Tips for Helping a Baby Go to Sleep!

How we love our new little darlings from heaven!  But oh, there are times when we sure wish they would go to sleep!  And grant us some much-needed rest!  Here are some tips in hopes that they will help lull a young baby to sleep!

1. The Wrestle.

Many a young baby sleeps all day, and wakes up at night!  My babies did that in the womb as well; they woke up to kick just when I would lie down to sleep!

So from the time baby was tiny, I worked hard to make evenings full of activity, so that Junior would go to sleep when we did!  As nice as it was to fix dinner while the baby slept, instead I would tape baby’s chair to the sideboard while I cooked, with a mobile for them to look at and me to talk to as I chopped vegetables!

Or I handed baby to Daddy, who would invariably get down on the family room floor and wrestle!  OK, they didn’t really wrestle, but Dads like to play on the ground, and ours did it gently with our little one, so that sleep would come later!

Changing baby’s schedule around to sleep at night is hardest with first one.  After that, when there are more siblings around, they help!  They pass the baby around or play with baby in the afternoon/evening.  After all, it’s been a whole day at school without seeing their darling new brother or sister!  Keeping the baby up in the early evening will eventually help him to learn to sleep at nighttime.

2. Secure Baby

When the time comes to calm baby down after the evenings activities, we must make baby feel secure and ready to sleep.  Swaddling a baby in a blanket accomplishes that, as baby is feeling snug like they were in the womb. In Mozambique, where my daughter volunteered, the mothers held their babies tight to them in a Capulana—a sarong-like blanket.  Tied to their mothers, the babies could hear her heartbeat they were used to hearing, and mother was always there!  Those mothers did everything with the baby there—including carrying large jars of water on their heads!

Baby carriers such as these may be just the ticket for a baby to be secure enough to fall asleep.  The answer could be simply more touch and more love.

3. Movement

A baby is used to going everywhere Mom does!  That’s how they spent nine months!  So when we cannot move them with us, we can duplicate the motion!  There are baby swings and cradles, rocking chairs.  I knew a mother who bounced her baby on the side of her bed to get the baby to sleep.

Many a family—mine included—invents a reason to go somewhere in the Car, in order to put the baby to sleep!  But that is not always feasible as a nightly routine!  We discovered that putting baby’s infant seat securely on top of the washer or dryer (so it couldn’t wiggle off!) did the trick!  The vibrating motion from the cycle lulled the baby to sleep!

4. Music

Noise can help baby learn to be a sound sleeper.  We took our new little firstborn to a college basketball game when she was very young.  I was concerned about all that noise bombarding her little ears!  But upon entering the arena, our baby just tuned it all out and went immediately to sleep.  And slept the whole game!

We Moms tend to tiptoe when we finally get our little one to sleep and shush everyone else!  But really, babies need to get used to noise, to be able to sleep through it.  Someone suggested to me that I run the vacuum during baby’s nap!   Often, I turn on white noise (such as a fan) or even a noise maker someone gave me, to help baby sleep. My daughter-in-law downloaded a white noise app on her phone to play when she needs it.

Coming up with noise is once again hardest for the first baby.  When subsequent babies have siblings, they can provide the noise that baby can learn to sleep through!

While we want our babies to be able to sleep through noise, there is often still the need to block out distractions in order for baby to fall asleep.  Calming music is a wonderful way to go to sleep.  A baby loves the sound of Mommy singing!  When I was in the hospital with one of my babies, he had been whisked away from me right after delivery for something necessary, yet I could not bear to hear my newborn cry!  “What songs has he heard recently?”  I asked myself.  And the answer was “Silent Night!”  This January baby had surely heard me sing Silent Night to my other kids before bed, and would be familiar with it!  So from my hospital bed, I began to sing it.  And almost immediately, my brand new little guy stopped his crying and listened!  Until I could get him in my arms, the music calmed and soothed him.

Another baby of mine fell asleep to music each night.  He needed noise to help him not hear the distractions of all the older ones who had later bedtimes, and I picked music.  It really worked, to lull him to sleep. Since I often chose the Tabernacle Choir as my go to for him, he became my “Tabernacle Choir baby!”

5. Routine

A bedtime routine signals to baby that it is time to go to sleep.  I would come up with a simple routine, such as:

Say good-nights;

Change baby while singing a lullaby;

“Brush” teeth (or gums)

Say prayers

I would print up my routine, so that I would do it the same each night.  And for when Daddy or Grandma or the baby sitter put the baby to bed.  Doing the same thing each night let baby know when it was time to sleep.  In fact, for some of my babies, I would do the same routine before naps, since I wanted that to also be a good sleeping time!

6. Water

A baby may want a drink before bed.  I would suggest water—if baby will take it.  Unlike milk, water does not leave a residue on newly developing teeth. And I noticed that water seemed to help gas bubbles come out, relieving colicky symptoms.

A tiny glass of water can be introduced to baby way early (Grandmother offered it to our babies when they were very tiny!).

In the middle of the night, should a baby wake, it is the perfect time to offer water.  I am not talking about a newborn or young baby who needs nourishment at night, but an older baby who usually sleeps all the way through.  Such a baby, I have found, if offered only water, will decide that it’s not worth it to wake up!  I would be firm, and only offer water in the middle of the night, and sure enough, it would cure my babies of waking then.  If I refused to offer milk, but only water, they seemed to say, “Forget this!  I’m not going to bother to wake up just for water!”  It really worked!  (And of course, first thing the next morning came the nice milk!)

Each baby is different.  But I hope that these tips will help them sleep a little better!

I’d love for you to share your tips, by commenting below!