Do you wish for your evenings - to look like this?
AND NOT THIS?
It doesn't have to be as hard as it is.
You CAN make changes to encourage your little one to sleep better & longer. Which in turn will make you more connected with your partner, and also feeling like a better Mom in the day.
Let's look at a couple of tips, that might shed some light on what your baby is capable of, or what you can do to get your little one, truly 'sleeping like a baby'.
1. Assess how your baby first falls to sleep at the beginning of the night.
You can not expect your baby to go back to sleep over night without your help if you help them first fall to sleep at the beginning of the night. So if you really want to work on your baby sleeping longer stretches, how they fall to sleep at bedtime is key to this goal. If your baby needs props to help to fall to sleep, they will have a SLEEP ASSOCIATION.
2. A plan!
Be consistent in your choice of response. Once you decide on a strategy or decide to work on your babies over night sleep, BE CONSISTENT. Babies don't have the same cognitive abilities that you do. You may be able to decide that on one night you can be consistent and then not the next because you are tired or you have to be up early. For a baby, they can't make this connection. YOUR behaviour or reactions have to be consistent, if you want your baby to be consistent back.
3. Realistic goals for your Babies age and weight.
D you know what your baby is capable of? Make sure you have realistic expectations your baby is not going to sleep from 7pm to 9am. Its not realistic. Most babies will sleep between 10-12 hrs over night with the majority sleeping 10.5-11, most babies once sleeping better, will start their day earlier than their parents may desire, but you can't have your cake and eat it. its a trade off. Better quality sleep overall for everyone.
4. Give it time.
Make sure you give yourself time to see the changes, it takes around 14 night of consistency for the over night wakings to link themselves together, making the transitions between the cycles more fluid, make sure you have time to commit.
5. Don't exchange one association for another.
If you are breaking a sucking association, such as removing a soother, don't replace it with rocking to sleep, you are then only trading one type of association for another, and if you do this, rocking is a weaker association so you will be doing it for longer; ie. 5 minutes sucking on a soother to sleep or rocking for 30 minutes!
Feel like you need more knowledge, tools & accountability?
Contact Dawn today!
OR listen to her talk for 2 minutes more .....
Or feel like you want to find out more about me and some of my clients?
👉 Topics will be easy to find and broken down by age
👉 Weekly live sessions covering common sleep hurdles
👉 Stay on top of changes by reading about the different ages and stages in advance
👉 Friendly - non judgmental environment
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