It is essential to place your child to sleep at the exact same time every evening. A number of brand-new mums and dads refrain from this because of sheer exhaustion and stress. Nevertheless, an infant is most likely to get up early in the morning and wake more during the night if you don’t have a strict routine in place.

It’s possible to start implementing a routine from about 6 weeks of age. Before this time is difficult because newborns are very unpredictable in their sleep/wake habits and a lot of it depends on hunger, nappy changes etc.

It is challenging to get your baby to start sleeping through the night and ‘sleeping through’ isn’t something that normally happens until at least 8 months of age (but a lot of babies take even longer to learn this skill). A lot of new parents believe that ‘sleeping through’ means from 7pm until 7am. This is incorrect. For younger babies, ‘sleeping through’ means a 5 hour stint of sleep and the reason for this is that they still have the need for a feed during the night.

However, by the time your baby reaches 6 weeks of age, you can start implementing a light routine that will also help keep you sane. By ‘light routine’ I mean that nothing is set in stone and times and feedings can be changed around to suit your baby’s needs. If things are going well then you can aim for a bedtime around 7-7:30pm after a feed, a bath, a story and some cuddle time. Bubs will still most likely wake for feeds during the night. A dream feed at approx 10:30pm-11pm is often recommended to help your baby fill their tummy up and get their 5 hour stretch of sleep that they’re capable of overnight rather than during the day time.

Other things you can do to help with your baby’s sleep is to turn the lights down 30 minutes before you want them to sleep. Darkness helps produce the sleepy hormone called melatonin. Further, ensuring the room is set to the correct temperature and that the baby is dressed appropriately, with a clean nappy all help to promote better sleep.

As parents to a young baby it’s important to remember that whilst sleep is important, it will be a while before you see any patterns and sometimes patience is better than putting too much stress on yourself and your baby. Each baby is different and will learn the essential skills of sleep in their own time. The older they get, the more you can do to help promote these skills being learned.

For more tips and hints on baby and toddler sleep, go to www.sleepystarz.com