How to Get Your Baby to Sleep, Naturally

I didn’t read a lot of parenting books when pregnant.  I read one pregnancy book: Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering, and it was all I really wanted and needed.  I decided to do as this African grandmother said and “Read my baby” instead (read the link to see why African babies don’t cry).  However, one thing I didn’t know was that babies have to be put to sleep.  They don’t just fall asleep on their own it seems!

So I read a book called The Baby Whisperer and followed the suggestion to instill a night-time routine that would be linked with sleep so anytime you activated this routine, your baby would know instantly sleep was to come, and thus wouldn’t fight it.  Boy, do I wish I’d known this sooner than 6 weeks down the line!  Alice was only falling asleep at 10pm or later and she was soo cranky by then.  Babies want you to remove them from the stimulus and put them to bed, they really do need our help.  So here is the no-fail routine I’ve adopted to make Alice’s life and especially my life so much more pain-free:

• Lower the stimulus: Less stimulus all around and just calm her down, away from other people, bright lights, and clothing that keeps her from regulating her body temp well.  I let her lie on the bed and play with her toes while I get her bath towel, sleeper, and diaper laid out.
• Feed: the Baby Whisperer recommends to always: Eat, Activity, Sleep.  So “eat” is the first part.  I feed Alice till she is full, with good skin to skin contact.
• Bath time: we now shower in candle-light to keep the sensory stimulus low.  I used to use a real candle, now it’s a battery-operated one from Costco.  We take a shower and I only use soap on her every few days.  Otherwise, I just get her wet and massage in some super luxurious baby oil.  If she has been particularly feisty, I also let her sit in her baby spa tub for a few minutes with a couple bags of chamomile tea, it’s incredible how much it calms her.  If your baby is still a wee one, try a sponge bath instead.
• Baby massage: After drying Alice off on the bed, I massage her skin with more baby oil, and then her tummy with Castor Oil since it helps her poop.  By now she is usually nice and calm.  I dry off the excess oils with her towel.  Babies generally shouldn’t be massaged until 3 months of age; until then, just gently apply the baby oil or another moisturizer to get her used to all-over touch.
• Get her in a dry diaper and sleeper, or keep her naked (except for the diaper) if I’m going to bed too, which I make it a point of going to bed with her at 7:30-8pm once a week (I always used to until school started).  My body heat normally keeps her warm but without me, she needs some clothing since she kicks off blankets.
• Sing or hum to her the same song every night – Silent Night.  I know it’s ridiculous, but I only seem to know the lyrics to Christmas songs.  I only sing this one to her at night so that she always associates it with her long sleep.
• I feed her again.  According to the book, you shouldn’t do this because then they might need it to fall asleep, but I had originally gotten the advice from my mom, and a lot of moms seem to do it.  She passes right out within a few minutes and it seems to mostly soothe her.

And that’s the trick to get your baby to fall asleep quickly and not be an over-tired cranky mess, which helps this med student mama loads since I can get my work done after 8 and don’t have to spend hours soothing her, and I wake up to a happy well-slept baby every morn.

Babies don’t normally sleep straight through the night until between the ages of 2 and 3, so that’s another story.  Expect to feed them in the night but Alice barely wakes up for that.  We no longer have a pre-bed crying, crying that keeps her from falling asleep, or waking up crying.  Nope, no crying!  Also, if they do wake up and get fussy, don’t leave the room, it is over-stimulating and sensory assault if someone else takes them out of the room and exposes them to light etc.  Just keep her there and bounce on that stability ball I hope you have handy till she calms back down!

Hope you develop the routine that works best for you and your baby! Bonus: if they are ever mid-day freaking out and you need to get them to calm down and nap, you can put the routine into action to really soothe them.  Just make sure you do it again at bedtime.