How to Know When Baby is Ready to Sleep Through the Night
Summary: You're longing for an uninterrupted night of sleep, but you don't want to rush your baby before he's ready.  Here's how to know when Baby is ready to sleep through the night.


Those first months with a new baby are some of the most precious you will ever spend, but there is a price to pay.  That price is in sleep!  If you have a new little one in the house, chances are you are feeling the sleep crunch right now.  Sometimes, "old timers" will suggest ways to make babies sleep through the night when they are only a few weeks old, but is this a good idea for the baby?  Is the baby ready yet to sleep all night?  How can you tell?

First of all, if it is any encouragement, most babies are sleeping through the night by the time they are one year old.  But that may sound like a long way off when you've gone weeks without a complete night of sleep.  Not only that, some babies (maybe as many as one in five) still wake up during the night after they are a year old.  The good news is that by about six months old,  virtually every baby can sleep six or more hours straight through the night without really needing to be fed.

Some babies do sleep all night earlier than this.  They need to be old enough to realize that they can comfort themselves when given the opportunity.  You can safely start encouraging your baby in self comforting when he or she is beginning to smile.  This milestone indicates that the baby is becoming more aware of what is going on outside themselves.  By about six weeks, babies are beginning to understand the nightly sleep routine and get used to it.

Size makes a difference, too.  A baby needs to weigh about 15 pounds to be able to make it comfortably without a middle of the night feeding.  Very little babies should not even be allowed to sleep more than five or six hours without feeding.  If the baby is breastfed, it is possible that they will still need a feeding during the night in order to get enough milk.  

One alternative suggested by past generations is to feed the baby a little baby cereal at bedtime so his tummy is good and full.  Everyone has an opinion, of course, and you will find "experts" who agree and who disagree with this idea.  Some disadvantages to the idea include the possibility that cereal too early could cause later food allergies.  To counteract this, use a cereal like rice that is less likely to become an allergen than wheat.

Another disadvantage is for nursing mothers.  If the milk already seems to be in scanty supply, the very best thing you can do is nurse longer and more frequently, even if that means keeping that middle of the night feeding going.  Midwives often say that the first solid food or the first supplemental bottle is the beginning of the end of nursing.  Bottle fed babies can simply be given a bottle right at bedtime to tide them over until morning.

Most babies can handle an occasional full night of sleep much earlier, even by the age of two or three months.  The only thing is, they will probably not sleep all night every night.  Be glad to get the good night of sleep when you can, but don't get to expecting it every night yet.

If you are doing your part to establish good sleep habits, then the baby will sleep all night when she is ready.  If you fail to establish these good habits, then that magic moment of sleeping all night could easily be delayed, much to your chagrin.  So it is important to start those night routines early and stick with them.  Here is what a routine of good sleep habits looks like for most families.

For one thing, the baby needs to stay awake during the day, at least most of the time.  Long peaceful naps in the daytime might give Mom a chance to sleep or get something done, but they will work against good sleeping at night.  The baby can "get his days and nights mixed up," as they say.  So don't let your baby's daytime naps last longer than an hour or so.

During the day, keep your baby stimulated.  Set her up in an infant seat and talk to her as you do your work.  Go out for a stroll in the stroller.  Look at books together and play patty cake.  Of course, this won't be possible if you are going out to work every day.  If possible, try to postpone returning to work too soon.  If you must return to work early, rest assured there are ways around the challenges presented by having to work, if you approach those challenges with love and a positive attitude.

Have a nightly routine and stick to it.  A warm bath and changing into soft jammies is a good routine for settling down at night.  Lullabies are also a helpful part of getting to sleep.  Keep your own noise level down and try not to get agitated even if you do feel frustrated.  Keep a night light going so that you can check on the baby or answer night calls without waking her completely by turning on a bright light.