solutions to your baby’s night wakes

First things first, We know it's biologically normal for babies to wake at night. It's biologically normal that adults wake at night too. But often the struggle isn't in the wake itself but it's in the settling back to sleep or the knowing in how to respond to excessive night wakes... I know that's when the self-doubt creeps in & you start wondering what you must be doing wrong. For the record, you aren't doing anything "wrong" ever. And responding to your baby's night wakes is the first step.

I have put together a list of things you can look into and keep conscious of going forward with your little Bunz sleep to help optimize those nights and set things in motion for more settled sleep.

The feeds:
Take a look at your babies feeds over a 24-hour period. Are they age appropriate? Do they appear to feed more often or higher quantities during the night? If so, they could be "reverse cycling", which means they make up most of their calories intake at night rather than eating during the day. The solution is to focus on ensuring day feeds are often & nice big full feeds.

The day sleeps:
If your baby goes to bed at night overtired or under tired - this can play a MASSIVE role in the night wakes. We sometimes think that the less sleep they have during the day, the better they will sleep at night which couldn't be further from the truth. BUT I also see a lot of Bub's going to bed under tired too (probably because we can be so fearful of overtired Bubs). It's a fine line Mama & finding that balance isn't always easy. Check in with me to see if your Bub's Day naps are age appropriate.

Colic/reflux/pain/medical issues:
If your Bub suffers from any of the above, it's likely to impact on their sleep causing discomfort and/or pain. Your solution is to manage these things the best way that you can, seek help from your GP/pead if you haven't already. Hang in there, comfort your cranky bub, tag team with your partner or family/friend when you can and know these times will pass.

The sleep assocations:
The way in which your baby initially falls asleep and the things they relate with sleep are important. (Especially if they have strong associations) Overnight during sleep cycles, if your baby wakes enough to realise that their sleep associations are missing, they may need them back, in order to fall back asleep. Your solution would be to keep the way in which they fall asleep as close to the way things will be overnight so there aren't any surprises for them whilst they go through partial arousals.

NEW assocations:
Sometimes, we have things set up perfectly, things are going well - they are good little sleepers. Then they become sick, experience a regression/developmental leap, teething or anything slightly disruptive to their sleep which results in new sleep associations being formed. Sometimes it doesn't take long for these to form and it's inevitable as you're obviously going to comfort your babe while they go through these things. Your solution is to work on using the association less each few days or each new week to get them back to where they were.