Sleep specialists

Seven Things That Industry Specialists Do Not Want You To Find Out About Baby Sleep Experts

Working through a hard decision, such as investing in Baby Sleep Experts, can give us a kind of tunnel vision, where we get so fixated on the immediate outcomes of the decision at hand that we don’t think about the eventual outcomes we want.

Think about what kind of day they’ve had so far: have you had lots of face-to-face contact with your baby, have you talked lots to them, have they had some fresh air, have they played/sat up/practised their new skills? It may be you’ve both simply had too quiet a day! Put your baby to bed drowsy but awake. After your bedtime routine, put your baby to bed drowsy but awake, which will encourage her to fall asleep independently. This will teach your baby to soothe herself to sleep, so that she will be able to fall back to sleep on her own when she naturally awakens during the night. When parents report that their infants are “sleeping through the night,” it isn’t that their babies are never waking up. Rather, babies are falling back to sleep, quietly, without signaling their parents. But young infants sleep very restlessly. They frequently vocalize, and sometimes even open their eyes. To help your baby to settle in their cot at night, try to avoid rocking or snuggling them to sleep on you or in your bed before transferring them to their cot, and instead have a cuddle with a story and then put them into their bed while they are awake. That way - they fall asleep in their bed without the need for cuddles or rocking. This is especially important as during the light REM sleep phase they will wake needing the thing that settled them to sleep, rather than gently stirring and falling back to sleep unaided. It's no secret that a night of solid sleep is a thing of the past once you bring your new bundle of joy home. While every parent’s day-to-day life is different, there’s one thing we can almost guarantee is the same for all of you: by the end of the day, you’re exhausted and sleep deprived. Once you’ve got your 30-45-minute getting ready for bedtime sorted, keep it the same every night, at a similar time too, so you’re giving your baby plenty of cues that it’s time for sleep.



You may feel you should try to help your baby to sleep through the night. However, encouraging babies to sleep for longer or more deeply than is usual for them can be harmful and increase the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Newborns wake every couple of hours to eat. Breastfed babies feed often, about every 2–3 hours. Bottle-fed babies tend to feed less often, about every 3–4 hours. If baby has fallen asleep during their feed, it’s so tempting to lay them straight down and sprint out. But health visitors do advise rousing them slightly so they’re awake when you lay them to sleep. That way they know you’ve gone and won’t wake in a panic. It also means they are learning to go to sleep without you there. Sometimes a baby simply has an off night—we all do! Maybe it’s digestive discomfort or a growth spurt. Perhaps they’re working on a new skill. Underlying issues can cause nighttime wakings for up to two weeks. But if this has been going on for more than two weeks, and it’s happening at least five nights a week, sleep experts agree that it’s probably a split nights issue. Sleep consultants support hundreds of families every year, assisting with things such as 4 month sleep regression using gentle, tailored methods.

Someone Needs A Nap

Before your little one was born, he lived in total darkness and became accustomed to snoozing the day away (since that’s when you were most active, lulling him to sleep with your movements) and kicking his heels up at night. Happily, his nocturnal ways are only temporary. Try not to hold, rock or feed your baby until he falls asleep, or be inconsistent with his bedtime routine. Instead, put him to bed when he's drowsy but awake, which will help him learn to fall asleep on his own. Emotionally, babies need some soothing from Mom and Dad in order to learn how to soothe themselves. Your mantra should be, “I cannot fix everything for you, but while you are learning to fix things for yourself, I will go through it with you by your side.” Basically, you will walk the path toward sleeping through the night with your babies until they can walk on their own. Decide on where your baby is going to sleep. Try to decide where your baby is going to sleep for the long run by 3 months of age as changes in sleeping arrangements will be harder on your baby as he gets older. For example, if your baby is sleeping in a bassinet, move him to a crib by 3 months. Always practice the ABC’s of safe sleep: Babies should always sleep Alone, on their Backs, in a Cot. As their sleep cycles are much shorter, babies will often only sleep for a couple of hours at a time. Although most newborn babies are asleep more often than they are awake, disturbed nights can be hard to cope with as first-time parents – try to tackle this early on by sharing night time bottle feeds between you and your partner. A sleep expert will be with you every step of the way, guiding you on how best to find a solution to your sleep concerns, whether its gentle sleep training or one of an untold number of other things.

Putting your baby to bed when they show natural signs of tiredness is the best way to enable your baby to sleep for a decent stretch of time and the most soundly and going to bed too late can result in your restless little one waking too early. So if you do want to try a later bedtime be patient and push it back gradually over a few days. You can only do your best to create an environment for your baby to sleep: there will always be those nights where nothing seems to work. Tomorrow is another day. The phrase ‘sleep like a baby’ must have been coined by someone who didn’t have kids because, as any parent knows, having a baby means disturbed nights. While you expect this at first, what happens when it’s been going on for months or even years? Don't put any pressure on yourself to do things a particular way. People around you may have lots of theories about what you should be doing - but the main thing to do is get as much rest as you can, give your baby lots of cuddles, and do whatever your baby needs for now. Keeping baby awake all day to sleep longer at night typically does not work. Being overtired can make your baby — and everyone within earshot — miserable. And baby’s stress from being overtired can make it harder to relax and rest later. A sleep consultant will take a holistic approach to create a sleeping system that you can manage and one which takes into account ferber method as well as the needs of the baby and considerations of each family member.

Give Plenty Of Support

Many babies are easily stimulated. Just meeting your baby's gaze can engage their attention and signal it's playtime. Try not to engage too much with your baby when they wake up – this could inadvertently encourage them to snap out of their sleep zone. The more you interact with your baby during the night, the more they're motivated to wake up. If your newborn doesn’t seem to get the deep sleep she needs, she might not be completely comfortable — even if her crib is perfectly appointed. Think about it: The womb was dark all the time, so she may be confused if there's light or activity around her. The solution is to make her environment as womb-like as possible for now, with blackout shades and a white noise machine to encourage dozing off. Your baby's erratic sleep patterns may mean that no one in the family is snoozing very soundly. Right now, there’s probably only a sliver of light at the end of the tunnel, but it will grow brighter. Sleep training involves helping your child learn to fall back to sleep on their own during the night if they happen to wake during the night (which all babies do naturally). Often times, once they learn to fall asleep on their own at the start of the night, that skill transfers to the rest of the night regardless of how many times they may wake during the night. You’ll probably still be doing at least one night feed until 6 months or older, but keep it quiet: no excitement, no lights on, no playing. Make as little eye contact as possible so they settle back to sleep quickly. If you need guidance on sleep training then let a sleep consultant support you in unlocking your child's potential, with their gentle, empathetic approach to sleep.

Every baby is different, but generally babies over about six months can sleep through the night without a feed – but of course that doesn’t mean they do! If you’re down to one night feed and think your baby could do without it, you could try gradually bringing it forward to before midnight to lengthen the number of hours he’s sleeping without food. If it seems like you and your newborn are operating on opposite schedules, it's probably not your imagination. But don't bother trying to establish a soothing routine right away — you both need a little time to adjust to your life together. Sleep training isn't for every parent, so don't try it if you're not comfortable. Just know that letting your baby cry a bit won't scar him. If anything, you're teaching him to sleep on his own — a skill he'll use for the rest of his life. If you're not sleeping at the same time as your baby, don't worry about keeping the house silent while they sleep. It's good to get your baby used to sleeping through a certain amount of noise. Bedtime routines reinforce babies' natural circadian rhythms, helping teach them the difference between day and night. Later on, a baby bedtime routine helps little ones to slow down and prepare mentally for bedtime. The gentle approach and caring manner of a baby sleep expert allows them to assist you in the most preferable way to deal with sleep regression and to assist you and your family in any way possible.

Keep It Quiet

Sleep, and getting enough of it, is a common concern for every new parent, and navigating the challenges of getting your baby to sleep whilst ensuring they also sleep safely can be exhausting and overwhelming! Changes in your child’s sleep routine are difficult to predict, and periods of sleep regression can strike at any age, be it 4 months, 10 months, 12 months old or beyond. You’d think since we’ve been around babies for a long time, we’d pretty much know everything about them. But beware: the more books you read and grandmas you talk with, the more sleep misunderstandings and misperceptions you’ll encounter. Get additional intel appertaining to Baby Sleep Experts in this NHS entry.

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