How We Got Our Baby to Sleep Through the Night at 6 Weeks Old
I think we can all agree that one of the most challenging aspects of life with a newborn is sleep and the total lack of it. We all want more of it and it usually takes time for your little one to get a bit older so they can sleep longer without having to wake up to feed and can settle into more of a routine. After sharing on my Instagram that our little one started sleeping through the night at 6 weeks old, I got several messages from you guys asking what we’ve been doing. A lot of this plays into the temperament (etc.) of your child and you should always consult with your pediatrician (every baby is so different and some just sleep better than others), but as requested, here’s what works for our baby to help her sleep through the night!
First things first — here are few quick things to provide more context, as well as info for those of you who may be new:
- This is my first baby and she is currently 8 weeks old. She’s been sleeping 6-9 hours (started with 6 and now it’s consistently 7-9 hours) at night since 6 weeks.
- Currently, we put her down at or by 11 p.m. and she typically sleeps until anywhere from 6 to 8:30 a.m.
We follow the Taking Cara Babies sleep course.
We took this course a few weeks before she was born and we found it to be so helpful. That’s where our techniques and strategies stem from, and I find that this course really teaches you to lay down a good foundation for success. I recommend it! You can also follow their Instagram account for tons of tips about all things baby.
I make sure she gets all of her calories in during the day so she doesn’t have to wake to feed at night.
We feed her every 3 hours during the day (or more frequently if she wants it — I breastfeed her and she eats on demand). If she’s sleeping and the 3-hour mark comes, we wake her to feed. If she’s super sleepy and doesn’t seem to want to wake up, a diaper change usually does the trick. Right now, she wants to eat pretty much every 1.5-2 hours during the day and her feedings usually last anywhere from 10-30 minutes.
Good daytime sleep = good nighttime sleep
Our pediatrician told us this and I totally agree now that we’ve seen it in action! You’d think that more sleep during the day would lead to less sleep at night, but that’s actually not true if they’re getting the *right* amount of daytime sleep. The last thing you want is for your baby to get overtired (we’ve dealt with a lot of this in the past!) because then they’ll be fussy and fight sleep completely. Giving them an opportunity to take the appropriate number of naps during the day for their age helps a ton.
Know your baby’s daytime wake windows and sleepy cues and use them to your advantage.
Clay’s wake windows right now are about 60-90 minutes for her age, so when that 60-90 minute mark comes around since she was last asleep during the day and she starts giving us sleepy cues (there’s more info on this in the Taking Cara Babies course, but I typically look for yawning and zoning out), we try to settle her for a nap. This helps prevent her from being overtired and it helps her get as much daytime sleep in as she can.
Love to Dream Swaddle UP
She sleeps in this swaddle every night and has since a few days after she was born. She seems to like having her arms up, so this is the one we decided to go with. Swaddling helps them to not startle themselves at night with their own movement and we love that this one zips from the top and bottom — it’s super easy to put on and take off, plus it doesn’t ride up over her mouth or anything like some other swaddles do. I recommend having two!
Set the mood: blackout blinds, sound machine, color-changing lights, warm pajamas, bassinet next to our bed
I think routine is key and utilizing each of these things every night helps her learn that it’s bedtime. We use the ocean sounds setting on our Hatch Baby Rest sound machine and the color-changing light setting at 1%. She loves looking at lights, so we always use the color-changing one so she can look at it if/when she needs to soothe herself back to sleep. She sleeps in her bassinet next to my side of the bed and she wears footed pajamas or a gown under her swaddle. She usually falls asleep (already swaddled) during her last feeding of the night and I lay her down afterward. I plan to work on sleep training even more so I can lay her down somewhat awake and she can learn to soothe herself to sleep. However, she does somewhat wake up half the time when I lay her down and she pretty much always is able to go back to sleep on her own after a few minutes.
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That about sums it up! Again, keep in mind that every baby is so different and it’s normal for babies to go through various stages of sleep change, but this is what has been working for us so far. There are definitely nights where it’s harder to get her to go down and I know we have sleep regressions ahead, but we’re taking it one day at a time and enjoying each and every day with a full night’s sleep like it’s our last! 😂