Getting your little one to fall asleep anywhere takes a combination of opportunity and creativity.
It’s your little one’s bedtime and you desperately need him to go down. You yearn for that time to yourself to catch up on life or just relax a little. The only problem is your cute little bundle of joy is anything but at the moment. He seems to have forgotten how to put himself to sleep and you’re on the verge of a meltdown. Here are 11 tips to help get your baby to sleep. You can do each one on its own or try any combination. Try varying them up otherwise your baby may form a sleep association with a particular one – meaning he starts to NEED it to be able to fall asleep. If a sleep association does rear its ugly head I talk about ways to try and break bad associations here.
11 Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep
1. Shoosh in his ear. Try different speeds, lengths and pitches of your shooshes. My kids don’t have a preference, but every kid is different.
2. Play some white noise. You don’t need a fancy sleep sound machine. Put the stereo on a station that doesn’t exist, and voila, you have white noise.
3. Pat his back or bottom. Be careful not to do the lower back though. You don’t want to smack around the little one’s kidneys.
4. Baby swings! They work like magic in this house, but have a high risk of becoming a sleep association. I like to drop them in there for a cat nap while I try to make dinner.
5. Incline the head of the bed. It helps with the digestive system and gas which could be one of the causes of his waking.
6. Get the gas out. If he’s grunting and his face is red there’s a good chance he needs a little help with his toots. I’ve used gas drops with some success. Also “bicycling” their legs, rubbing their belly and burping them well after eating really helps get that painful gas out of their bellies.
7. Pacifier. Babies have a strong desire to suck on things. This feeds the need and soothes them. It is rather addicting so beware.
8. Bedtime routine. He may not know it’s time to sleep. If you develop a soothing routine it will help clue him in and relax him. We do the four B’s. Bath, boob, book, bed!
9. Don’t stimulate before bedtime. If you do too much activity right before he goes down then his brain will be racing.
10. Walk, swing, or bounce him. But I prefer to get the baby to fall asleep in the crib rather than on me. I feel it helps keep him from needing me to go back to sleep if he wakes up in the middle of the night.
11. Stroke his forehead or the bridge of his nose. He’ll usually close his eyes, and it relaxes him.
I tend to shoosh while patting his bottom. It just works for me and our children. We also use a paci although we try to go without. I block his vision and stroke his forehead and try to keep him from turning his head side to side. He gets bored and falls asleep.
I would love to read your comments on what works for you!
