5 Fundamentals of Baby Sleep

I was lucky enough to be able to chat with a sleep expert, and wanted to share some of her amazing tips! What better time to sleep train than this crazy time where we are stuck at home 🙂

About the Certified Pediatric Sleep Consultant

Melissa Brown is a Certified Pediatric Sleep Consultant and has a Master’s in Counseling and Pastoral Care. She is the founder of  SleepShop which is a pediatric sleep consulting company and works with families all over the world helping them get their little ones on sustainable routines and sleeping through the night! She has extensive experience working with families and creates customized sleep plans and individual routines specific to each baby- knowing every baby and each family is so different. Getting the chance to work with families and their new additions is such a joy and she loves walking alongside parents as they venture the peaks and valleys of parenting. She is a mother of 4, including twins. and believes that healthy sleep habits truly benefit the family as a whole.

www.sleepshopconsulting.com is the link and my handle is @sleepshopconsulting

I get asked every single day, “How do I get my little one to sleep?” And while my answer varies based on the situation, the baby, and the parenting style of the parent there are some things that no matter what remains the same. I refer to them as sleep fundamentals. While every baby is different and will sleep through the night based on a variety of things, there are little things every parent can do that will help with the process.

What She Had to Say

Sleep is so important for babies, especially their first year of life! They will nap anywhere from 3-5 times a day the first 7-9 months of their life. At around 7-9 months they will usually take around 2 naps a day and by 15-18 months most babies transition to one mid-day nap. It’s important that we offer them the opportunity to sleep throughout the day because the better they sleep during the day, the better they tend to sleep at night! The more consistent we can be with their sleep routines, the more sleep babies tend to get. Here are 5 things that parents can do that will greatly help their little one get the sleep that they need…

1. SLEEP ENVIRONMENT: Set up the right sleep environment. You want to make sure that your baby’s room is ideal for sleep. It should be pitch black so that no light comes in from the outside. This will help with naps but also keep the light out in the early mornings so your baby doesn’t wake too early. Make sure you have a loud sound machine that goes the duration of the nap and bedtime, it will help block out noise and also brings comfort to the baby. You want to make sure that the temperature of the room is not too hot or too cold (68-72 degrees). A baby’s temperature fluctuates through different sleep cycles so you want to make sure the room feels just right.

2. PUT DOWN AWAKE: Put your baby down awake. Don’t rock or feed your baby to sleep. A baby that is able to learn independent sleep is not only able to put themselves to sleep but put themselves back to sleep when they wake through different sleep cycles.

3. FULL FEEDINGS: Try and get your baby to eat full feedings. Once a baby is old enough and big enough (and you get approval from your doctor) babies can take all of their calories during their daytime feeds and therefore don’t have to wake up to eat in the middle of the night. Full feedings help ensure that your baby is well-fed.

4. IDEAL WAKE TIME: Find your ideal wake time. Depending on the age of your baby, you want to make sure you are putting them down to sleep before they get overtired. Baby’s wake time can range anywhere from 35 minutes- 3 hours based on their age. You want to find the ideal wake time for your child and follow their sleep cues to get them down for both naps and bedtime more easily.

5. BEDTIME ROUTINE: And establish a sleep routine for both nap time and bedtime. Babies LOVE routine and knowing what to expect. Make your routine sustainable, and get in all your cuddles before bed. The things you do will start to become sleep cues for your little one and will be part of the process of putting them to bed consistently and more easily.

Her Sleep Suggestions for Purchasing via Amazon

Products I Personally Already Use and Love From Her List

1. Hatch Baby Sound Machine – LOVE that you can control it from your phone and set it up on a timer to go on and off at certain times. You can also change the light color to teach your toddler when it’s ok to leave their room etc… ( I’ll let you know in a few years if that tool is effective haha, but sounds amazing!)

2. Kickee Pants (Best PJs for sleep control) – Senna lives in Kickee Pants. I love the zip ones because well… diaper changes are often, especially in the beginning!

3. Baby Monitor Owlet – is the monitor Melissa suggests. I LOVE the Owlet sock, it monitors the babies heart rate and oxygen level and was the only thing that allowed me to put Senna to sleep in her own room starting around 2-3weeks old. But personally I wasn’t obsessed with the monitor. It would sometimes shut off in the middle of the night (which as a new mom wanting to hear all night was concerning) and would make my phone a little hot 😉 haha SOOOO my top monitor pick is….

4. The Nanit Baby Monitor – I love that it has a background noise option, so it doesn’t overheat my phone and I can continue using my phone while still hearing Senna in the background. It also sends alerts. So, now I usually don’t even leave it on in the background during naps because it’ll just ping me with an alert when she’s moved or cried and I can tap on it to open the app. AMAZING!

5. Nanit Breathing Wear – Nanit came out with it’s own breathing wear which I used once Senna was about 6 months. There is this breathing wear band that can go over any sleep sac or this breathing wear that is a sleep sack swaddle for babies and this is the sleep sac with arms free for rolling babies – toddlers.

6. My personal favorite sleep sack is the Kangapouch from Sprout. It’s down so it’s just like our comforter that we sleep with where it helps regulate temperature – I cannot rave about this product enough. (I also love everything Sprout sells as they make sure it’s organic and good for the babies!)

7. Air Purifier + Hot and Cold Dyson – I LOVE this! It is pricey but you can again control it from your phone. Most importantly you can set it to an exact temperature and it keeps the room at that degree, ensuring it isn’t too hot or too cold. All while purifying the air as well.

8. Portable Travel Window – I haven’t tried this yet but just ordered it because I cannot tell you how many times we’ve gone to friends or on a trip and had no way to blackout the room and therefore a less than ideal wake up time from Senna haha!

Disclaimer: As always with products, do your own research and consult with your doctor!

Happy Sleeping!!!!!

With love, Chantelle Paige-Mulligan

With love,