When it comes to having a baby, tiredness is part of the deal. You are tired, the baby is tired, and everyone gets very grumpy when they are tired. In order to prevent too many sleepless nights at the hands of a not so sleepy baby, you need to learn how to make your baby fall asleep fast.

Thankfully, there are a few things you can do to aid in your child falling back asleep, so give this article a read and see what tips will work for you on your late nights.

Rock and Move Your Baby

There’s a reason why so many parents are seen walking around with the baby in their arms late at night and bouncing them lightly. Or sitting in a rocking chair and moving back and forth until the baby falls asleep. Any form of soft and repetitive movement is going to bring the baby down and make them fall asleep, so gently moving your baby is going to help calm them down.

Whether they are fussy after waking up in the middle of the night, or just need some quick movement before bed, rocking and moving your baby will get them drowsy. Additionally, playing some soft music or otherwise gently singing to them as you do the rocking will further help them go to bed.

Feed Them Until They Are Drowsy

While feeding your baby too much is a problem, eating does signal that the body is ready to fall asleep, so giving your baby a little bit of food before bed will help them get drowsy. Still, make sure not to do this too much, especially as they get older because you don’t want to overfeed them.

Often, babies will connect eating to sleeping, and might think that they need to eat to fall asleep. This can cause overfeeding issues if your baby ‘thinks’ it needs to eat before sleeping, so make sure you start to move feeding earlier and earlier as your baby grows and gets used to a sleep schedule.

Keep A Predictable Schedule For Sleep And Mimic The Womb

Babies as well as children need routine and structure, and for babies you need to make sure that they are at least getting ready to go to bed around the same time. Eventually their internal rhythm will catch up and they will start naturally falling asleep at the right time.

Additionally, you can try to mimic the feel of the womb as well, which the baby was sleeping in anyway. For example, swaddling the baby can help it feel secure, and does mimic the warmth of the womb. Shushing the baby gently can also be a great way to emanate the womb environment and some white noise, and you can either shush yourself or use a white noise machine to help. 

Allow Them To Suck On A Pacifier

The sucking reflex is comforting to babies, which is why when babies nurse they tend to suck even when done. Pacifiers can also mimic the comforting sucking reflex, and the constant sucking can also calm the baby down and get them tired. Giving them a pacifier whenever they need to suck can help them at night, although you will need to wean them off of it.

Don’t Rely (Solely) on Soothing Methods

One of the mishaps of soothing methods such as driving the baby around in a car or overly soothing your child whenever they wake up fussy is getting the baby hooked on the method to where they can’t fall asleep without it. At around 5 months of age, most babies know enough to fall asleep on their own, and if we try to help them we are actually harming them.

In order to make sure your child falls asleep quickly, once they get old enough you can simply put them down while awake and close the door and darken the room. They will fall asleep on their own, and any additional rocks or patting to make them fall asleep is going to only make it harder.

It might be hard to not soothe your baby to sleep, but resist those instincts and your child will fall asleep on their own. Pretty soon, they will fall asleep on their own, and you won’t need to worry about using sleep drops for infants.

Getting Your Baby To Fall Asleep Doesn’t Have To Be A Struggle 

You don’t have to slave away with sleepless nights whenever you have a baby, but instead you can focus on some proven strategies for taking care of your child and ensuring that they fall asleep quickly without any trouble. Then you can ensure that your child as well as you as the parent can fall asleep and get a very good night’s rest.