Babies who have regular sleep hours are more likely to have good sleeping habits as they get older. At first, of course, they sleep almost all the time, but between three and six months you should be settling into some sort of routine.
Of course, your baby might not agree, in which case, welcome to the club. We are the mommies of infants with sleeping problems. We stay up all night walking blearily in circles, learn how to sleep sitting upright with our arm sticking into the crib to pat their back and turn into a positive witch if we think anyone is going to wake the baby up by breathing too loudly.
Unfortunately, many sleep problems toddlers face stem from bad sleeping habits learned as a baby. You do have to exercise some self control and let your baby learn to self comfort. Our daughter was almost six months when she decided she hated bedtime. My husband watched with exasperation as I went in and out of the nursery, checking to be sure she was all right, picking her up and putting her back down…
“That’s enough!” he said, finally. “She’s fine, she’s been bathed, diapered fed and burped, her room is the perfect temperature, and she is FINE. Leave her alone and she will go to sleep!”
He grabbed me and made me sit on the couch, then cracked the door to the nursery and peeked in. “She’s FINE,” he said again, and sat down next to me. He had to hold me down, actually - she screamed off and on for an hour before crying herself to sleep, and I was crying too. He made me stay on the couch, and tiptoed to peek in the door periodically to assure me she was still OK.
It paid off, though - the next night, she cried for ten minutes, and the third night she yawned, turned her head to the wall and fell asleep without a whimper.
By the time my next baby came along, my little girl was a toddler (2 year old), so I was managing a toddler, breastfeeding my newborn and I was worn out! Fortunately, since I had no problems at all at bedtime from my toddler, infant care was easy.
Oh, no, he DIDN”T!!
LOL that is too good. I will have to try that with my new baby when she gets here - our son is two and we just finally got him to sleep in his own bed.
I know I will be too tired at night this time for walking up and down for hours, so I am making my husband read this article, and telling him to back me up!
Maybe our daughter will learn better habits!
Wow! I walked the halls nightly with my first, trying to get her to sleep - I am expecting again this fall and will have to try this.
I don’t know if I am strong enough to hold out for an hour though!