Many parents know that when there is a newborn in the house, you most likely won’t be getting much sleep. Some babies are colicky and others are quite content, but when sleep comes around whether your baby cries a lot or is more tempered, sleeping is still an issue. So how do you get your little one to bed?

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When Xander was first taken home, the first night Jak and I didn’t get one hour of sleep because Xander was crying all night. You can imagine how out of it we were the next day. It had been our first night home from the hospital, and we realized that Xander wasn’t just going to go to bed on his own. A friend of mine asked me about his bedtime routine. The second she asked I suddenly felt so stupid, how did I not think of a bedtime routine, it’s so simple. Meanwhile, when I was getting advice from a friend, Jak was reading The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Newborns: Amazing Sleep from Day One – For Baby and You. This book saved us in the beginning! Another friend of ours swore by The Baby Sleep Solution: A Proven Program to Teach Your Baby to Sleep Twelve Hours a Night. We sadly weren’t able to find it when we really needed it, so we got the first book. I know that both books are wonderful solutions to helping get your little one to bed.

Obviously, a bedtime routine is important. Babies need routines, and reading those books helps you learn the sleep cycles babies go through at different ages and how their sleeping can change as they are getting older. For Xander, Jak used to be getting up three to four times a night. Now Xander only wakes two times a night and I can tell you the book helped! Jak, being the amazing husband he is, has taken the night shifts since I take the day shift (which has its own post!) One thing Xander loves and gets him to fall asleep quickly, is swaddling. I can’t say that enough, seriously, swaddling is amazing! You can get them anywhere, but Swaddle Blanket, Adjustable Infant Baby Wrap Set by Ziggy Baby, 3 Pack Soft Cotton in Grey is great! Whenever Xander gets cranky, he usually wants to be swaddled.

Tips to get them to bed:

• Bedtime routines
• Change and feed them
  • Feeding your baby right before bed helps them get to sleep easier
• Limit naps
  • Try not to let your baby sleep all day. Interact with them, and once bedtime hits they should be tired enough to be able to fall asleep. Just don’t keep your baby up for an extended period of time because they will become overtired and fussy, and trust me, you don’t want that.
• Swaddle
  • Swaddling makes them feel more secure like they felt when they were in the womb, so it helps them feel safe, which allows them to relax and fall asleep.
• White Noise
  • I cannot stress this one enough! White noise really helps calm a baby down. Every night at the end of the bedtime routine we put on white noise and Xander starts drifting off, if he isn’t already falling asleep.

So these are all the things we have done for Xander to be sleeping so well. Xander, at seven weeks old, sleeps anywhere from three to six hours a night, and trust me, the nights he sleeps six hours is amazing!

Edit: Update, Xander is eight months now, and since he was about three and a half months has slept 6-8 hours a night.