Pre-sleep training strategies

One of the things we advocate for here at Nighttime Heroes is not sleep training babies before they are ready. There are a few reasons babies are not ready to sleep train and all are different, but usually around the 4-month mark is when babies begin to reach their readiness for sleep training (and this is a conversation you would have with your pediatrician!)

Photo by Hollie Santos on Unsplash

Until they are cleared to train, you’re mostly living in survival mode. However, there are plenty of ways to help get you through it with realistic expectations.

1.      Use sleep aids and crutches to help baby sleep

Products like special sleep swaddles, smart bassinets, baby carriers, and other sleep-safe products are great for helping babies sleep during this time. For sleep training, we often recommend removing these types of sleep aids all at once, but for the survival stage these products are game-changers.

2.      Keep wake windows as short as possible

Wake windows in the early weeks are extremely short, and keeping them as short as possible ensures that they will be less likely to get overtired. Once they’re overtired is much harder to get them to sleep with assistance, so preventing this is key.

3.      Try to get naps to be at least 30 minutes long

Unlike older babies, naps at this age can be as short at 30 minutes and still be an appropriate amount of sleep for a nap. Recognizing this is a realistic nap can be helpful to level-set expectations about how much your baby is able to sleep during the day.

The most important thing to remember is that this stage does end and there is a light at the end of the tunnel, so if things are difficult during this stage – it will pass!

In the meantime, you can always chat with us at Nighttime Heroes to get some more tips on how to make the best of this stage.