5 Tips to Help Baby Sleep Through the Night

These tips helped me to get my baby to sleep through the night by the time he was 3 months old. Want to know part of my secret? Babywise. The book Babywise kind of reminds me of tomatoes... people either love them or hate them. And over here in the Munday household we LOVE Babywise! The book runs through different situations and how to react to them... but really when people talk about babywise, they are talking about the schedule that I will go over below. For sleep deprived parents, babywise is an answer to prayers! I'm not even kidding.

Here are my 5 tips to getting your little one to sleep soundly:

1. Black out curtains: I swear by blackout curtains, you close them during the time you want your baby to sleep and it helps your baby to associate sleep time with darkness. Now that Jake is 14 months old, if we forget to close the black out curtains he is up with the sun at 6 AM! With the blackout curtains he usually sleeps until 8:30-9:00... and don't think I don't savor every extra minute of sleep I can get!

2. White noise: fans, humidifiers, white noise machines and white noise apps, they all do the trick! Right now we have an old ipod touch with the app "White Noise" that we hook up to some speakers every night. I believe the app is free (it's the blue one when you search "white noise") which makes it even more awesome. We turn it to the hairdryer noise and turn it up to a comfortable level (loud enough to block out background noise by quiet enough that baby can relax). When Jake hears the white noise he knows it's naptime/bedtime and it helps him understand what's coming next. (Note... do not use real hairdryers in kids rooms for white noise, it's dangerous and could start a fire.)

3. Schedule: It helps to read the babywise book to understand the scheduling needs with different ages but I will give you a brief overview of what to start with. Once Jake was two weeks old we began trying to feed him, change him, play with him, and put him down for a nap on a specific schedule. Yes, babies are so tired in the beginning that you have to be laid back and go with the flow a little bit. You want to aim to feed your baby every 2 to 3 hours and strive to make each feeding 30 minutes (that's the key!). Adjust your babies naptime according to their own needs... when Jake was very young though we were having each nap be about 90 minutes. Here is an example:

Early Morning Feeding
7 AM:
1. Feeding and diaper change
2. Waketime: rock yoru baby abnd sing, place your baby on his or her back in the crip to watch a mobile.
3. Put baby down for a nap.

Mid Morning Feeding
10 AM
1. Feeding and diaper change.
2. Waketime: Take a walk with baby, visit neighbors, run errands, etc...
3. Put baby down for a nap.

Afternoon Feeding
1 PM
1. Feeding and diaper change.
2. Waketime: Play with baby or let infant look out window in a baby seat.
3. Put baby down for a nap..

Mid Afternoon Feeding
4 PM
1. Feeding and diaper change.
2. Waketime: Play with baby or talk to baby and let him/her watch you as you do chores, crafts, read, etc...
3. Put baby down for a nap.

Early Evening Feeding
7 PM
1. Feeding and diaper change.
2. Waketime:Family time, bathe baby, read bedtime story
3. Put baby down to sleep.

Late Evening Feeding
10 PM
1. Feeding and diaper change.
2. No wake time, back to bed.

Middle of the Night Feeding
1 AM
1. Feeding and diaper change.
2. No wake time, back to bed.


4. Bedtime Routine Every night we follow the same routine with Jake... Feed Jake dinner, give him a bath, put on his pajamas, read a book with him, and then give him a bottle and rock with him on the rocker. Most of the time when I put Jake in his crib he hasn't fallen asleep, but because he's so used to his bedtime routine he knows that it's bedtime so he's ready for it and it doesn't make him upset. He just cuddles into the mattress and gets ready to snooze. If you're following the schedule you already know this, but make sure you put your baby down at the same time every day. Try to keep bedtime within 15 to 30 minutes of when it is scheduled.


5. A Well Rested Baby Sleeps Well My pediatrician always has said that a well rested baby sleeps well. Have you noticed that if you keep your baby up all day and put him down for bedtime late he does opposite of what you think? You think your baby would be exhausted and sleep for a long time, not the case! I've found that when Jake misses his nap and goes down for bedtime late he has the worst night of sleep ever and he wakes up early the next day. Don't be tempted to deprive your baby of sleep, it will backfire!




These tips have helped so much when it comes to my baby (as well as me and my husband) getting some shut eye. Give them a try and let me know if they work for you as well!

xoxo Britney