HAVING A BABY ADVICE, HOW TO GET BABIES TO SLEEP

Having a baby advice, how to get babies to sleep, tips and advice from experienced mums on how to stop your baby crying at night

How To Get Babies To Sleep Through By 10 Weeks

These are ideas that my husband and I used to try and help our little ones sleep through. In case you're wondering they were both doing 6-7 hours a night by 6 weeks and one slept through by 10 weeks, the other by 8 weeks. The following won't work for everyone, or might not be what they want to do as bringing up a baby is a very personal thing, but I thought it might be useful as food for thought at least…..

1. Swaddling with Miracle Blankets

When I was pregnant with my first I was kindly given a bundle of presents by my workplace. In amongst these was a strange looking item called a Miracle Blanket. The picture on the front had the baby swaddled within an inch of its life in a Miracle Blanket and looking rather Egyptian mummy like. However all 4 of the other ladies in the department who had recently had babies swore blind that these Miracle Blankets were the bee's knees.

Once our beautiful daughter was born we found that she loved being swaddled in her Miracle Blanket up until about 12 weeks old, when she could start to wriggle out. It works on the theory that the Miracle Blanket reminds them of being snug and secure in the womb and they instantly relax more. Plus it prevents the baby from being woken up when they still have no control over their arms and legs and their limbs are being flung all over the place.

This has also happened with our second, a gorgeous boy, who can be tiredly crying but once in the Miracle Blanket and the carry cot will go off to sleep within 5 minutes or so.

The Miracle Blanket seems so much better than others on the market as it has a large length of material to wrap around that really keeps those wriggly limbs in check, as well as flaps for the legs and arms to keep them more securely in place.

As well as meaning that they do not wake during the night, the Miracle Blanket also means that they had good length naps during the day, which for the first few weeks is important as bizarrely the more sleep during the day, the more sleep at night. Obviously this pattern changes as they near 12 weeks generally from what friends and I have experienced but anything that helps in the first few hormonally challenged weeks is a bonus in my book.

Some people worry about weaning their little one off their Miracle Blanket. I transferred mine to Grobag sleeping bags once I knew they had more control over their arms. I was lucky and they took to the Grobags straight away however friends have had a few night where the baby has woken a couple of times, cried for a few minutes then gone back to sleep. I believe another option is to still swaddle but more lightly with a normal sheet/blanket, dependent on the weather, as do that for a couple of weeks before using a Grobag.

2. Own cot from start in own room

I must stress that this only worked for us as we used a Tommee Tippee monitor with breathing pad. I know putting them on their own room straight away is not for everyone but I wanted to mention it as it is ok to do, both my babies took to it straight away and it just gives you another option or food for thought.

Part of the reason was that I breastfed both and found that I could walk into a room and wake them just by being there, as they could smell the milk, regardless of whether they were hungry or not! Therefore to us it seemed sensible to place them slightly further away so that we did not disturb their sleep. Whilst they obviously need the milk, and believe me they had plenty at other times and both grew really well, they also need their sleep time to feel settled and to process information. We had already decided upon a Tommee Tippee monitor with breathing pad due to my occasional hearing problems and my husband's propensity to go into a very deep sleep. We felt more secure knowing that if there were any problems the Tommee Tippee would sound a loud alarm which would be an additional warning sign for us. Some people complain that the alarm goes off all the time when there's no problem. This can be down to placement of the Tommee Tippee breathing pad and on how wriggly your baby is! With careful placement of the Tommee Tippee (you learn fast!) there are limited false alarms and it then gave us the option to use their cots from the start.

3. Wait a few minutes

With both babies we have worked on the principle that it's ok to wait a few minutes when they start crying, unless they sounded in pain or distressed. This is because at first the only way a baby can communicate is by crying.

With most babies it can seem at first like all the cries seem to sound the same and could mean any number of things including, I'm hungry, I'm excited, I'm looking at something new, I'm not sure where I am, I'm having fun wriggling. As it does not always mean I'm hungry we learnt that if we waited 5 or 10 minutes our baby would quite often go back to sleep as they weren't actually hungry, just telling us something else - as long as it wasn't something that was distressing them but we found that there was a difference in the cry in that case so we knew to act then.

And when putting them to bed in the evening we would let them have a tootle for about 10-15 minutes as often it was just that they were comfy having been cuddled whilst fed and just had to take a few minutes to adapt to the change and get cosy in bed. Just like when we go to bed and it's cold at first and it takes a few minutes to warm up and find a nice spot!

This seems to have worked really well not just for us but for many other couples we know who have done the same, or similar. It's not always easy but if you stick with it then you reap the benefits far more quickly. Team work if you have a partner with you can be a tremendous support with this.

How to help your baby to sleep