Wouldn’t it be nice if we bought our newborn home, and they already had a great sleeping routine?  It would be nice, but unfortunately we don’t get that lucky.  Getting your baby into a bedtime routine is important, and will make both of your lives much easier.  There will be less sleepless nights, and much smoother days.  Although, how do you get your baby to adjust to bedtime?  It doesn’t happen over night, but continue reading below to see how you can take small steps so you can get there quicker!

Don’t force – First of all, you never want to force your little one to go to bed.  They require a lot of sleep, but if they’re not tired, they’re simply not going to go to bed.  Instead, let them create their own schedule at the beginning because they’re so young.  They will eventually find that sleeping at night is easier.

2 or 3 months – At about 2 or 3 months, you will have much better luck when it comes to getting them to go to bed at night.  This is when you can kind of push them to go to bed when you go to bed, or when you think they should be going to bed.

What to do – Everyone has their own way of getting their baby to fall asleep.  Although, if you’re not there yet, consider a few of these ideas.

• Give them a warm bath to relax them.
• Get them into their pajamas.
• Give them a night snack or small meal.
• Hold them and rock them until they start getting sleepy.
• Turn out the lights and allow them to fall asleep faster.

TIP – We all know that this takes time, but there is something you want to make sure you do.  At around 3 or 4 months try to put them in their room when they’re awake.  They may react funny at first, but they need to learn to fall asleep on their own, instead of relying on you to relax them.  This will make them independent, and will let them learn that they need to fall asleep on their own sometimes.