14 Ways that May Get Baby to Sleep Through the Night: The Maeleth Method

22/6/2017

14 Ways that May Get Baby to Sleep Through the Night: The Maeleth Method

You are reading: 14 Ways that May Get Baby to Sleep Through the Night: The Maeleth Method

Getting your baby to sleep through the night could be number one on your prayer or wish list right now.

We've been there, praying and waiting for the fabled "sleep through the night" to finally happen, and it did.

Our daughter Maeleth (At the time of writing this post, she is 16 months old) sleeps through the night unless she is sick or teething.

Through this post, we would love to share with you the methods that we use to help Mae sleep through the night - we call them collectively as "The Maeleth Method".

These methods work for Mae, and we hope that they will work for your baby too. Without further ado, here we go:

1) Diffuse Essential Oils

We have a diffuser which we use to mainly diffuse lavender essential oil before Mae goes to bed.

Inhaling the calming and fragrant scent of the essential oils helps Mae to get sleepy real fast, and go into deeper sleep than if we don't diffuse it.

This is one simple method that may help to get baby to sleep through the night.

2) Rocking motion or Patting the back

Somehow a gentle rocking motion at a consistent rhythm helps to soothe and comfort Mae to sleep.

I usually carry her in an infant cradling position, with her head on the crook of my arm and her legs draped over my other arm.
This method is used only when Mae needs an extra feeling of security and comfort, especially when she is sick or teething.

Otherwise, simply gently patting her on her back, thigh or buttocks area at a consistent rhythm while she's lying on her tummy sends her off to sleep.

This is a very easy method that might help to get baby to sleep through the night.

3) Baby Foot Massage

Sometimes when I notice that Mae is having some trouble falling asleep, tossing and turning with her eyes still wide open, I give her a simple foot massage.

With my thumbs, I gently rub the bottom of her toes in a circular motion, and then move on to do the same to her soles, from the heel up.

If I do a good foot massage, she usually becomes noticeably much sleepier than before, making it easier to let her fall asleep.

This is a method worth trying out to help get baby to sleep through the night.

Add some fragrant baby massage oil to make the massage so much more enjoyable for your baby!

4) Perfect Temperature

This is an issue that we have struggled with ever since Mae was born. It is very difficult to get the perfect temperature for her.

She perspires easily, and if it's too hot, she will wake up crying, with her head drenched in perspiration.

If it's too cold, she also wakes up bawling and her sleep is disrupted.

How we adjust the temperature for her now is that we don't use the air conditioner, only two fans.

The air con gives Mae a runny nose because of her sensitive nose, that's why we don't use it.

Her room has no window open for ventilation so we simulate it by blowing two fans.

One fan blows in from outside the door, to circulate the air in the room.

The other fan inside the bedroom swings left and right to ensure that it doesn't keep blowing at Mae which will only cause her body to get colder and colder.

Another way to 'adjust' the temperature is through your baby's clothing.

If your baby chills easily, dress him or her in warmer clothes.
But if your baby is like Mae who perspires easily, then we recommend that you dress him or her in breathable, thin clothing.

We love dressing Mae in her Uniqlo Baby Mesh Rompers at home.
It's super comfy and cooling, and she's worn them ever since she was a newborn and can still barely fit in them.

They have since acquired an adorable baby scent from Mae's repeated wearing!

These methods of adjusting the temperature may help to get baby to sleep through the night well.

5) Almost Complete Darkness

Before soothing Mae to bed, we make sure that we turn off all the lights in and out of the bedroom, making it as dark as possible.

Mae sleeps well in complete darkness and has no fear of it. We don't tell her things to scare her about the dark.

If your baby has trouble sleeping, could it be that the room is too bright because of a certain light source that didn't seem to be the problem? You can check that out.

This is one method that may help to get baby to sleep through the night.

Is your baby afraid of the dark? Then consider installing a small night light to give him or her reassurance and a feeling of safety.

6) Relaxing Classical or Worship Music

Yes seriously! Classical music makes the room feel like a spa parlor, especially with the accompanying essential oil smell in the air.

I like to choose music pieces that don't have bass beats, no percussions, only soothing and gentle sounding instruments.
Violin and piano are good choices.

Mae is a music lover and responds well to music. It affects her greatly. Music can cause her to break into a dance. Soothing ones cause her to sleep better.

My current 3 favorite classical music pieces to soothe Mae to sleep: "Village of Dali" from Final Fantasy IX, "Always With Me (Instrumental)" from Spirited Away, and "Mononoke Hime (Instrumental)" from Princess Mononoke.
These music tracks can all be purchased on iTunes music store.

As Christians, we believe in the power of anointed worship music to instill faith and to drive away dark demonic forces.
My current favorite acoustic song choices to soothe Mae to sleep are by Hillsong: "What a Beautiful Name" and "In Control", both from their "Let There Be Light" album.
You can purchase the songs or the full album on the iTunes music store too.

We believe that playing classical or worship music is a good way to get baby to sleep through the night.

7) Make Sure that Baby is Full Enough

We like to feed Mae her milk just before her usual bedtime to ensure that she stays full enough to sleep through the night.

If we feed her the milk too early, she will definitely wake up in the middle of the night to drink more milk.

To ensure that Mae is hungry enough to properly finish all her usual portion of fresh milk (she can drink 250ml per feed now), we avoid giving her snacks or any food when it's about to be her milk time.

You don't want baby to be neither full nor hungry. That's just awkward and a recipe for middle of the night wakings.

Time your baby's nighttime food routine close to his or her bedtime and it may help to get baby to sleep through the night!

Additional note: Mae uses Dr Brown's Natural Flow Milk Bottles to drink milk ever since she was a newborn and never had any problems with colic.

Colic is also a possible reason for discomfort and wakings in the middle of the night.

Try Dr Brown's bottles if you are looking to try another reputable brand!

8) Change to a Fresh Diaper Before Going to Bed

Just before Mae goes to bed, we wear a 12-hour diaper for her, namely "Drypers Drynights" which is extra absorbent and able to last though the night, giving baby comfortable sleep.

I would imagine going to bed with a wet diaper pasted against my body isn't the most comfortable way to sleep.

Similarly, we want to avoid doing that to our babies too.
Changing into a fresh and preferably 12-hour diaper may help to get baby to sleep through the night.

9) Have a Comfort Toy to Hug

Mae is currently in love with her Peppa Pig doll.
She loves the Peppa Pig cartoons so naturally she will feel more attachment to the Peppa Pig doll than other toys.

That is why we put her Peppa Pig doll next to her before patting her to sleep.

Having Peppa there comforts her and maybe having something she loves sleeping next to her makes her enjoy sleeping more.

What is your baby's favorite comfort toy? Try putting it near him or her during bedtime.

Oh yes, Peppa gets to sit in Mae's cot too after Mae falls asleep. Peppa is the VIP who gets to be in there!

This is a method you can consider using to help to get baby to sleep through the night.

Don't know what comfort toy your baby may like? Try getting his or her own lovable and huggable Peppa Pig doll!

10) Prepare a Disturbance-Free Environment

Turn off the TV... Definitely avoid self-sabotage - keep that noisy object that makes a loud crash noise when it drops someone else where it's safe.

And that stool that you always accidentally kick in the silence of the night? Tucker it deeper under the table!

Make your house and especially the areas near your baby's bedroom loud-noise-creation-free during baby's bedtime.

This will definitely save one from that unexpected middle of the night waking that is so unnecessary, all due to some careless mistake.

A disturbance-free environment could possibly get baby to sleep through the night.

If you decide to be like us and play classical or worship music for your baby to encourage him or her to sleep through the night, you could also consider a installing a sound machine in baby's room to play the music!

It will probably help to mask any unfortunate disturbing noises that you may accidentally make!

11) Wipe Off All Perspiration and Stickiness

As I mentioned above, Mae perspires easily. As an active girl, she likes to run around the house to areas that do not have a fan blowing at her.

If the air con is off, then you can be sure that she will start to perspire.

When this happens just before bedtime, Mae's whole body is sticky due to the perspiration.

What we do to freshen her up and remove the perspiration is to wipe her whole body with a head-to-toe body washcloth.

We especially target the folds on her neck, armpits, crooks of the arms, and behind the knees.

It is really quick and it also helps Mae to feel more comfortable, leading to better sleep.

If you have a baby who perspires easily too, this is a method that may help to get baby to sleep through the night comfortably.

12) Nap Enough During the Day

When Mae gets woken up in the middle of her nap for whatever reasons, she ends up sleep-deprived, but that doesn't always mean that she will sleep through the night on that day.

In fact, what we experience is that she becomes cranky and more fussy.

During those days, Mae tends to wake up in the middle of the night, crying loudly.

Make sure to let your baby nap enough during the day, as far away from bedtime as possible.

You can help your baby to nap better by using some or all the other methods shared in this blog post.

By getting him or her to nap enough, it may help to get baby to sleep through the night.

13) Solve Teething Problems

Is your baby experiencing teething problems? How do you tell?

When Mae is teething, she keeps putting her hand in her mouth to touch her uncomfortable and itchy gums.

She also drools more and may develop a fever.

If your baby is teething, head over to my other blog post "7 Simple Methods We Used to Solve Baby Maeleth's Teething Problems and Get a Good Night's Sleep" and it may help to get baby to sleep through the night.

14) Reduce Sickness Discomfort

It sucks to fall sick. When Mae is sick, she is noticeably uncomfortable, lacking energy, and probably in a bad mood.

When Mae had a fever and other symptoms like runny nose, blocked nose, etc, we learnt from experience that it's best to seek medical help ASAP.

Now when Mae exhibits such symptoms, we bring her to see a pediatrician ASAP and get the medicines to reduce her discomfort.

What I learnt from one of the pediatricians that treated Mae is that baby medicines cannot cure the sickness, but it can help to reduce the discomfort while the body is fighting off the sickness and recovering.

When Mae has a fever, she takes the medicine that is prescribed by the pediatrician.

We also use 2 additional methods to cool her body down to reduce the discomfort caused by the fever.

You can find out what those 2 methods are in the blog post link that I provided in method number 13.

If your baby is sick and feeling uncomfortable because of it, you can use the above-mentioned methods and it may help to get baby to sleep through the night.

I hope you enjoyed reading my post on "14 Ways that May Get Baby to Sleep Through the Night: The Maeleth Method".

Is your baby sleeping through the night? If so, how do you get him or her to sleep through the night? Share your answers with me by leaving a comment below.

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Many Blessings,
Milton Goh

14 Ways that May Get Baby to Sleep Through the Night: The Maeleth Method

3 Comments

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