How to help your baby sleep for longer
If your little one is a real early riser, here are some tips to encourage them to sleep a little longer
Whether your little one is still waking at night or sleeping through, there’s still the grey area of what constitutes time to get up in the morning. No parents expect to lay in until 10am like pre-baby days, but between 7-8 would be nice.
So what if you have a baby who is up with the larks and wants to begin their day at 5.30am when the sun comes up?
Some are just early risers, but do try these little tips that may just buy you an extra half an hour, or even an hour in bed.
Curtain heavy
Choose heavy curtains for your baby’s room that not only block out the light but can also muffle sounds coming from outside so your baby won’t necessarily be aware it is light and the birds are singing at 5am!
Move things around
Try a variety of bedtimes, see if a little later helps them stay asleep later or sometimes earlier before they get too tired can ensure a sounder sleep with less disturbances. Also be careful that they are not getting too much nap time during the day that would mean they need less sleep at night.
Give them company
It’s not advisable to put anything into your baby’s cot while they sleep under seven months. However, as they get older it’s OK to try an activity centre attached to the side of the cot. Therefore, if they wake and it’s still early they may be able to entertain themselves for a while longer.
Cheat
We expect it’s a highly risky theory but we’ve heard that some mums' have claimed that when they’ve been desperate for a lie-in they’ve woken baby 30 minutes before their usual wake time in the hope that they go back to sleep again and sleep for longer.
Hold fire for a few minutes
Just because you’ve heard a little babble from your baby, once they're older than six months, there’s no need to rush in to your baby’s room. Give them a chance to adapt to being awake without seeing you immediately and you never know they might fall back to sleep. If you go straight in, you’ll stimulate them which will wake them more and they will associate it with time to get up.