What should I be doing to get baby to sleep?

Question

I'm a ftm and clueless. My baby sleeps everyday in a cosleeper or in my arms from around 7am-12pm and more naps during tbe day but is up most of the night. At night she will sleep in her bassinet maybe 10-60 mins and then wake up. So I haven't slept during the night since she was born. I want to know what routine to get into so she sleeps 5 hours at night instead of during the day

Answer

We have our daughter sleeping 10:30pm-5am and then 6am-9am. During the day keep the house super bright and loud (as in normal level for you and whoever else is there). Don’t tip toe and whisper for them. Like others said, establish a routine at night. We do bath, bottle, story and then bed. We typically don’t rock her to sleep unless it’s necessary just so she’ll continue to learn to self soothe and put herself to sleep. At the night feed I keep the room dark and quiet. It’s just me up with her so I don’t really talk to her much. I just change her diaper, feed her, burp her and swaddle her back up. I lay her down awake again so she’ll get better at putting herself to sleep. So far she’s been able to put herself to sleep at every middle of the night feed without a problem. Don’t get me wrong, I still rock that girl and cuddle her in the day. Good luck! If you have any questions, don’t be afraid to ask!

Answer

I’m a FTM too. What u have learned so far:
1. Have a bedtime routine. Whatever you want to do is fine but make it routine. With my daughter we do: bath (most nights only warm water), lotion and pjs with some soft music on, story, bottle, cuddles in the rocking chair. It’s 30-45 minutes but it has been a huge game changer. She is asleep when I put her in her crib and doesn’t wake up anymore when I put her down. 
2. Take it slow when implementing a routine. Let me tell you the first few nights were ROUGH! 
3. For middle of the night wake ups keep the room dark and quiet. My daughter sleeps through the night 40% of the time. When she does wake up we don’t turn on any lights (her hatch stays on at 50% the entire night so there’s some light) and we have a routine. We grab a bottle, get her out of the crib, change her, feed her, rock her, and return her to her crib. She is usually back to sleep within 40 min. Of course last night she was up for almost 2 hours. 🤦🏻‍♀️
My best advice is routine is wonderful but you also need to be flexible. Hang in there and know you are a great mommy!

Answer

Try getting the baby to wake up in morning and play with him/her everytime they're awake during the day instead of letting them sleep all day. Then theyll learn day is for being up and night is for sleep. At bed time I keep the room dark and feed my son a bottle and keep it quiet then he goes in his basinet and sleeps for the night and wakes up between 4 and 5 am

Answer

I’m still struggling with naps but nights are getting a little better. I bought the newborn class from taking Cara Babies (check her on Instagram) and that course gave me the insights of how my day with baby should “look like”. Definitely check her out!

Answer

I’ve used the book On Becoming Babywise with all three of my kids. They’ve each slept through the night by 6 or 7 weeks. It’s been such a blessing to me because I had no idea what I was doing as a ftm either! I highly recommend the book, but encourage you to read all of it before implementing the principles

Answer

Also first time mom and breastfeeding/supplementing. Our baby doesn’t sleep through the night yet but has finally started sleeping 4.5-6hr stretches. We just tried to develop a routine with her. Between 8:30 to 9:30, she gets her bath and then her formula bottle (now 4oz). She will sleep from 10 to 4/4:30, wake up, quick diaper change, eat, and then will sleep another 3 to 4 hrs. We do try to keep her more awake in the day, which most of the time she does on her own, we keep her busy and try not to get super long naps before she starts her night routine. One thing that helped us TONS was swaddling her. The magic swaddle for us was the Sleepea swaddle by Happiest Baby. 3rd night she used it, she went from sleeping a 3 hr stretch to 6 hrs and it has worked great for us!

What should I be doing to get baby to sleep?

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