Getting a Newborn to Sleep Through the Night

Video Transcript

"You're exhausted, you have a new baby, and you're anxious to sleep through the night. My name is Beverly Bitterman, ARNP Health and Wellness Consultant, and I'm here to talk to you a little bit about babies and sleep. The first thing you ought to know is that babies sleep a lot. You probably do know that already you, just wish that they would sleep all night long. The thing about babies nervous systems is that they tend to wake up every two, three, or four hours. Often they wake up to be fed. A baby needs to get to be a certain age and a certain body weight in order for them to be able to not need nutrition during the night. Sometimes that magic weight might be somewhere around 12 pounds for example. By the time your child is about 3 to 6 months old they ought to be sleeping 5 to 9 hours a night. In the mean time you can take some steps to set it up so that your baby is likely to sleep for longer periods of time. Here's some things to do. One is during the day time; make sure that when the baby's awake that you provide some stimulation for them. That you talk to them a little bit, that you kind of keep them a little more awake rather than just letting them sleep as much as they like. The baby's been sleeping for 2 or 3 hours during the day. You might kind of go in and jostle a little bit and see if they aren't perhaps ready to wake up. The second thing to pay attention to is the night time routine. You want to signal to your baby that it's time to go to bed. What you do when they're an infant carries over as they get to be several months old; and you'll be happy that you did this. You're going to perhaps give them a bath. You're going to put them in some night time clothes. You're going to give them a bottle in a calm environment; maybe in their room while you're rocking them or you're breastfeeding. Then you're going to put them in bed. It's best to put your baby to bed while they're still a little bit awake, you want your baby to get use to putting themselves to sleep. Once they're in their crib, then you say goodnight, and you leave the room. If they cry a little bit don't rush right back, you're reinforcing that behavior. If they are crying a lot you're going to have to go back in and console them, pat them on the back, talk to them, maybe start the mobile back up, and then quietly leave; stay calm. So what we are wanting to do is to establish a good night time routine and also keep them awake a little bit more during the daytime. Those are two strategies that you can try. Check with your pediatrician they have a wealth of information at your next well child checkup. Again my name is Beverly Bitterman, ARNP Health and Wellness Consultant and good luck getting a good night sleep."