Teach your baby good sleep patterns

It’s amazing how easily many babies develop sleep patterns that don’t work for the rest of the family! So if you've been blessed with a night owl, one who comes alive at night but likes to doze all day, then try these simple sleep tips to get your baby into a good sleep routine:

• Stick to a routine. As much as it hurts to say this, if you want her to sleep well at night, you're going to have to wake your baby in the morning at a reasonable hour. Feed her, play with her - even if she keeps falling back to sleep. Keep her in the family environment and only put her into her cot when you know she is due to sleep. If she sleeps past a reasonable period, wake her up again and continue the routine.
• Once night falls, begin your night-time routine and settle her into bed. Make sure that the entertainments around her bed (toys/ books/ lighting) are kept to a minimum. When she wakes during the night, go into her room, check that she is OK and leave.
• If she cries, use a settling strategy.
• If she's happily entertaining herself - singing, playing - and it's 2am, leave her to it. There's no point in trying to settle her if she's wide awake and happily engaged. Eventually she will wear herself out and the less input from you, the better. She may just drop back to sleep on her own or she may start to cry (which is usually a sign of tiredness) in which case, you will need to settle her back under her covers and begin a settling technique.
• If she calls out for you (because a party's a lot more fun with a few guests), go to her, calmly and quietly lie her down, tuck her in, tell her to go to sleep, give her a kiss and leave.

REMEMBER!

While you may find it difficult to settle back to sleep yourself, knowing that she's awake and playing in another room, no harm can come to her whilst she's contained in her cot.
 

Related baby sleep articles

• Baby sleep and wake patterns
• Normal sleep and waking variations
• Getting your baby to sleep

This article was written by Ella Walsh for Birth, Australia's best parenting resource for newborns and baby.