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Getting Babies to Sleep on their Own:

Some babies have a hard time going to sleep on their own, but most of this has to do with how the parents start them from when they are first born. When your baby first comes home from the hospital, if you put them to sleep each time with a bottle, they may end up going to sleep this same way even when they are 9 months old or even older.

While it is extremely hard to get a newborn to go to sleep without taking a bottle (this is so difficult because they tend to fall asleep almost every single time they eat), you can still start at an early age. Feed them as soon as they wake up, and if they tend to go to sleep right after that second feeding, make the feeding a little earlier than normal. Then, burp them after the feeding. By doing this, you might be able to help them stay awake through the bottle.

Then, when the baby is really sleepy, you shouldn't give the bottle back. But, you also shouldn't rock the baby to sleep, or sing the baby to sleep, etc. While it is enjoyable for the parents and the baby to put them to sleep this way, it's not near as enjoyable anymore when it has had to happen for every naptime and every bedtime for several years. Instead, you should wait until the baby is extremely sleepy, so sleepy that they can barely hold their head up, and lay them in their bed or bassinet.

If your baby wakes up when you lay them down or begins to cry, you can pick them back up for just a minute, but then you will want to lay them back down. You shouldn't wait until the baby is asleep to lay them down again, either. If you do this, it will only make them cry for you to pick them up when you lay them down every night. If you lay them back down and they still fuss, you can talk to them, pat them lightly, or rock their bed slightly to help them get to sleep and to remind them that you are there.

This won't work with all babies, and even when it does work with a child, it tends to take a while (a week or better) before the baby will realize that their bed is where they are supposed to go to sleep every time.

If you try this with your baby, and they still don't go to sleep, another option is to let them fuss for a while. If they start to really cry, you should go in and pick them up for a minute, pat them, and let them know that you are there. Then, when your baby calms down again, you should let him try to go back to sleep on his own.

Obviously it is not easy to train your baby to go directly to sleep in their own bed, and this is why it is best to start on them when they are as young as possible. Whatever a baby gets accustomed to when they are first born becomes a habit. Unfortunately, the longer you wait to change things or break their sleeping habits, the harder it will be.



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