitional object such as a blanket, pat her, and generally reassure her without words.

Approach 5
Comfort your baby to sleep: rock her, and lie down together until you see that her face is motionless and she’s in deep sleep. Establish and stick with a bedtime routine, and try cuddling up, pretending to sleep, and firmly letting your child know it’s bedtime.

There is no “right” way to encourage your child to settle and sleep through the night. You need to choose an approach that will work for you and your family.

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