Helping My Baby Sleep Before My Return to Work

8th April 2024 0 Comments

Welcome back to the third instalment of our blog series dedicated to helping parents navigate the challenging terrain of returning to work while grappling with a baby who struggles to sleep. As we look deeper into this topic, we explore effective strategies aimed at assisting you in establishing healthy sleep patterns for your baby aged 6 months or older before your return to work.

help baby sleep

As the end of parental leave approaches, the thoughts of returning to work can bring about mixed emotions for new parents. Among the many concerns is how to ensure your baby is sleeping well before you transition back to work. Establishing healthy sleep habits is not only crucial for your baby’s well-being but also for your sanity as you juggle work responsibilities.

Top Ten Tips to Help Your Older Baby Sleep Well:

1. Start Early:

If possible, start implementing good sleep habits a month or so before you return to work. This will give you and your baby time to adjust and establish a routine. It’s important to remember that every baby is different and may take some time for your baby to adjust to new routines. Be patient and flexible, and don’t be afraid to make adjustments if something isn’t working. It may take some trial and error to find what works best for your baby.

2. Understanding why your baby is waking in the night:

It’s common for babies to wake up during the night for various reasons, including hunger, discomfort, developmental milestones, or simply seeking reassurance. Identifying why your baby is waking can help you implement targeted strategies to help them sleep more soundly.

3. Aim for a regular bedtime:

Establish a regular bedtime for your baby and aim to keep to it as much as possible. Consistency helps regulate your baby’s internal body clock, making it easier for them to fall asleep and wake up at the same time each day.

4. Create a Calm Environment:

To signal to your baby that it’s time to wind down and sleep an hour before sleep create a soothing sleep environment by dimming the lights, putting toys away, turning off screens and reducing noise levels. Then together have about 10 or 15 minutes of quiet fine motor playtime; this will help calm and quieten your little one’s busy brain and is a wonderful bonding time for you both.

5. Develop a Bedtime Ritual:

Establish a calming bedtime routine to help your baby relax before sleep. This could include activities like a quick 5-minute “Spa-like” bath, then heading straight to the bedroom to get dressed for bed, and then reading a quiet bedtime story; it’s best to avoid books with flaps and sounds at this time.

help baby sleep

It takes commitment and consistency so it is best for both parents to decide on a simple bedtime routine that you are happy to stick to every night.
Try to make sure the routine is both relaxing and enjoyable so both you and your baby look forward to bedtime. There’s no need to take too long; your baby could lose focus and get distracted. Aim for your bedtime routine to last no longer than 45 minutes – 30 minutes is often ample.

6. Consider if your older baby has sleep on-set associations:

As babies get older, they can understand cues for sleep and start to recognise the start of their bedtime routine means it’s bedtime.
Babies often develop associations between falling asleep and certain factors, such as being rocked to sleep and while sleep associations may initially help your baby fall asleep, they can also contribute to night wakings. As your baby completes their sleep cycles during the night, they may naturally awaken and stir. At times, they may fully wake up and need your help once again to help them to get back to sleep.

Gently weaning your baby from sleep onset associations can be a gradual process that involves introducing new sleep routines to gently transition your baby away from sleep associations. For example, if your baby is used to being rocked to sleep, gradually decrease the amount of rocking each night until they can fall asleep with minimal or no rocking. Start initially with just bedtime, when your baby’s sleep drive and melatonin levels are high and will help your baby fall asleep more easily.

7. Overtiredness:

Ironically, overtiredness can also lead to more frequent night wakings. When babies become overly tired, their bodies produce stress hormones that can make it harder for them to fall asleep and stay asleep. Establishing a consistent bedtime routine and ensuring your baby gets enough daytime sleep can help prevent overtiredness and promote better sleep at night.

8. Environmental Factors:

External factors such as noise, light and temperature can also affect your baby’s sleep. Create a calm and soothing sleep environment by preparing the bedroom; with a small night light with a warm orange/amber or red colour that will not interfere with sleep. Check the room temp to ensure it’s between 18 and 20 degrees C.

9. Falling asleep

Around 15 minutes before you want your little one to drift off, end the bedtime routine by saying “goodnight.” Many parents have a special phrase they use every night, like “Time for sleep, love you, see you in the morning.” Then, give your baby a kiss and cuddle before tucking them into bed for the night.

help baby sleep

10. Napping well helps with night sleep:

Getting regular naps during the day can help improve your baby’s nighttime sleep. Consistent nap times help regulate the internal body clock, making it easier for little ones to fall asleep and stay asleep at night. Being over-tired can increase cortisol levels which may impact the quality of your baby’s sleep, making it less restorative and more fragmented and be the cause of early rising.
However, too much sleep in the day, especially close to bedtime, may mean your baby hasn’t had time to build good levels of “sleep-drive” (adenosine) and may struggle to fall asleep at their usual bedtime.

If you would like more information on naps head over to our nap guide.

Don’t hesitate to reach out for support from family, friends, or online communities for parents. Sharing experiences and seeking advice from others who have been through similar challenges can provide valuable reassurance and practical tips for managing night wakings.

If you would like to speak to one of our sleep consultants about how you can guide your baby towards better sleep, please reach out today. We can chat with you about how we can help offer practical and gentle sleep strategies.

You find my blog on Balancing work and your baby’s nighttime waking a helpful guide.

Feel free to give us a call if you’d like to chat about your little one’s sleep! We’re here to help.

Written by Mandy Gurney RGN.RM.Dip HV.

Founder Millpond Children’s Sleep Clinic

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When feeling overwhelmed by tiredness and in need of real sleep help, Millpond’s ‘Teach Your Child to Sleep’ is a much welcomed, well researched resource. This is an easy read with a practical nurturing approach that walks you and your child through to a good night sleep.
Rozanne Hay, UK Representative and Director for Continuing Education IACSC International Association Of Child Sleep consultants
The Millpond approach is non-prescriptive and [their] book offers lots of choices for parents to match their own goals and parenting styles. I would heartily recommend it for anyone already experiencing problems with sleep or to set up good sleep habits proactively.
Melissa Hood, founder of The Parent Practice
This baby and child sleep guide is the perfect combination of accessible science, Mandy’s years of experience and a mother’s warmth. I love the way things fall into place with Mandy’s clear and thorough explanations!
Diana Hill, co founder of Essential Parent
Millpond’s brilliant blend of commonsense, encouragement and understanding – plus a highly logical strategy that is easy to implement – changed hell into heaven literally overnight. My entire family is thus indebted to Mandy and her team.
Freya North, Author
I am a GP and would recommend Millpond to any sleep deprived parents; you cannot put a price on sleep. Thank you so much. I only wish I hadn’t waited 19 months.
Vanessa, GP
We are so happy that we put our trust in you to help us with what has been a huge problem for our family for almost 2 years. We are finding time to relax and time for each other and I did not realise how much we missed this time.
Ben
As a family, we were sleep deprived. The tailored plan for our son made it personal. I am really pleased with what we’ve achieved during the programme and I am thankful to Juliet and Millpond.
Evrim.
We were at rock bottom. Our son has a neurological condition, so I was nervous and and wanted a sleep clinic who had experience of this and would adapt to the needs of our son. Our lives literally changed overnight!
Shurron
Within weeks our son was waking only once a night. The investment we made into Millpond was one of the best we’ve ever made. It gave my son a solid night sleep and consistency. It gave me and my husband our sanity back.
Shurron
I am delighted. I was aiming to go from 6+ wakes at night and feeding to sleep 100% of the time to 1-2 wake ups and some ability to self-settle. After doing the plan for less than 6 weeks my daughter started sleeping through the night.
Katie
My daughter is now having quite a bit more than the average sleep for her age and it’s lovely to see her waking up naturally. I’m also waking up naturally and feeling much more refreshed for having a regular sleep routine myself!
Louise
We are so happy we could jump for joy, we wish we had spoken to you ages ago. Using Millpond has built our confidence and made us feel on top of it at last. You really gave us some life back!
Sarah
I live in Switzerland so it is really quite remarkable that Millpond was able to help me over the phone and by email. When you have slept you can deal with anything!!
Melanie
We still can’t believe that such small changes have made such a difference to us and Alice. She has even slept through while on holiday in a travel cot.
Louise
We are just so sorry we did not get in touch sooner as we went through 18 months of no sleep.
Ann Marie
Thank you, thank you, thank you!! We never thought life could be improved so greatly. You showed us the light. Luka is much happier and loving his sleep now.!
Diane
Alex is sleeping beautifully again and is now quite happy to lay in his cot singing until 7.30/745 am ( Godsend!) and sleeps very happily through the night again. Thank you so much!
Sandy
Very happy to say that Joshua, who you helped us with, is now sleeping a regular 11 hours a night uninterrupted. In fact, getting him up some mornings is a real challenge!
John
Mandy has been an absolute saviour at a time which was starting to feel quite bleak in terms of our little one’s sleep. The personalised advice and guidance has been invaluable.
Mary
“My husband and I reached out to the Millpond Sleep Clinic when our son was 10 months old. We had spent months in vain trying a variety of sleep training tips that we had picked up online, in a desperate attempt to get our son to sleep for more than 2 hour stretches! Nothing seemed to work. I remember crying whilst breastfeeding for the 5th time one evening, desperately begging my little one to sleep. We felt like we had been failing for a long time, as my circle of mum friends had all got their babies sleeping through so much earlier. I needed to get more sleep, with the return to work looming ever closer.

When we called Millpond, we were quickly introduced to Juliet who immediately took the pressure off us by providing a detailed “plan of action” based on what she had heard about our son’s sleep routine. After just a few nights, we already started to see big sleep improvements, and we worked confidently towards reducing our son’s night wakings and the duration of his night feeds. After a couple of weeks we had gone from 4-5 night wakings to just 1… and a few weeks later, our son started to sleep through! The biggest relief ever.

Throughout the whole process Juliet had been knowledgeable, kind, reassuring and made herself available to answer our questions over email between our sessions. Her experience as a mother herself, and highly trained sleep professional shone through. We can’t thank you enough for helping us through a rough time – and seeing us through to better days (and importantly, nights!!)
Cheryl