How I Get My Babies to Sleep Through The Night

I will counter that rather confident title with this large disclaimer. I am NOT an expert of any sort, and I don't have a large enough test group to guarantee my methods at all (but close :)). Any day now I could be forced to eat my words if Sadie's current habits change, but for now I can say that out of 5 children, the last 3 have learned to sleep through the night quite early in their lives.
I'm not sure why...if it's my "routine" or their personality. Either way, I'm not lacking sleep right now and I'm a-okay with that!



I figured that if for some reason something I do works to help babies sleep through the night, and if that something could help another new mom, then it would be worth writing down.

I do know that every baby is different though and what works for one may not work for another. With my second daughter we dealt with colic, and this routine probably wouldn't have worked as well as it has for the last three girls.


So...here is my humble experience.


I feed on demand. Just like babies aren't born with a sleeping schedule, they also aren't born with a feeding schedule. Their main goal in life is to drink milk, and lots of it. However, they have tiny tummies and high metabolisms, so to get all that growing done, they need to eat often. My youngest three babies have been exclusively breastfed, and I have fed them all on demand. Sometimes there was a 3-4 hour stretch between feeds in those early days, and sometimes they nursed almost constantly for a few hours before falling into a deeper sleep. Someone once told me  that our bodies work with our babies bodies to regulate both the milk and a feeding schedule to suit their needs and by feeding them this way, I have always kept a good supply and have established a routine in the first couple of months.
I don't remember where, but somewhere along the lines of me learning about breastfeeding, I also learned that your milk is more watery in the mornings to hydrate the baby better, and it's fattier in the evenings to help keep their bellies full at night...cool!
In my experience, my babies start life by eating quite constantly for the first week or two, and it doesn't take long for us to "find our groove" and a natural routine to form.

Though I formula fed my first daughter, I don't remember much about it, but I would assume it's a similar concept!

Some days babies just need more milk or need it more often....and as they are gearing up to sleep for longer stretches of time, cluster feeding...whether by breast or bottle...is a great way for them to get enough to last longer between feeds at night.

My three girls who slept through the night at an early age were also swaddled. When Tegan was a baby, she had a traumatic experience and as she was recovering a wonderful lady from the child development centre came to my house to keep an eye on her. She taught me the benefits of swaddling and how to do it properly, and I've swaddled my babies ever since. I've done it right from birth, every time I'm going to rock them to sleep. Over the first few weeks, it becomes a routine that when they start yawning and seeming sleepy, I will swaddle them up tight and either nurse them or give them the soother until they are asleep. It seems to work well as a signal that it's time to sleep and it helps them settle. I always swaddle with their hands near their face...and when they are old enough to break their arms out of it easily, like Sadie does now, I wrap a second swaddle over the first one to secure it. I find that they wake themselves up much less due to the Moro reflex because of this.

I also snuggle them lots :)

So, those are the things I do all the time, day or night. When my babies are newborn I just go with their nighttime schedule, but at night I keep it as dark as I can and don't interact much with them. I try to just feed them and put them back down. I only change their diaper at night if it's necessary.  As they get to about 4-6 weeks old, I start to implement a couple things to establish an actual bedtime.

When they start to get fussy and tired in the evening, I swaddle them up and nurse them until they are asleep or almost asleep. I bathe my babies about 4-5 times a week in a nice warm bath too....on fussy days, this really helps :)

I gradually start to put them in the crib when they are not quite asleep. Then the cycle starts of them fussing, me putting the soother in or rubbing their back, then leaving the room. I usually have to do this quite a few times for a few nights, but they have always started to fall asleep faster and it never takes too long. When they wake in the night, I go into their room, nurse them, and lay them back down as soon as they are done...I don't unwsaddle or talk to them, and it seems to work well for signalling to  them that it's still night time.

Wow, that was longer than I intended! I get too detail oriented when I write sometimes, lol.
But always, those are my little "tips" and routine for how I've gotten my last three babies to sleep at night. I sure hope Sadie keeps it up and doesn't make a liar out of me! LOL

At 8 weeks, she is currently going to bed consistently around 9-9:30. She usually wakes at 3:30 to feed, and twice now, she has skipped that feed and slept 10 full hours.
During the day she usually has 2 long naps, with a bunch of catnaps in between. I like to snuggle her during the cat naps because there is so little time to snuggle them when they are this little!!