Sleep is a common routine for every living creature on the earth. The sleep habits, duration of the sleep varies from one to another creature. What makes the difference? This may be due to lifestyle changes, overstimulation and many others. Just imagine if the sleep the sleep disorders happen with the babies. It may be very irritating for them as they can’t communicate their discomforts.
Now, it’s a task for the parents to ensure their babies have enough sleep. A daily good bedtime routine will help us to have the sound sleep and the same technique will work with the babies as well. Babies who sleep better can have an improvement in weight gain, length, and head circumference. Check out some effective bedtime routines for babies.
What Are Bedtime Routines For Babies?
A bedtime routine includes the things that you do with your baby or the older kid before the sleep to make them sleep. The bedtime routines may include taking the bath, putting on the clean diaper, saying prayers, and reading some bedtime stories.
The goal of the bedtime routine is to comfort your baby and make them fall asleep on their own without extra intervention.
Benefits Of Bedtime Routine For Babies:
If your baby demands to pat each time he arouses or demands that mom should only get them to sleep, it is a clear sign that your baby is in need of a bedtime routine.
Before looking into some effective bedtime routines, here we discuss some benefits of the bedtime routines for babies.
• Bedtime routine will help your baby to have sound and distraction-less sleep.
• It helps them to stay more active throughout the day
• Healthy sleep makes them healthier
• Their brains remain more active
• Babies with sound sleep are likely to reach their milestones on time
• Bedtime routines will help your baby to smoothly progress through the transitional periods and sleep progressions.
• And ultimately bedtime routines can help you feel relax.
• Bedtime routines will help babies to learn self-soothing techniques.
What is the best time to introduce a bedtime routine for babies?
It is difficult to organize the sleep schedule for the babies until the age of 6 weeks. The only thing that you can do before the age of 6 months is to ensure that they are getting enough sleep and focus on the activities to relax and soothe your baby. This can help you further to frame you the things that can go in their bedtime routine.
Most of the parents rely on sleep aids like letting the baby nurse till they fall asleep, using a pacifier, letting baby sleep in the swing, and many more. It is more important to wean your baby off these aids as soon as possible because; it is not always possible for you to provide your baby these aids.
Implementation of the bedtime routine at the proper age will help you to organize your life properly. Babies start to get used to bedtime routines as soon as they reach the age of 6 weeks.
Bedtime Routines For Babies:
Observe the baby’s sleepiness cues and start using the bedtime routines. Here are a few bedtime routines that work well with your baby.
1. Choose the same time every day:
Make your baby go to bed at the same time every day. Choose the time that is early. Ensure that your baby used to sleep at this time every day. Try not to disturb their sleep routine with your daily chores.
Be consistent with your bedtime routine.
2. Select the duration of the bedtime routine:
A good bedtime routine is likely to end in half an hour or a little more including the bath time. Ensure to dedicate your time to the baby without any distractions. Choose to finish your chores before the bedtime routine. Your attention should speak to your baby that they in a secure and cozy environment for their sleep.
3. Give your baby a warm bath:
Sleep impacts many factors the baby from physical growth to emotional development. Bath can be one of the best soothing activities. A warm bath will help your baby to feel fresh and get into the deep sleep. Warm water can be a great way to relax your baby and make them feel sleepy.
You may find it easier to bath your baby when he is newborn but once the baby becomes easy to handle, it can be best to fit in their bedtime routine.
4. Make some white noise:
This is one of the best bedtime routine ideas for babies. White noise is an amazing way and it can create wonders especially with the fussy baby. A gentle sound plays a role when the babies start to cry in a rough voice. Why the white noise works amazingly is that they can mimic the sounds that babies hear in their mother’s womb.
Make the rumbly whoosh noise as per the intensity of your baby’s cry and gradually lessen them once your baby settles down. Play some white noise through any of the digital platforms including CD, MP3s, or even Alexa.
White noise should not be used with the swaddling all throughout the day. They are used to calm down the crying episodes and at the night time sleep. By the age of 3 months, your baby can understand the connection between white noise and sleep.
The main caution that you should follow while using the smartphone is to switch them to the airplane mode while placing them closer to your baby’s ear as they release the microwave radiations.
Playing the right sound will make a difference in your baby’s sleep pattern.
5. Transition Activity:
A transition activity can help the baby to ease the identification from one phase to another phase in a day. Put a diaper and pajamas. Ensure that the diaper is clean and dry. Ensure to choose the type of pajamas as per the weather conditions. Choose the lightweight cotton pajamas when the temperature is hot. Change your baby’s poopy diaper when they are awake because diaper changing can awake the sleeping baby. On the other hand, poopy diapers can’t allow them to have the sound sleep as the acidic content in the baby’s poop may irritate their skin.
6. Use a security object:
This is the best night routine for babies. Use a security object as a part of the daily routine. A security object like a stuffed animal or a blanket can help to ease your bedtime routine. This technique especially works well with the toddlers and the preschool kids. Tiny things may not be safe to use with younger infants.
Install a mobile over the crib. Choose the best one as some mobiles are meant to stimulate the baby while some others will help to soothe your baby. Give a mobile the thorough check before you install it over the crib for any loose part. These loose parts could break off and fall into the crib. Ensure to install the mobile out of your baby’s reach and avoid the mobile with small and the detachable parts as they pose the choking hazards. Perform the regular hardware checks to ensure that your baby’s crib is safe.
7. Calm and connect with your baby:
Make the surroundings calm and peaceful and the best way to identify that your baby is sleepy is that they calms down and turns less active. Put the noise levels down and dim the lights. Swaddle your baby and sit for some time in the rocking chair. Skin to skin contact can help your baby to stay more connected with you and feel more comfortable.
Skin to skin contact releases hormones that can relieve the stress and stabilize your baby helping them to cry less. Beyond this babies feel warm and comfortable. There is no age where the skin to skin contact is not recommended for the babies. It helps to strengthen the bonding with the parents.
8. Dim the lights in the room:
Same like the adults, babies do have internal clocks which are designed to stimulate the feelings of sleepiness and wakefulness round the clock. It signals the baby to sleep when the room is dark and awake when it is light. Ensure to keep the room dark that is enough for your baby and you to identify each other.
9. Lay your baby in the crib when they are fully awake
If you are intending to insist on some good sleep habits and teach baby to sleep on their own, then this technique will be very helpful. This can help the babies to go to sleep on their own without much of your intervention. Not all the babies may not respond to the idea of going to crib when they are awake which is absolutely fine and they come to learn this gradually.
10. Start the routine when your observe the sleepiness in your baby:
Observing the baby’s sleep cues is the best way to start your bedtime routine. If you maintain consistency in your bedtime routine, you will come to notice your baby displaying the sleepiness cues at the same time every day. Ensure to bathe your baby before they feel drowsy. Perform all the stimulative activities before their sleepiness episode starts. Stop any play distracting your baby. Bring your baby into a more calming environment.
11. Give your baby a gentle massage:
Babies who are massaged more often are found to have more regulated levels of the melatonin in their bodies. Give a dry massage to the sole of your baby’s feet is a great way to bond with your baby and comfort them.
Massage baby’s forehead and eyebrows in a gentle voice. Use the thumbs to massage the area around the eye. Gently do down the bridge of the baby’s nose and then go back and forth across the cheeks. Move from the ears to the upper and the lower parts of the lips and then to the back. A massage before bedtime will help your baby to bring down all the daytime stimulations and get ready for the sleep.
You can also perform them the morning massage with some baby massage oils to help them sleep early in the night.
Make sure to follow the mood of the baby while planning to massage. Your baby should be calm and alert while you are giving the massage. Massage is especially helpful for babies who require extra support including the babies born before the term, babies born addicted, and HIV positive babies. Prepare yourself to commit your time entirely to your baby during this time and keep all the devices away.
12. Sing or play lullabies to your baby:
Keep your lullabies so simple by using the repetitive words and the melodies and sing them with a soft tone. Pairing up the lullabies with the rocking movements will help your baby to get the womb-like experience. Make the lullabies a final part of the night time ritual and ensure to stop them before your baby falls asleep so that they do not develop the association with the sleep. This could trap the parents to sing every time the baby wakes and make them go back to sleep.
Make your lullabies more consistent and sing them until your baby gets into the deep sleep.
13. Keep your baby’s room warm and cozy:
Setting the baby’s room temperature as per the weather conditions is one of the biggest challenges for the parents. Never overload your baby with heavy or woolen clothes. Wear them in a thin layer of warm clothes so that you can remove them easily with the temperature.
The position of the baby’s crib plays a role in the quality sleep of your baby. Ensure to keep your baby’s crib feet away from the air vents, drafty windows, fans, and outside walls. Keep the windows shut to prevent the cold air from entering your baby’s room.
Dos and Don’ts Of The Bedtime Routine:
Here are some things to keep in mind while organizing the bedtime routine for your baby:
• Start them as early as possible. It is easier to begin a good bedtime routine than trying to change the poor sleep habits. Get your baby to the healthy sleep routine before they reach the toddlerhood.
• Frame your bedtime routines to be age-appropriate. Your baby’s bedtime routines change with the time and you should expect to carry forward the same routines throughout the early stages of their life.
• Keep your bedtime routines fairly short. A good bedtime routine will lapse between 15 to 20 minutes.
• Include the security objects as a part of their routine as they help them to go back to sleep on their own.
• Dental hygiene is a must to include in the bedtime routine at any stage. Clean your baby’s gums and teach the older kids to brush and floss the teeth.
• Remind your older kids to use the washroom for the last time before going to the bed. It can help them to get rid of the bedwetting and the night walking.
• Make use of the night lights. Some kids like to sleep in the dark and the night lights are more useful for those kids.
Here are a few bedtime routines that you should avoid.
• Don’t try to stretch out your bedtime routine and don’t give your older kid a chance to drag the bedtime routine much more beyond the expected.
• Avoid the exposure to the stimulations before bedtime especially if they have trouble in getting back to sleep.
• Don’t make your baby rely more on you. Help them to develop some self-soothing techniques.
In conclusion, start implementing the bedtime routines right from the early stages of your baby’s life. A right bedtime routine will help them to achieve the growth from all the dimensions. Good sleep habits are hard to achieve without bedtime routine. Poor sleep quality in turn may impact the physical activity and the health of your baby.
