We are delighted to share a great guest post from Nadia Jones .... we will definately be trying these!!

Tips for Mastering a Bedtime Routine with a New Baby

If you arent a first-time parent, you probably know from experience how exhausting it can be to have a new baby. Once the excitement of giving birth to a living, breathing human being fades, you’re left with bags under your eyes and a mental state not dissimilar to a zombie. Of course, newborns and sleep deprivation go hand-in-hand, but there are some specific things you can do to mitigate the sleep problem and set up a schedule that is both structured but not too rigid. Here are a few ideas.

1.      Learn your child’s internal clock.

Although it may seem that the baby’s wants—hunger, fussing, sleepiness—are erratic and unorganized, they just seem that way to you because you are accustomed to a much more periodic time clock. Keep a journal and note what times of the day your baby becomes tired, hungry, upset, etc. After a few weeks of recording these times, you’ll be see a pattern emerge.

2.      Try to sync the baby’s internal schedule with your desired one.

Look over your journal to determine how you can adjust your schedule so that you and your baby are on the same page. For example, if you’ve noticed that your baby gets hungry at 6pm consistently then wants to sleep by 9pm, that means that your child will adjust to a schedule in which she eats three hours before going to sleep. As such, if you’d like her to be in bed at an earlier time, adjust the baby’s feeding schedule.

3.      Teach your child to differentiate between night and day.

Even though we have developed an internal clock that is synced with the daylight, newborns are active at erratic periods throughout the day. They eventually learn to understand that daylight hours are for activity while nighttime hours are for rest and sleep, but in order to speed up this process of learning, you can try to accentuate the difference. For example, try to keep your baby engaged while awake during the day by playing, talking, and simply doing. When it’s nighttime, even if your baby wakes up, don’t talk to her much, and don’t get up to do anything that would come across as a form of activity unless absolutely necessary. Soon enough, your baby will get it. 

4.      Don’t be too hard on yourself!

Anytime a newborn comes into the picture, there will always be an adjustment period. No matter how many baby books or articles exist, there will always be parents who will face inevitable challenges. You will likely feel that you aren’t prepared, that you aren’t doing something right. Remember that every parent has felt this way at one point or another, but especially at the beginning. Trust your instincts and don’t beat yourself up if things don’t go as planned.

Perhaps the hardest part about caring for a newborn is adjusting to a sleep schedule. Although everyone has a different opinion as to how to make the transition, knowing what’s right for you and your baby is most important, and it will always involve a process of trial-and-error. Good luck!

Author Bio:

This is a guest post by Nadia Jones who blogs at accredited online colleges about education, college, student, teacher, money saving, movie related topics.