Early on, knowing that eventually your baby will develop a “normal” sleep pattern is sometimes the only thing that can keep you, a very sleep-deprived parent, going. For the first two months, or so, you’ll need to wake up your baby to feed. But after that, you can start making changes that will help your child sleep through the night (or near enough).

Make sure they’re dry
They won’t be able to sleep through the night if their diaper leaks. Prevent leaks by making sure you’re using the correct size diaper. Our previous blog post, How to Choose the Right Size Diaper, can help you with that. And you can always order baby diaper samples to find the best fit!

Keep things boring
Try to keep things low-key once it’s dark outside. Leave toys and playing for the light hours of the day. You’re welcome to interact with your baby, just try to keep the lights low and the excitement level at a minimum.

Let them figure out how to put themselves to sleep
This isn’t necessarily sleep training. It’s more making sure your little one doesn’t need certain things to sleep. Once your baby is more than a month old, try not to let them fall asleep while they’re feeding or being rocked.

Start a routine
Even if it’s hard to keep, try and create the beginnings of a routine. It may not be easy – since babies sleep so much, it’s tempting to just take them out to dinner or a party that goes past their “bedtime.” But if you’d really like to get them on a schedule, set a time to start getting ready for bed, then add in a bath, reading or snuggling.

What’s your best “sleep schedule” tip? We’d love to hear it!