How to Get Your Baby To SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT Easy Tips that WORK

In this video, I'm going to talk about how to get your baby to sleep through the night. Welcome back to Diana in the Pink. If you're new here, my name is Diana. I'm a physician assistant and I specialize in women's health and gynecology. On this channel, we talk about women's health and pregnancy, so if you're new here, make sure to hit the subscribe button. Also, make sure to hit that notification bell so that you'll be notified of our future videos. Now, before we get going, I would love to know where you are coming from. Are you a first-time parent? Is this your second or your fifth baby even? Or are you still expecting? Let me know. Put that in the comment section down below. So, sleeping is an essential part of not just babies, but everyone's well-being. And we are finding more and more that good sleep for kids and babies are extremely beneficial for their brain development. And while sleeping does come naturally for infants, knowing the difference between night and day is not natural. That is something that is learned. And we have to teach our babies when it's day and it's time to be awake, except for nap times, and when it is nighttime and they need to sleep. And this doesn't happen overnight, nor does it happen easily without some awareness, some patience, and a little know-how. But know this, for the first few weeks of your baby's life, none of what I'm going to talk about is really going to apply. We don't sleep train a newborn. We don't really space out feedings. The baby is going to be eating frequently. They're going to be cluster feeding. Their tummy is like this big. So, they really get full quite quickly. And they also get hungry quickly. So, you need to feed your baby about eight to 12 times in a 24-hour period or more at first. So, the first few weeks is a little bit of a whirlwind trying to figure out your baby. Expect to get little sleep. Expect for the baby to wake in the middle of the night. But this is your time to bond with your baby and your baby is bonding with you. It's amazing, but also can be really difficult. So, if you are in the newborn phase and you are exhausted, just hang in there. You've got this. You will get a full night's rest again, even though you feel like you haven't had one in forever. So, let's first talk about your baby's general pattern that you want to help them to establish. So, you want them to eat, play, and then sleep. So, from the moment a baby wakes up to the moment a baby falls back asleep again, we call this a wake window. And from 0 to 12 weeks, that wake window is about 45 minutes to an hour and a half. And during their wake window, we want them to eat and play. But the order of this is really important and maybe opposite of what you might automatically assume. When they wake up from a nap, that is when they're most energized and awake. And this is when you want to feed them. Because when they have just woken up, they are awake enough that they can eat until they are full, not until they just fall asleep again. So, this way, your baby is getting the most out of their feeding time. But if you are struggling to keep them awake to eat, even if they just woke up for a nap, which is not uncommon for a newborn, then you might need to help them to stay awake. So, if they have just woken up and you are trying to feed them and they are dozing off, you can help them to stay awake by maybe changing their diaper halfway through their bottle or when you switch sides. You can take them out of their clothes, which is a good idea anyway in the first few weeks. So, you can feed your baby skin to skin. You can make sure all the lights are on. You can kiss their cheeks, tickle their feet, whatever you need to do to help them to stay awake and to get the most out of their feeding. After they've eaten, that's when they're going to be more awake and happy because their tummies are full. They're going to be more alert and able to enjoy learning about their new surroundings and to bond with you. There are a few reasons why you don't want to wait to feed them when they're tired and ready for a nap. First, if they are sleepy already, when you feed them, they're going to start to feel good and a little full and then they might doze off before they've had time to completely fill their tummies. So, they aren't getting as much milk as they should, which can make them wake up sooner. Another reason is that they begin to associate eating with sleeping. They become reliant on that and it will become difficult for them to learn to sleep without it. You want to detach eating with sleeping in their minds. And finally, when they have just had a feeding and have fallen asleep, they may not sleep as long if they have a bubble in their tummy or they need to poop. Often they need some play time, some wiggle time to get those things to come out. They will just sleep more comfortably if they haven't just eaten. The next thing I want to cover for you is to learn to recognize their sleep cues. And I want to emphasize this because you might think that if a baby is tired, they're going to sleep. So, if the baby is more tired, they're going to sleep more easily. That isn't always the key. Many times, if the baby is overly tired, they're more fussy, they're harder to calm down, it's harder for them to go to sleep. So, recognizing what their sleep cues are and then preparing them to go down for their nap or to bed for the night is super important. And you'll have an easier time doing that as soon as you see those cues rather than putting it off. So, newborn sleep cues are maybe a little harder to recognize, but they'll just jerk their arms or legs a little bit. They'll close their fists. They'll suck on their fingers. They might pull on their ears. You'll notice yawning, maybe gazing off or droopy eyelids with long blinks. When they get a little older, they might be a little bit more clingy. They won't be interested in playtime or toys. They might make certain kinds of noises, which you can learn to recognize. So, when you notice these cues, it's time to put the baby down to sleep. To put them down to sleep, it's okay to rock them, to cuddle them. And then, when they're sleepy but not asleep, that's when you lay them down and they will learn to fall asleep by themselves. Another thing to think about is what the baby can hear. It's funny that we think that babies need absolute quiet when they are sleeping. Wake them and I kill you. They're not used to complete silence. They certainly did not get all of that in the womb. It's noisy in there. Besides hearing everything going outside the womb, like that you're talking, music, and other noises that you can hear, your body makes all kinds of noises and they can hear all of that inside your womb. Especially things like that constant rushing pulse of your blood flowing. And then, also there's all your tummy noises. And then, when they're born, you don't want to retrain them to need absolute silence to get good rest. Especially if they're not the only child in your house. And if you have other little ones around, you couldn't have a quiet house even if you wanted to. I certainly can. I've had nightmares over that puzzle. I've been in therapy. So, help them get used to noise while they're napping by letting it be noisy when they're napping. You can also consider getting a white noise machine. This will play some sort of background white noise like the sound of rain, waves on beach, or even a heartbeat. They are really helpful. They have been for my kids. Now, while trying to keep the noise down isn't absolutely necessary for your baby, regulating the lighting, particularly in differentiating the day and the night, can really be helpful. So, during the day, make sure to have the lights on. Open the curtains. Throw open the windows if it's a nice day. This helps your baby to get used to light being day. You can always close the curtains and turn off the lights during nap time. They will nap better if you do. But on the other end of the spectrum, when it's night time, if your baby still needs to wake up in the middle of the night to eat, which they will need to do for the first six to eight weeks of life at least, don't turn on the main light to feed them. If you have a dim night light, you can turn that on if you really need to so you can see what you're doing. But turning on a bright light will wake the baby up even more. So, keep the lights down low at night and then turn the lights on during the day. Now, when babies get startled, they have a natural reflex. It's called the moral reflex. It's where their arms kind of jerk out to their sides and then they arch their back a little bit and then they bring their arms back in. Sometimes they'll cry when that happens. Sometimes not. But if they hear a sudden sharp noise, especially if they aren't used to noise, it will trigger this reflex and the large movements might wake up your baby. Which leads me to my next tip, which is to swaddle your infant. When your baby is swaddled, it minimizes these movements from the moral reflex and they are less likely to fully wake up when that happens. And I mean, think about it. Your baby has been essentially swaddled in your room for nine months. They feel comfortable with their arms and legs tucked in warm and cozy. They might fuss and fight you a little bit when you are trying to swaddle them. I've heard a lot of parents say that their baby doesn't like to be swaddled. But keep in mind that just because they push and they wiggle when you are trying to swaddle them, doesn't mean that they don't like to be swaddled. They do and your baby will sleep better with a swaddle. So by six to eight weeks, babies are neurologically ready to sleep longer periods of time throughout the night. And they are also growing a lot and so they're eating a lot. But just know that through the night means four to five hours. And I just kind of put that in there to let you know that that's an average. Don't worry if your baby is not there yet. Also keep in mind that the first six months of a baby's life, they are going to double their weight. That is a lot of growth. So be patient with whatever their feeding needs are. The first three months of life, they can sleep anywhere from 14 to 17 hours in a 24-hour period. After four months, they'll need to sleep 12 to 14 hours. Doesn't that sound great? Now just doing the things that I mentioned is enough for many parents to help their babies to get into a good sleeping routine. I am going to talk briefly about something called sleep training. Whether or not you choose to formally do sleep training, it's entirely up to you. It's not a necessary thing to do and also it's not necessarily a let-them-cry-it-out method, which is definitely not for everybody. But you do have options. You have the Ferber method, the chair method, the pick-up-put-down-and-shush-pat method, the bedtime hour fading, and then there's the actual cry-it-out method, also called the extinction method. But the overall idea is to not pick up the baby when they are supposed to be sleeping. If you choose one of these methods, just make sure that it's a method you feel good about and can be consistent with and sustain long term. You can't just do it for one night or even one week. But if you do choose to do formal sleep training, I wouldn't recommend starting it before two to three months. So I have just a few more tips that I want to throw in. When your baby does wake up in the middle of the night, you want to make sure that there isn't a reason that they are awake and crying, especially if they usually aren't waking up. You want to make sure that they're not sick. Do they have a fever? Are they teething? Is something hurting them? You just want to make sure that there's not a reason that you need to address. But it's just that they are still learning to sleep through the night. You can use a pacifier. They're okay. And the American Academy of Pediatrics has found that having your baby use a pacifier can decrease just the incidence of SIDS in infants younger than six months. And let me just add that the American Academy of Pediatrics also recommends that your baby sleeps in your room, not your bed, but in your room for the first six to 12 months of life. Also be aware that every child is different. What worked for one child might not work for another. So be aware of the signs and signals that your baby is giving you. Especially early on, it's good to sleep when your baby sleeps. It impacts your mood and your milk supply even. And that point leads me to my final tip. And this one is super important. Remember to take care of your baby's caretaker. That's you. Sometimes as moms, we feel selfish when we take time for ourselves. We feel like that time should be entirely designated to your children. But listen, it's okay to take a nap. It's okay to go to the gym or get a massage or anything else that helps you wind down and relax. You know, like just me time. But whatever your me time is, it helps you, right? It's good for your mental health. It's good for your physical health. You're calmer and you're happier when you take care of what you need so that you can be a better caretaker for your little one. So you see it's not selfish at all. You want to be your best you for your kids. So don't feel guilty. Take the time out for yourself. I know you need it, especially right now with the new little one. It's hard. I know we want to do it all ourselves. You want to be superwoman for everybody. But I promise you, you are superwoman to your baby. They love you. You are enough for them. So thank you for watching this video. I hope that you enjoyed it. If you did, give it a thumbs up. Comment down below. Let me know if there's any video topics that you would like me to do. I recently did a video on tips and ways that you can recover after having a baby. I am going to link to that video right here. Click on that and I will see you over there.