How One Simple Change got my Baby to Sleep Through the Night

My friend Emily is a Mom information gold mine. It seems like she always has the best tips, has the same Mom Priorities as me, and has just the sweetest little babies, so when she told me what made her little darling sleep so well, and it’s so simple, I immediately thought “Duh! Why didn’t I think of that?!”

If you’re anything like me and my husband, you like the house cool when you go to bed. You can’t beat cuddling up with some extra covers and your hubby before going to sleep, and we happily set our thermostat to 68 before bed without realizing that we were effectively sabotaging our sleep (and cuddle!) time.

Emily had told me when our baby girl was just a month or two old that she regularly doubles up on the pajamas, often with socks and/or a onesie underneath, and we happily followed suit. A pair of socks, a sleeper, and a sleep sack was our bedtime ensemble for miss Grace, but she was still waking up 3, 4, 5 times a night, which was not fun for any of us.

Then, Emily came in clutch again. She mentioned how she put a space heater in her baby girls room, and boom. Game changer. We found our old space heater from our apartment days, threw it in Grace’s room, and she went from consistently waking up 5 times a night to maybe once. It was amazing! Just don’t get too caught up in this newfound sleep freedom, and make breastfeeding mistake #4 (read more about this here)

A word of warning for space heaters though- make sure it’s functioning properly, isn’t too close to anything flammable, and has an automatic shut off when it gets warm enough in there. Even then, I would suggest leaving the door open a crack to keep a little air circulating. We like this little stuffed puffin as our door stop- keeps the door from closing all the way, plus it’s easier to open and close the door without making any noise.

Another quick tip: try to breastfeed before bed. Your body naturally produces sleep-inducing additions to your milk at bedtime, which help your baby fall asleep faster and stay asleep for longer. Read about it in more detail here.

Have you found any other simple tricks that help your baby sleep through the night? Let me know in the comments below, and don’t forget to follow me on Instagram (@summergraceblog) to get more tips and tricks for mommy-hood.

And as always, have some fun and be kind to yourself.