How to Settle Your Baby Into a Healthy and Peaceful Sleep Routine

We all know that setting routines in place makes life easier for everyone. Fortunately babies are creatures of habit, and making sure your baby develops good habitual sleeping patterns is incredibly important for their development.

When babies have a good, solid routine, they develop a sense of safety and trust. Babies thrive from knowing what comes next, and while they are physically too immature to follow a strict sleep schedule, a basic one will help to set their circadian rhythm and their inborn biological clock that helps them distinguish between night and day. Having a healthy, happy baby that sleeps well can bring a multitude of benefits to the lives of everyone in your household.

The benefits of a well-rested baby

1. Prioritising sleep for less stress

Both yours and your baby’s brain runs on sleep. Without sleep, you are more open to postpartum depression, obesity, and making careless decisions. For your baby, a lack of sleep tells their brain to release more of the stress hormone cortisol, setting them up for frequent night wakings and stunted naps. A vicious cycle of poor sleep begins.

2. Puts you and your partner on the same page

Dads often feel left out when it comes to caring for a newborn, but when a routine is set, they’re rewarded with a greater sense of inclusion. Make your plan together and decide how you’ll react to wakings at different times. Decide on your chosen responsibilities, and work together to ensure the routine is kept.

3. Creates better feeders

One of the biggest myths surrounding sleep routines for babies is that you can’t have one if you are breastfeeding. In fact, good sleep is even more important when you’re breastfeeding, as it eliminates the guessing game of when a feed is coming next. Babies become stronger feeders with routine as they learn to take in full meals instead of small snacks throughout the day and night.

4. Stabilises the rocky times

The beauty of a good routine is that while it changes due to travel, teething, growth spurts and sickness, it lays a foundation in which to bring things back to normal. Having a good routine lets rocky periods shake more easily and gives parents something to work towards. As a general rule, transition periods take the same amount of time as the change. So if you go away for a week, aim to have your baby back in their routine seven days later.

5. Makes for a happier baby

A well rested baby is a happier baby, and a happier baby is more pleasant to be around and easier to care for. Good sleep promotes optimal wakefulness, also improving your baby’s opportunities for learning. You might think they have less time to learn because they are always sleeping, but the reality is that they’ll take more in during the short times that they are awake.

Sleep for sanity

According to the Baby Whisperer, sleep is the number one issue that plagues parents from the moment they bring their baby home from hospital. We can tell that you’re nodding your head in agreement.

Having a baby that doesn’t sleep well is hard not just on mum and dad, but on the entire family. This is why regular and stable sleep is so important.

Feel yourself struggling with lack of sleep? Visit the CATALO website and browse the range of natural and healthy supplements that will help you get through the sleep-adjustment period. Parenting can be hard work, and finding the right supplement can be a great support.

Starting a routine

Starting a routine

We know you’re probably eager to start your baby’s bed routine now, but the early weeks are more about setting the scene as opposed to enforcing a routine. A proper baby bed routine can be implemented around the age of four months when your baby is getting most of their sleep at night and they’re beginning to get a more set day and night cycle.

Before you start, make sure all the necessary people are on board. Talk to your pediatrician or health nurse to rule out any medical conditions that may affect sleep, like conditions such as reflux, allergies and sleep apnea. Also get a feel for how much your baby should be eating over a 24-hour period.

To set the scene for a more permanent routine, start to create a rhythm of activities that emphasise the differences between night and day. Be chatty during daytime feeds and play with your baby to encourage wakefulness. During night time feeds, keep eye contact and noise levels to a minimum.

Swaddling your baby can be soothing at this stage and can be a powerful trigger for sleep. Some don’t enjoy this, however, so pay attention to your baby’s signals. If your baby is wanting to be mobile, it won’t pay to try and restrict them.

Some babies have difficulty winding down, so start by altering your behaviour and their environment about 30 minutes before bedtime. Dim the lights, turn off background noise such as the TV, and focus your attention on more relaxing pursuits like reading, bathtime, or listening to soft music. Like adults, baby’s enjoy a soothing environment in which to fall asleep.

Many parents swear by the ‘Three B’s’ – Bath, Book and Breastfeed or Bottle – to signal that sleep time is approaching. Some parents might also throw in a quick baby massage, as these can be promote the production of serotonin for your baby, otherwise known as ‘the happy chemical’. How you signal sleeptime is up to you, but the only rule is that it must be consistent. It also helps to put your baby to sleep when they are drowsy rather than fully asleep. Babies need to learn to soothe themselves to sleep instead of always relying on you.

If you have a hard time remembering how many times your baby wakes out of their routine during the course of a week, start logging your baby’s sleep pattern. Tracking your baby’s days and nights will help you find their ideal bedtime. You might realise that your baby gets fussy around 7pm, or you might realise that their crying, which felt like 30 minutes when it was 2am, was actually just a few minutes. Logging brings a sense of reality that can be really helpful when setting up a routine.

Avoiding common mistakes

It’s worth remembering that 15 or 20 minutes in a baby’s sleep can make all the difference to a baby’s world. With this in mind, here are a few things to remember NOT to do.

Wait for cues

It’s much better to have a bedtime routine in place rather than improvise bedtime according to cues like yawning, rubbing eyes, or the grizzlies. By the time these cues come into play your baby is likely already overtired. When babies get overtired, they not only have difficulty falling asleep, they also have difficulty staying asleep.

Rely on motion

A baby swing or a quick car ride may make your baby fall asleep in what seems like an instant, but don’t make it a part of your baby’s regular bedtime routine. It’s fine to use movement as a soother, but be careful not to make your baby reliant on movement to fall asleep. It’s impractical to use movement as part of every sleep time.

Over stimulate baby

When a partner is off working all day, it’s understandable that when they come in the front door they want to shower your baby with love and affection. Unfortunately, this often happens right on bedtime, and causes baby to be overstimulated when they should be winding down. Quality time is a must, but instead of tickles, raspberries and coochie coos, try a cuddle and a book instead.

Additional help

Giving supplements to babies and toddlers to improve sleep problems is becoming popular practice. Research from the University of Oxford found that supplements such as Omega 3 – especially those in the form of DHA – can help children aged 7 and over sleep for nearly one hour longer. For those younger, it can help them feel more settled as they drift off.

DHA helps the baby to release melatonin, the hormone that helps us to fall asleep. The results aren’t immediate, but over time, DHA is thought to make a big difference to how a baby sleeps. Take note too that DHA and Omega 3s are great for other things as well, from improved learning, behaviour, eyesight, immunity and heart health.

Many parents forget that it’s also important to take care of themselves during the sleepless nights that often come with a newborn. CATALO stocks a range of supplements that fuel you with energy when sleep is lacking.

Letting go of sleep schedule fear

The words ‘plan’, ‘schedule’ or ‘routine’ can strike fear into a new parent, but they really shouldn’t. Despite the prevailing thought that having a routine will enslave you to your home and keep you looking at a clock, it’s actually just about having a bit of structure. Babies really do thrive on consistency, and one of the best ways to foster this is by having a balanced and predictable sleep routine.

Remember though, establishing a routine is a process. It takes time, repetition and patience. A sleep routine won’t be made overnight, but stick with it and both you and your baby will be grateful you did.