When we bring home our baby, we hope that they will be able to sleep through the nights okay.  Although, unfortunately they seem to be up every few hours, wake us up, and make it hard on both of us.  Every baby is different, and has different sleeping patterns, but there are helpful tips that will allow them to sleep through the night better.  If you’re looking to get your baby off to a better start, consider a few of these tips!

Feeding  – It is always a good idea to help them eat more during the day than at night.  If you can get them into this routine, they will be waking up less at night because they’re hungry.  So if they’re all set before they go to bed, that may be one less time they’ll wake up.

Realistic – Be realistic as well.  Newborns can sleep 15-19 hours each day, and obviously they’re not going to do that all at once.  If they fall asleep for 3 hours or more at a time, that’s doing pretty good.

Relax - Before you lay them down to go to bed, help them relax.  Feed them their bottle, burp them, and then hold on to them.  Rock them for a while, and naturally they will fall asleep because they’re relaxed, and feel comfortable.  Get them sleeping for a while, then allow them to lay down in their crib.

Music – Once you put them in their crib, put some soft music on in the background.  If you have a little radio, play some nice CDs that have ocean sounds, or any soft sounds they’d like.  Then play that on low.  That will help them relax, and sleep better through the night.

Quiet atmosphere – Also, you want to make sure you create a quiet atmosphere for your baby.  If you can, be as quiet as possible, keep the dog from barking, and keep down the TV.  Sounds like these can easily trigger your baby to wake up if there’s too many of them.

Babies can be pretty fussy, but really if you consider a few of these tips, your baby will be off to a better start.  It may take a while to get them into a routine, but once they do, they’ll usually stick with it!