Baby Sleeep Habits

The only thing that I could think of to worry while I was expecting my first baby was whether I would be able to survive sleepless nights which are so very popularly attached to motherhood. I have always loved to sleep. So I took great care and worked hard even before my baby’s birth to plan strategies for making my nights more bearable. These are the few things that I did. And they worked well for me and my baby. She started sleeping for 5-6 hrs when she was 6 weeks old.. Quite an achievement, you must agree! 

Here I present all that I read throughout my pregnancy about the sleep habits of babies..

 Learn the signs that mean he's tired.
Watch your baby for signs that he's tired. Is he rubbing his eyes, pulling on his ear, or being more fussy than normal? If you spot these or any other signs of sleepiness, try putting him down to sleep. You'll soon develop a sixth sense about your baby's daily rhythms and patterns, and you'll know instinctively when he's ready for a nap.

Begin to teach him the difference between day and night.
Some infants are night owls (something you may have gotten a hint of during pregnancy) and will be wide awake just when you want to hit the hay. For the first few days you won't be able to do much about this. But once your baby is about 2 weeks old, you can start teaching him to distinguish night from day.

This is the one thing that I worked hard upon. When my baby was alert and awake during the day, I used to constantly interact with her as much as I could. I am a chatterbox and a teacher. So interacting is my habit, passion and my career! People find it very difficult to understand how could you talk to a baby who cannot decipher who you are, forget about comprehending your language and the content of the interaction. But I read on the internet that you should talk to your baby right from birth and even before as if he/she understands all and soon it will happen. I wasn’t sure. But talking at least kept the baby and me engaged! Ha! I was so used to toiling all my life, that getting half a year off with money flowing into my account kept me highly motivated to spend all my time, energy and competencies for my baby.

 Another practice that I imbibed was to keep the house and her room light and bright, and not worrying about minimizing regular daytime noises like  the phone, music, or noises from the road. So she used to spend her time in our living room which is abuzz with activity throughout the day.

At night, what I did was dramatically opposite. I did not play or talk with her at all whenever she woke up at night. I always kept the lights and noise level low.

 Before long she began to figure out that nighttime is for sleeping and daytime is for playing and talking.

Consider starting a bedtime routine.
It's never too early to start trying to follow a bedtime routine. It can be something as simple as getting your baby changed for bed, singing a lullaby, and giving him a kiss goodnight.  We used to add a massage or a bath as per the weather conditions in this bedtime routine too. When the baby was 6 months old, reading got included in this list. By the time she was a year old, we replaced the massage with teeth brushing. We stick to reading and brushing till now.

Give him a chance to fall asleep on his own.
By the time he's 6 to 8 weeks old, you can start giving your baby a chance to fall asleep on his own. How? Put him down when he's sleepy but still awake, suggests Jodi Mindell, associate director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and author of Sleeping Through the Night.
Mindell advises against rocking or nursing your baby to sleep, even at this young age. "Parents think that what they do this early doesn't have an effect," she says, "but it does. Babies are learning their sleep habits. If you rock your child to sleep every night for the first eight weeks, why would he expect anything different later on?"
Not everyone agrees with this strategy, however. Some parents choose to rock or nurse their babies to sleep because they believe it's normal and natural, because they enjoy it and their baby is thriving and sleeping well, or simply because nothing else seems to work. These parents expect to get up with their baby several times during the night to help him get back to sleep.

I was one of those parents. Initially I was able to use this technique well, but soon I had to change ways and adopt the so called bad but natural habits of rocking and nursing the baby to sleep. That was the only thing that worked easily. Otherwise it took ages for my little angel to get tired and doze off to sleep. I used to think this will go on forever, but thank goodness it all ended when my baby was around 18 months. She sleeps on her own now. Though it takes a lot of cajoling and coaxing and reminding her of the rules and the privileges attached to following of the rules.

I am sure all of you also have your own successful and not so successful strategies for helping your baby fall asleep. Please feel free to share your experiences. It might help a tired sleep deprived mom to get some ideas and hopefully some precious sleep.

A request to all my readers – Please understand and believe that all babies and all children are unique. What works for one might not work for the other. That is why we mothers need a lot of ideas. That is why we need to share our experiences. We need to try and try till we find what works for us and our babies.