At
the ages of 8-12 months, your baby will begin to need less sleep
during
the day and should be regularly sleeping
through the night. But
there’s
also much more activity and stimulation during the day –
babies are
eating up the world at this stage, they’re learning so much.
If
you’re feeding him baby food during the day, and decreasing
bottles,
make the last bottle feeding at nighttime. You can also have a bottle
in the night to soothe him if he wakes up. Babies are teething at this
time as well, and that can cause them to wake up in discomfort. You may
be weaning the baby from breastfeeding,
and that can be a difficult
transition as well.
There
are
different schools of thought on handling babies who are a challenge to
get to sleep. Some recommend letting the baby cry it out, but this is
hard on the parents, especially on mom who may have been comforting and
bonding with the baby all day long. It can see cruel to just let the
baby cry himself to sleep. He’s just a little guy, after all.
Take
extra care at this time to make sure the nursery is conducive to
sleeping. Make sure his diaper is clean and his sheets are clean and
soft. If he’s teething, use a topical pain treatment
that’s safe for
the baby. You can also invest in some homeopathic
tablets that ease
teething naturally. Make sure his nose is clear and not stuffy. If you
use a foam wedge to keep the baby from sleeping on his stomach, sleep
with a spare one night and then put that in his bed so that your scent
is close to him at night.
Make
sure
the room isn’t too cold or too hot; keep a humidifier in the
room to
maintain a good moisture balance, especially in the winter when rooms
can dry out. Your baby just might be stubborn about sleeping, but try
to figure out if there are physical problems that you can alleviate
first.
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