Ways To Help You Sleep Through The Night

It is natural for a baby to sleep very lightly in the first few months of life. However, there are things you can do to help your baby sleep better . Find out what these are.

Sleeping the whole night through is just a saying, because it really isn’t. The fact that a child wakes up several times a night is an absolutely natural phenomenon. Many parents would like their baby to sleep all night, but it turns out that not even an adult sleeps this way.

A normal adult’s sleep cycle consists of several awakenings in one night and then goes back to sleep. Your baby can sleep 17 hours a day, including waking hours. So there is not much we can teach them about good sleep, on the contrary, they know how to do it!

What should we know about a child’s dream?

Sleep is a natural process in every human being. In a newborn’s brain, sleep cycles last 2 to 3 hours. However, when she wakes up, she finds no way to fall asleep again and therefore begins to cry.

During the 9 months in the womb, the baby was alternately sleeping and feeding from the umbilical cord most of the time. When you woke up, you could hear your mother’s heartbeat and voice.  Then it went back to sleep. When it is born, it can be said that it is literally waking up.

The newborn baby wakes up, cries and goes back to sleep after eating. This is what the days of most newborns look like. If your baby is breastfed, it will take about 20 minutes to digest the milk. If he eats artificial milk, it will take several hours for him to digest. She later wakes up and looks for her mother again to start the cycle again.

Before, my baby was asleep, and now …

During the first two months of life, sleep appears to be calm, but in the third or fourth month it becomes much shallower. This is when the baby starts to wake up more often. Many mothers are criticized for not having learned proper sleep habits when this pattern is really normal for any child who is just getting used to the cycles. 

What to do to keep the baby sleeping all night?

It is normal for parents to wonder if they are doing well and if there is nothing wrong with their baby because he does not fall asleep and cries all the time. However, an atmosphere full of fear, anxiety and tension is very bad for a child.

There are methods, such as Estivill and Ferber, that recommend leaving your baby crying until she calms down. Indeed, after crying and waiting a long time, at some point the baby will fall asleep due to the fatigue of waiting for someone to take care of him. Assess if this is an option for you and your child.

For Dr. Rosa Jove, author of the famous book, ” A Dream Without Tears, ” leaving a crying child alone causes an emotional shock. The hormones that regulate emotions reach a high level and the baby learns that there is no point in complaining because his mother will not answer the call anyway.

Pediatrician Carlos González, known for books such as ” Kiss me hard. How to raise children with love , “explains that when the baby wakes up and cries, hopes that the mother hears his call. If the mother arrives, the baby learns to receive an answer to her call.

However, parents are often asked to limit contact with their children and not often comfort them as this “spoils” the children. When it is perfectly normal for your baby to wake up at night and want to be comforted to go back to sleep. 

How to help your child?

After many nights with many wake-up calls, you are tired and want something to help you and your baby sleep through the night. We know that it is not easy to stay calm. But if you want to raise a child respectfully, you know you can’t leave him crying.

The basic advice is: be patient until your child matures and regulates his cycles. Even if someone tells you that a certain way worked for another child, it won’t necessarily work with yours. With a shared daily routine, you’ll discover what works for you.

However, there are some behaviors that can help your baby find peace before bedtime :

• Bathe them in warm water before going to bed.
• Avoid toys or glowing phones in or near the crib as they will attract the baby’s attention.
• If he is over 2 years old and is already watching TV or playing on a tablet, he should not use it for more than an hour a day.
• When a baby is very tired, it becomes more difficult for him to fall asleep. Therefore, a nap is a good option.
• If your child is afraid of the dark or just doesn’t like it, leave a dim light.
• Don’t link going to bed with something negative, such as sending your baby to bed as punishment. Linking sleep to punishment is a very bad idea.
• Create a sleeping ritual. It can be singing the same lullaby, reading a fairy tale, or having a short conversation.

Summary

The parenting style and methods that each mother chooses for her child are her decision. However, we insist that it is important to respect the cycles and peculiarities of each child. It should also be understood that a method that works for one child may not necessarily work for the other.

Your child will not be a child forever. The sleepless nights she gives her parents are part of the growing up process. Be patient, he will cease to be a baby very quickly and what seems to be a problem today will be forgotten tomorrow. There will be more time to sleep.