Since many babies do wake up because they need to eat in the night, it may be possible to shift some of their calorie intake to the daytime which can improve night sleep. Keep in mind that if your baby is used to eating in the night, it doesn’t matter if she has an actual hunger of if it is just a habit, it will still feel like hunger. It is possible to very gently shift feeds, which may in turn give a longer stretch of sleep.  Dreamfeeds can improve sleep when used alone or combined with another sleep coaching method. Using Dreamfeeds is a great way to separate the behavioral issues from feeding. With this method, baby is fed before he wakes and cries. You can plan to go in and pick you baby up and feed him before his usual wake time and feed times. This helps reduce crying and calling out behaviors in the night and allows for easier and gentler weaning strategies when reducing feeds is appropriate. It is most important that the baby is not crying before the feed, ideally he...

Start you sleep coaching at bedtime.  When making changes to sleep it is vital to start at bedtime, from there you can continue to coach through the night or you can just focus on bedtime for a few weeks to see if the rest of the night improves on it’s own. An alternative is to focus on bedtime and the first third of the night and to do whatever works from about midnight to morning. What if my baby cries?  Sometime babies cry during sleep coaching and this is never pleasant for babies or their parents. Unfortunately for some children some crying will be part of the process no matter what the method is or how gentle we make the process. Temperament, past experience and age are contributing factors in the amount and intensity of the crying. Prolonged, unsupported crying is harmful for babies. So what is too long? This is for you to determine, however, if your baby has not had calm periods in 40-60 minutes then please pick your baby up. It’s important to monitor and comfort...

Start to establish a regular and consistent routine (which we discussed in week 6) for your baby prior to going to bed. This will help set the stage that the day is coming to an end, and help prepare your baby for a good night of sleep. Simple Routine Pick a few simple steps-really 2 or 3 is perfect. Try not to make your routine too long. A bath, massage, and short book or song are great choices. At this age, all babies will need to have a feeding before bed, so be sure to include that feeding as part of the routine. One large study found that a routine helped babies fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer with or without putting the babies down slightly awake. You will be amazed at how well this simple routine will work. Remember the key is to do the same routine in the same order every night prior to bedtime. Encourage Sleep Double check your baby's sleeping environment to ensure that it's safe. If you haven't already, create a sleep friendly environment...

As you've gathered by now, sleep coaching is nothing more than helping your baby learn to put himself to sleep so that he can successfully nap and (eventually) sleep through the night. A crying baby causes stress for the whole family (especially baby), which is why I prefer a gentler approach. In parenting, we are the coaches, and our children are our team, per se. Sleep is just one of the many life lessons that we parents need to teach our little ones, and gentle sleep coaching will help your baby learn to fall asleep on their own, with minimal crying. The gentle sleep coaching process takes both time and patience, but the end result is definitely worth a few short weeks. Sleep Coaching Takes Time In the short term, you may find that you are actually getting less sleep when you begin sleep coaching, but stick with it. Try to remember that your lack of sleep is very temporary, and soon your entire family will be back to sleeping through the night. Remember, it’s a...

Naps begin to develop around 3 months of age but this development and ability is not consistent until about 6 months. Using a behavioural strategy to teach as child to fall asleep and stay asleep in this age range usually results in a lot of crying, frustration and stress for both the baby and his parents. Why You May Not Want to Nap Coaching Right Now This inconsistent development means that your baby may be able to fall asleep from an awake state one day but forget how to do it the next. This can create a lot of crying with little to no results. We would recommend following some gentle nap strategies until your baby is at an age when he is more capable of learning sleep skills in the day. It will also be easier for him to learn daytime napping skills after he has learned how to fall asleep at...

At the end of the day look at your last nap and determine if your baby is not going to make it to bedtime within his typical wakeful window. If not you have a few options: You can try to squeeze in an extra nap. This nap does not need to be long, even a short 10 minute cat nap can help, however it should end at a time so it doesn’t interfere with your baby’s night sleep or circadian rhythm: 3-4 month olds = 5pm (5:30pm at the latest) 5 and 6 month olds = 4:30 (5pm at the latest) You can put baby to bed earlier – even up to 1 hour earlier to avoid him getting over-tired. Most babies sleep longer when put to bed before getting overtired so you are more likely to have your baby sleep in later when putting him down...

It is true the for some babies getting too much day sleep can result in less sleep at night sleep especially if one of the following are true: Naps are so long that baby is not eating regularly in the day or not getting enough calories Baby is not getting enough stimulation, light, activity or fresh air in the day. Baby is sleeping very late in the day. Naps that end after 5pm or 5:30pm for younger babies can effect night sleep by pushing bedtime later or reducing the length of needed sleep in the night. However research shows that adequate day sleep improves night sleep in general. For most babies under 6 months they will be able to stay awake for 1-2 hours. It is important that babies are not awake too long so they don’t get overtired, which can make it more difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep for the next time. If your baby sleeps less than 45 minutes, it is often worth a 5-10 minute try to get him back to sleep. If it doesn’t work then get your baby up and...

Nap lengths can vary greatly in these early months. Babies have sleep cycles between 45 minutes and 60 minutes long and the structure of their sleep is quite different from adults. Babies spend about half their time sleeping in lighter sleep. This means it is easier for them to wake up and they can often manage well on short naps. Naps that are under 45 minutes we would usually consider to be short, however there is some variation, and some babies can wake from a 40 minute nap being restored and able to stay awake for their full wakeful window without any issues. * Short naps = naps under 45 minutes at this age. Why does my baby take short naps? Short naps can be perfectly normal and most children will thrive nicely on short naps, however they will likely need a lot more naps to get through the day. There are some things that cause naps to be shorter: Tummy troubles. Parents with fussy babies especially with digestive issues such as colicky behavior or reflux often report that...

Feeding, nursing, or comforting your baby to sleep is perfectly fine and will not create habits that cannot be improved later. If what you are doing is working for your or you can put your baby to sleep and transfer him into the crib you probably don’t need to try this. To do a nap trial: After feeding and calming baby put baby down in his crib drowsy You can pat, hold, or stroke to sleep if you feel it is helping If he starts to fuss, do what you can to comfort him in the crib and see if he is getting closer to sleep If he escalates or cries, pick him up and put him to sleep as you normally would. You can try again in a few weeks if you want. If he does settle to sleep for this first nap, continue putting him down for the first nap each day and try to gradually reduce your support. Once he is going down in the morning with very little assistance you can try the next nap, however he may only be able to do this in the morning. Your baby should not cry during this...

If your baby isn’t quite ready for sleep coaching, don’t despair. You can try Wake to Sleep, or work on weaning off the swaddle. Additionally, make sure that your baby is getting naps any way you can get them, in fact, it's best to do what works for nap time at this age. For now, do what works There is no hurry to improve your child’s sleep at this age. It is fine to continue to nurse, feed or comfort your baby to sleep as long as you like. You can always make changes later on and you will not create a life-long sleep problem, despite what you may have heard. Many families find it easy and manageable to nurse or bottle feed their babies until fully asleep or very drowsy and then transfer them onto their sleep surface. If feeding to sleep is not the answer for you, you may have found that carrying, rocking, holding or the motion of the swing, stroller, car or vibrating/bouncy seat does the trick. It is not very difficult to transition out of motion sleep as baby gets...