3 Ways To Get Your Baby To Sleep Through The Night

seven months old, that all changed. He went to bed later and woke up two hours earlier. I was NOT a fan!

But the biggest problem was he woke up several times throughout the night. When this happens, mama wakes up in the morning COMPLETELY exhausted. This went on for weeks. I felt like I was The Walking Dead barely living and had to resolve this. He would wake up; I would give him his paci. Then he'd go back to sleep... or so I thought. He would wake in ten minutes, go back to sleep for a little while and wake again. This happened many times throughout each night. If I was lucky, he would wake only three times, but I was DESPERATE to get back to the Land of the Living.

This is what I found to work:

1. CEREAL--Your baby has to be old enough to already be eating cereal. With his last bottle feeding, give him some cereal. Not as much as you would give him for breakfast but more than a few bites. Since it's heavier than just a bottle, it will help coat his stomach. When this happens, it sustains him throughout the night.

2. SKIP A NAP--Don't change the time he goes to sleep. But you can try to take away one of his late naps, especially if he naps after 6 pm. This might help him become sleepier at night, but you don't want him to be so sleepy that he won't finish his last bottle and cereal.

3. GET HIM ACTIVE--In Texas, you can take kids swimming for a good five months out of the year, which is a great activity to exhaust him. You can also try the playground, a jolly jumper, a walker, play hide and seek and chase, or tossing a ball. Get all of his energy out so he won't be so restless during the night. This stirring can cause a baby to wake himself up.

When this occurred with my son, he couldn't find his paci, so he would fuss until he got it. It would happen consistently throughout the night that he would be so tired he wasn't able to fall asleep. That might sound weird (that he was so tired he couldn't fall asleep), but that's not uncommon in babies. They try to do things to keep themselves awake, as though if they fall asleep they will miss out on something spectacular.

Most things with babies are trial and error. So after a few days of consistently trying the same one, if it doesn't work as well as you'd like, try another one. Make sure you give it several days to take effect. Babies need time to adjust to a new way of doing things. And remember, every baby is different. What works for one, may not work for another. This is just a phase, so it will pass. Don't give up, because your baby sleep is important and so is yours.

Happy sleeping!