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It’s very hard to get a baby to sleep sometimes.
It’s so crazy but it’s true…
My son is just a few days short of 5 months old.
And his sleep cycle has gone back and forth pretty much the entire 5 months.
We’ve tried everything to get him to go to sleep…from relieving his gas to using white noise and sound machines.
Every time I figure out how to get baby to sleep, the technique stops working soon after.
But over the last 5 months, I’ve figured out how to get baby to sleep through the night and I’ll tell you what works so you can give it a try as well.
How to get baby to sleep through the night
When my baby was between newborn and about 2 months old, he didn’t sleep more than 4 hours at a time.
The goal was to figure out how to get baby to sleep longer at night so that we can be on somewhat of a normal sleep schedule.
Since baby sleep patterns vary from baby to baby, finding something that works for your baby can be difficult.
An example is that we have a friend with a son that has slept through the night since day 1. Lucky her!!
Our son however, didn’t start sleeping through the night until he was about 10 weeks old, so the differences in sleep patterns from one baby to another can be huge.
With that said, baby sleep routines can be changed.
The way our friend got her son to sleep through the night so quickly was that she was always taking him out in public and she also constantly had visitors over to meet her son, to hold him and play with him when he was a newborn while they were at home.
Because of his busy schedule during the day, he had no choice but to sleep at night.
Now, I don’t recommend keeping baby up for too long then having to figure out how to get baby to sleep when overtired.
Having an overtired baby can be extremely draining on both the parents and the baby.
In addition, keep in mind that if a baby is not getting enough sleep, it may affect the baby’s brain which may impact baby’s mood and personality among other things.
But knowing your baby’s limits may help you get baby to sleep more at night, so you can do the same.
Based on our friend’s experience, keeping baby up a little longer during the day can possibly help baby sleep better at night. Just don’t overdo it.
There are other things that have to be factored in, like where the baby sleeps.
Our friend had her son in bed next to her, in some kind of co-sleeper.
But what if you want baby to sleep in a crib?
How to get baby to sleep in crib
I’ve found that the best way to get baby to sleep in a crib is to make sure that all the conditions are right.
What does this mean?
This means that I make sure that my baby is comfortable.
To achieve this, I relieve him of any gas by giving him gas medicine.
Or I pat his back until he gets his burp out.
Sometimes, giving him gripe water helps him get his gas and burps out. It even helps with hiccups.
It’s natural and sometimes seems like a miracle product.
I can usually tell if my son is gassy or has burps by the way he moves while fussing. He tends to bow his back also.
Getting rid of his hiccups is also a big one. My son hates the hiccups and although they may seem harmless at first, eventually he becomes a fussy little man.
There are 3 ways to get rid of his hiccups:
- If he’s still hungry, I give him breast milk(not sure if formula works).
- If he’s NOT hungry, I give him a some gripe water. It usually works after a few minutes. Getting him to take it can be pretty difficult though.
- Wait for the hiccups to go away on their own. This can take 30 minutes to an hour though.
Also, just before bed, I try to keep him calm by not playing with him too much.
So no flying him around and making airplane noises.
Instead, I try to speak to him in a calm, soft voice.
Once all the conditions are met and he’s calm, I lay him in the crib with and turn on some sounds for baby to sleep.
The sounds can be anything from white noise to a lullaby.
I sometimes use a combination of white noise, lullabies and a sound machine/soother.
The one device that has been my go-to is the Baby Einstein Sound Machine/Soother, I talk more about it here.
I just flip it on and let it play and it does the rest.
Before I know it, baby is sleeping and I’m free to do what I need to do.
But what if baby is used to being nursed to sleep?
How to get baby to sleep without nursing
My girlfriend has to leave for work at 6:30am, this means that I usually have to stay up with our son until he falls asleep, so getting him to sleep while nursing isn’t always an option.
In this case, the technique I use is similar to the one in the section above about “how to get baby to sleep in crib”.
I’d want to make sure that all the conditions are met.
That baby isn’t hungry and he doesn’t have hiccups, gas or burps.
I’ve been told that, among other reasons, a baby gets food and comfort from nursing. So what I try to do is replicate this the best I can.
So I give my son a bottle with a Slow Flow nipple. Keep in mind that not all Slow Flow nipples are the same.
The reason I do this is because it allows him to fill his belly with milk while giving him the opportunity to suckle on the bottle during the feeding as well.
The Slow Flow allows him to control the milk intake more easily…drinking when he wants and suckling when he chooses to. Slow Flow nipples also help to reduce gas bubbles.
When my son was a newborn, we used “preemie” nipples to make the flow more manageable for him.
But at about 2 months, we started using ComoTomo bottles with Level 1 or Stage 1 nipples because of the Slow Flow stream they are capable of.
If all conditions are right and baby isn’t overly excited, riled up or has hiccups, burps or gas. He will usually fall asleep on the bottle.
Having some type of white noise or lullaby playing in the background while bottle feeding him helps also.
Where can you find these sounds? Check it out below.
Lullabies and sounds for baby to sleep to
Sound Machine/Soother
The best device that I’ve we’ve found to help baby sleep is the Baby Einstein Sound Machine/Soother.
It clips onto the rail of the crib and features a screen with 4 characters on a backlit underwater background.
It has 2 sets of sounds, one is a soothing set of songs and the other is a relaxing pattern of ocean waves.
Both can be played with or without the screen turned on.
There are 2 different starting volume settings.
After the unit has been on for a little while, the screen will turn off on its own and the volume gradually lowers until it’s completely off.
This allows baby to slowly fall asleep.
My son sometimes starts out a bit fussy to fully asleep before the Sound Machine shuts off.
I can see him gradually mellowing until his eye lids get too heavy for him to keep open.
It works wonders and has been a life-saver during those long nights.
Free white noise and sounds to help baby sleep
Something else that I do is play a constant sound. White noise. And it can be free.
One day my son was on his tummy time mat fussing, I was washing his bottles. Gradually, his fussing began to stop.
When I got done with the bottles, I noticed that he was asleep.
Later that day, he was half asleep and slightly crying. I went to grab him a bottle and began filling a cup with warm water to heat up his bottle in.
As soon as the cup was full, he fell back asleep.
I noticed that the sound of the faucet soothes him so I used my phone to record it, transferred it to the Kindle Fire and using a free program called VLC Player, I put it on repeat when trying to get him to sleep and all through the night also.
The sound of the faucet running works for my son but it may not work for some babies. Finding a sound that works for your baby is the idea here.
Lullabies for baby to sleep to
Another option is, if you have an Amazon Echo and a Prime membership, just tell Alexa to “play baby lullabies”.
Alexa will put it on a station that will play a set of lullabies that go on for hours. It does have commercials though.
The music on this station tends to be louder than Alexa’s voice so turning down the volume is recommended.
The Echo also has different sounds and noises that may aid in babies sleep.
Another one that I use is “thunder storms”. I just say “Alexa, play thunder storms”.
The rumbling of “thunder storms” may wake the baby, so keeping it on a lower volume would be a good idea.
Sound machines/soothers, white noise and lullabies can also help with adjusting baby’s sleep cycle.
How to change baby sleep cycles to cope with baby sleep regression
My son’s sleep pattern have changed so many times over the last 5 months.
He went from sleeping a few hours at a time as a newborn to sleeping 11pm to 7am starting at about 10 weeks.
Before he was on that sleep cycle, he would be up until 7am after waking at 8 in the evening.
He would sleep mostly during the day.
Once our son started sleeping through the night, it wasn’t long before we started experiencing baby sleep regression.
We were told that at about 4 months, the baby sleep cycle can possibly change back to a graveyard shift-esc sleep cycle in a phenomenon called “baby sleep regression”.
When my son was about 14 weeks old, his sleep schedule got turned upside down. He went from sleeping 11pm to 7pm to sleeping 7am to 3pm.
It was a rough couple of weeks but we were able to change his sleep cycle back to a normal 10pm to 7am.
How did we change his sleep cycle back? It was tiring but pretty easy.
They say to never wake a sleeping baby but…
My girlfriend’s mom recommended that we wake him up about half an hour to an hour earlier each day and keep him up for longer during the day until his sleep cycle gets to where we want it to be.
We still allowed him to take naps but kept them shorter.
During those couple weeks, I was sleepy all the time and my son was pretty grouchy but we made it through that phase and everybody is sleeping better now.
Depending on where my son’s sleep cycle is, pushing his cycle forward may be easier than pulling it back.
Meaning, letting him sleep later and later until he reaches the cycle we want him to be on may be easier if we want his bedtime to be at 9pm and his current bedtime is at noon.
Pushing his bedtime up 9 hours gradually is easier than pulling it back 15 hours.
It usually depends on where his bedtime is at and where we want it to be.
Currently, we are satisfied with his bedtime!!
Get baby to sleep using scientifically proven solutions, guaranteed to work
If you absolutely can’t get your baby to sleep, there is a program written by a child psychologist and sleep training expert and is based on research by Harvard Medical School and the Stanford Center For Sleep Science and Medicine that is guaranteed to work.
The program includes amazing scientifically proven solutions to help get babies to sleep.
These techniques have been used effectively by over 17,500 satisfied parents worldwide, and growing.
The program is called Baby Sleep Miracle and you can learn more about it on their website here.
Go ahead and read about it to see if it’ll help to improve your situation. The cool thing is that the program is designed for babies and young children so you’ll be able to use it for many different stages in your babies life.
The program also comes with a 60-Day, 100% Money Back Guarantee so if it doesn’t work for you, just contact them before the 60 days is up for a full refund.
If the techniques I mention above work for you, then don’t bother with Baby Sleep Miracle, but if you’re still struggling to get your baby to sleep, then it’s worth a try, plus, you have nothing to lose besides restful sleep for you and baby.
Conclusion
There are many different ways to get a baby to sleep.
I hate to say it but babies are all different and what may work for one may not work for another. Which is why I give different options and methods.
But I believe that once you find what works for your baby, applying some of the methods will drive it home.
Here is a free booklet that covers why irritability happens in children and babies, how they become more calm and guidelines for happy children and babies. Some of the information may help you to gain a deeper understanding of why baby isn’t sleeping.
Always keep in mind that patience is key. Being patient will allow you to find solutions where there seemingly isn’t one.
For instance, when my son was fussing while I was washing bottles, I thought I was going to have to pick him up and comfort him.
Instead, he fell asleep listening to the sound of the faucet. After it happened again, I saw the trend and now I have a solution to get him to sleep.
What’s great about lullabies, white noise and sounds, like the vacuum or air conditioner is that besides helping baby get to sleep, they also keep baby stay asleep by drowning out other sounds that may wake baby.
And as a last resort, you can get Baby Sleep Miracle to help baby sleep. As mentioned above, it is guaranteed to work or your money back with their 60-day 100% money back guarantee.
Like I mentioned before, patience is key.
With patience, you find the solution to get your baby to sleep.
Good luck.
I hope the information in this post is able to help with getting your baby to sleep.
If you find it helpful, please leave a comment below.
Thanks for reading.
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