Go to Sleep Little Baby

Babies inside the womb will sleep whenever their bodies need it. They have no concept of day or night. Once they are born they generally spend a lot of time in their mother’s arms and usually will fall asleep while being held. This is completely comfortable and natural for a new baby.

Unfortunately we cannot always be there to hold our babies as they go to sleep. If the baby learns to rely on a parent’s attention to get to sleep he will continue to need a parent to get back to sleep when he wakes at night. This leads to lost sleep on the part of the parents and in the long run decreases the overall ability of a parent to adequately care for a baby.

As your baby drifts off to sleep he begins to associate what is around him as a part of his sleep pattern. If you give him a soother, that will be a necessary thing for him to readily return to sleep making it necessary to get up and retrieve it for him. Likewise if you always rock him to sleep he will require rocking to go back to sleep in the middle of the night.

While you can’t avoid having a baby make sleep associations you can use them to you benefit. Many babies will take a preference to a special stuffed animal or blanket, which he will settle for at night. If you provide this toy or blanket as a part of your bedtime rituals he will begin to associate it with his sleeping routine.

When your baby wakes in the middle of the night this toy or blankie will be easily within his reach and he can cuddle it to help himself return to sleep. This positive sleep association is with something your baby can attend to on his own without needing a parent to become involved.

Other positive sleep associations can be soft music such as Go to Sleep Little Baby that the baby can listen to while he drifts off. Many crib toys have sensors that will trigger the music to restart if the baby begins to fuss at night. By playing this music each night as your baby goes to sleep he can associate it with sleep and will relax when he hears it play in the middle of the night.

While it is a wonderful feeling to hold you baby as he sleeps in your arms, in the long run you will be thankful that he is willing and able to go to sleep on his own each night. With positive child-centered sleep associations your baby will soon sleep through the night.