A Word About Baby Sleep Patterns

Is your child having sleep difficulties? Are you up several times a night feeding your baby back to sleep?
Most of the parents start baby sleep training gently when the baby is two months old. Unfortunately there is no magic key that will solve all your baby sleep problems. Before the tips, here are a few words about baby sleep patterns. Babies, especially really young ones have much more light sleep than adults and older children. Think about it, while in your stomach, the baby's "bed" was in constant movement, rocking him gently back to sleep.

There are things you can do to help your baby feel safe and comfortable sleeping in a crib. Just remember that you can't change a baby's routines in just a day. Give it a week at least, with implementing the tips below.
Make the crib seem smaller. Put rolled blankets in circle, to make his sleeping place as small as possible. Newborn babies want to have something soft close to their heads. Just make sure you don't put anything in the bed that can fall over his face.

Make the crib smell like mother. Roll one of your used tops and put it close to his head as part of the small bed you're making for him. If the bed smells mom, he is likely to feel safer.

Make sure the crib is not too cold. Either put lukewarm water bottle (or something similar) in the bed for a while or even better, use a sleep bag (like Grobag) for your baby. With a sleep bag, your baby will enjoy more or less the same temperature all the time, helping him to stay comfortable. If you use a water bottle or bean bag, make sure the bed doesn't become too warm and take it out before putting your baby in the crib.
 
Sleep bags are excellent in many ways especially during the first months. As you may have noticed, especially breastfed babies often poop more or less every time they eat in the beginning. This means you will have to change diapers at night from time to time. With a sleep bag that opens easily for diaper change, you might be able to change diapers without making your baby wide awake since he doesn't get cold.
 
If your baby is between newborn and a few months old, you can also consider swaddling him. In the beginning you can swaddle the whole body, but at six weeks old or so, your baby's arms (or at least one of them) should be free. At this time, the baby might start using his hands but for self-soothing or to communicate hunger by sucking his hand. And maybe before that, he'll sleep better at day time too!

If you want more sleep tips, the Baby Sleep Solution might be useful. You'll get tips on over 20 different techniques to help your baby sleep better.
For more help on getting your baby to sleep in the crib, don't hesitate to use the  Baby Help Line.