It can be a challenge to put a baby to sleep sometimes. Babies can be really tired and instead of falling asleep, they try to keep themselves awake. Here are a few things you can try to get your baby to fall asleep.
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How Do I Tell If My Baby Is Tired?
Sometimes it can be hard to tell if our baby is tied or not and different babies show different signs and not others, but here are a few things you can watch for.
One easy tell-tale sign I have noticed when babies are tired is that their eyebrows turn red. This might sound silly, but it does happen and if you pay attention you will notice it all the time when your baby starts to get tired.
A few other signs are yawning, staring off into space, and rubbing their eyes. I don’t rely on these signs quite as much because I don’t find them quite as reliable. Yawning and staring off into space can also be signs of boredom and they just need a change of activity.
9 Things To Try To Put A Baby To Sleep
Feed Them
This is a pretty controversial one and I’m not here to debate that topic I just want to help someone who may need it. Personally, I have fed both my babies to sleep and both have been able to fall asleep without eating as well.
While breastfeeding a certain hormone is released in your baby that makes them sleepy. And, if you are breastfeeding at night your milk contains melatonin to help your baby sleep. (babies don’t make melatonin on their own for several months)
This makes feeding them a good way to put a baby to sleep.
Rock/Bounce Them
People have been rocking babies to sleep for a long time. Rocking is a comforting movement for babies because it is a similar movement to what they felt when they were in the womb and you were walking around.
Bouncing is similar to rocking and can help put them to sleep in the same way. Sometimes when you can’t sit down and rock them, standing and bouncing them can do the trick.
Putting them in a swing that will rock them will sometimes do the trick as well, but it definitely doesn’t work as well as you rocking them.
Put Them In A Wrap
This trick almost always works for me. Babies have a need to be close, it helps them feel safe which relaxes them and helps them to sleep better. They are also close to your heartbeat, which is a calming sound to them.
All of these things make them feel safe and help them fall asleep.
Go For A Walk
Have you ever just laid in the grass in the sun and watched the clouds and trees move in the breeze? If you do, and you lay there for too long it will probably make you sleepy. Fresh air has a way of making you sleepy and without many distractions around and the calming effect nature has on us, it is easy to drift off outside.
This makes going for a walk outside a good way to put a baby to sleep. Taking them for a walk in a stroller or a wrap will calm them down and make them sleepy and they will often start to drift off to sleep before too long.
Take Them For A Car Ride
This trick only works if your baby likes the car. Our first didn’t (and still doesn’t) like the car and would not fall asleep no matter how long we were in the car for a while.
This trick does work on our second child though. If he is sleepy and we have to go somewhere, he will normally fall asleep not too long into our trip.
Riding in the car is very boring so there isn’t much for their brains to do, especially if they are still rear-facing and can’t see out the window very well. The car also provides some white noise, and of course, movement which helps to put a baby to sleep.
So if you have tried all you can possibly think of to put them to sleep, try going for a ride in the car, it may just work!
Sing To Them
Singing softly, or humming to your baby can help calm them down and put them to sleep. Turning on some music in their room can help them fall asleep faster and sleep better at night.
We like to use a sound machine that plays music and set it on a timer at night to help them fall asleep.
Rub Their Eyebrow
This little trick I accidentally discovered one day when I worked in a daycare. It was the first day for a little 8-month-old baby and she was so tired but was doing her very best not to fall asleep.
I had been rocking her and singing to her for a good hour and for some reason, there was something on her eyebrow that I saw that I was trying to brush off and while I was trying to brush it away she finally fell asleep. I didn’t really think anything of it, but the next day when I was trying to put her to sleep again and nothing was working it popped into my head to rub her eyebrow again, and it worked!
Now it is one of my tricks I use all the time if a baby is acting sleepy, but trying really hard to stay awake, I rub their eyebrow.
To do this, take your thumb or finger and slowly rub the baby’s eyebrow starting at their nose all the way over to the other side. Repeat this over and over again until the baby falls asleep. Normally they will close their eye every time you rub it and eventually won’t be able to keep them open.
Rub From The Top Of Their Forehead Down Their Nose
This trick is similar to the last one, but sometimes one works and the other doesn’t for some reason.
Take the side of your hand and rub it slowly from the top of their forehead down over the end of their nose just barely grazing your hand on their skin. Do this repeatedly until their eyes close, it doesn’t normally take very long if they are sleepy.
Read Them A Book
Reading a book probably won’t work to put a young baby to sleep, but it does work on an older baby or toddler.
You will want to choose a book that isn’t too exciting though, if the story is too exciting they probably will be too interested in the story to sleep.
Reading it slowly and plainly can help them fall asleep too. I like to make different voices for all the characters when I read a book, but if I am trying to get them to fall asleep it’s best to just use the same voice for everyone.
These are some of our favorite books we read to the kids to help them fall asleep:
I’ll Love You Till The Cows Come Home
Conclusion:
And those are my tips on how to put a baby to sleep. Let me know in the comments if any of them work for you and if you have a trick or two of your own to share!
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