Teaching your baby good sleep habits should be done as early as they know the difference between day and night. “By three months, sleep habits are fairly set,” says Dr. Mindell, so it’s crucial to start sleep training before this age. You don't want to impose anything strict on a newborn. They are confused enough, don't add to the confusion. Give them a few weeks to adjust.
The first part of sleep training which is a bedtime routine, can be done as soon as they get over the initial day/night confusion. For some babies this can be as fast as 2 weeks for others it can take up to 8 weeks. Sleep training while a baby is still confused about day and night can be a set up for failure. A baby is not going to want to lay down to sleep at 8pm when they have been sleeping all day and now they think it's time to play. Help them out. Remind your baby daytime is for playing by keeping blinds open, t.v on, carry on normal conversation and wake the baby up to eat regularly. The opposite goes at night. Quiet voices, dim lights, or lullaby. A sound soother like this one
works great to calm a newborn down at night.After your baby starts spending more time awake during the day and settling down at night, they are ready for a bedtime routine which is going to be at the same exact time every night. Make up a routine that works best for you and your baby. Perhaps a song, massage and story, or anything else your baby likes. Then put your baby to bed awake...yes awake. You want to start good habits straight from the beginning. Remember how you put your baby to sleep is how they will expect to fall asleep when they wake up in the middle of the night. So if you put your baby to sleep awake, and she falls asleep on her own, then she will do the same in the middle of the night. Meaning you won't have to get up to put her back to sleep. Now remember at this point you will still need to get up for feedings. It is too early to wean your baby off of night time feedings, but you are working towards a goal of them just waking for feedings and nothing else. And when they are ready to sleep through the night without any feedings, they will have the skill necessary to fall asleep on their own and stay asleep.
The next part of sleep training is getting your baby to sleep through the night without any feedings, if they are ready of course. Now the age for this varies, and the best person to ask is your Pediatrician. They know your baby best. In order to start weaning your baby off of night-time feedings, they have to be steadily gaining weight, growing in height and not have any medical conditions. Most pediatricians says anywhere from 4-6 months, a baby is ready to sleep through the night without any feeds. And at this point you can start testing your baby to see if they are truly hungry or just using you for comfort. See how to tell the difference here (under hunger). Now just because some babies are ready at this age doesn't mean they will sleep through the night. So don't give up on sleep training just because your baby is not sleeping all the way through. If you are doing everything right and your baby is still only waking up to eat, then that is completely normal. Remember it's not until 9 months that 70-80% of babies sleep through without any feeds.
Remember that sleep training is not easy and it will never be perfect. Here are some bumps your are going to hit along the road, during the first year.
0-2 months
- Day/night confusion.-Your baby's sleep-wake cycle doesn't start to develop until 6 weeks, and it's not completely regular until 3-6 months
- Your baby won't start producing enough melatonin, the hormone that helps us sleep, until about 3 months.Getting to sleep and staying sleep will take major work at this age.
- Your baby will also hit their first 3 growth spurts during this time (1 week, 3 weeks, and 6 weeks)
3-4 month
- First sleep regression. Baby is learning new skills, rolling, turning, kicking and wants to practice even at night when they should be sleeping.
- 3 month growth spurt.
5-7 months
- Sitting. Babies love to practice sitting especially when you lay them down to sleep.This will pass once they have mastered the skill.
- 6 month growth spurt
7-9 months
- Crawling.
- 2nd sleep regression. Babies loves practicing their emerging skills like crawling in their sleep. It's going to be hard to get him to sleep. Be patient once they figure out the skill they are practicing, they will go back to a normal sleep schedule.
- Babies also understand object permanence at this age. Meaning they know something exists even when its not in sight. So when they wake up at night they miss you and might be looking for you.
9-10 months
- Separation anxiety starts to peak. It's going to be hard for your baby to fall asleep and stay asleep some nights. Especially when you come back from a party or event, where there were unfamiliar faces, your baby will be nervous about separating from you.
- Standing. Your going to lay your baby down and up to a standing position they go. If they are standing up just to practice, this will go away once they mastered the skill.
11-12 months
- Language development. Babies are thinking of words they have learned, and may be practicing them in their heads, instead of sleeping.
- 12 month regression. Babies are learning to walk and this can carry over into sleep.
- At this age your baby also will most likely fight everything you ask them to do, especially if it's something they don't want to do, this includes napping and bedtime. Babies at this age like to test you, now that they are discovering that what they do has an effect on your reaction. You might of had a very easy baby up until this point, but now they are fighting being put down every time.
