What Can I Do If My Baby Wakes Up at Night?

“My baby wakes up at night,” begins the daily lament of new mothers. And with dark circles under her eyes, it’s the baby’s sleep habits that end up affecting the whole family. The new household member represents not only big changes in the home, but also a challenge for the parents.

Of course, all newborns and young children wake up with some frequency to satiate their needs in the middle of the night. However, we must make it clear to all mothers that this is absolutely normal. The main problem is that after waking up, it takes a lot of work to get a child to go back to sleep.

Every time children get up, their sleep cycle changes. This happens around 5–7 times every night. What complicates the picture is the difficulty these babies have when it comes to going back to sleep.

What can you do if your baby or child wakes up at night? Well, keep reading, because in this revealing article from You Are Mom, you will find the solution to your problem. You’ll see that it is much easier than you thought.

Trick for when your baby wakes up at night

Your baby wakes up at night. You check his diaper, his body temperature, let him breast feed, sing to him, and do everything in your power to get him to go back to sleep. However, that never happens. You get frustrated, you don’t understand what you’re doing wrong and you may even consider yourself a bad mother.

You are deeply mistaken, because in general, the reason he can’t rest has to do with the fact that he didn’t find the same picture when he woke up as when he fell asleep. Circumstances changed in the blink of an eye.

For example, if the baby fell asleep while breastfeeding, he’ll need to feed again when he wakes up. If the light has turned off since he fell asleep, it will scare him. These are small differences that undoubtedly make a difference.

There are other tricks for those occasions when the baby wakes up at night and it seems impossible to get him back to sleep. Keep in mind that the condition that most favors the baby’s proper sleep is a feeling of safety.

Then, tending to his tears, giving all your love, pampering, hugging, caressing, and kissing him endlessly during the day is very important. Likewise, singing, telling stories and even establishing eye contact is of vital importance when developing sleep habits.

How to introduce a sleep routine

Does your child wake up at night and not yet have an established sleep routine? If you haven’t put it into practice before, this is the ideal time to implement it. As a first step, use a transition object for better results: a bear or blanket that will comfort him and convey security when he doesn’t feel mom nearby.

The second tip is for both children and parents to understand and associate the bedroom with sleep, not punishment. Thus, in order to achieve this, it is convenient to use external elements that the child associates with rest.

Practice a real ritual before going to bed. The most common and effective is: bath, story, crib. This, however foolish it may seem, brings safety to the infant. This is the most important thing when it comes to falling asleep. It further strengthens the bond between adults and children.

In the hypothetical case that the little one delays falling asleep, stay close and speak in a soft and relaxed tone so that he can calm down. It is essential to calm your child without having to remove him from the crib so that the message the child receives is, “I can count on Mommy, but I have to sleep alone.”

Never forget that crying doesn’t always have to do with emotional and affective needs. Sometimes children cry because something is wrong. In fact, colic is a very common evil that can make them feel ill. So, follow your hunch and fully trust in your maternal instinct.