New parents everywhere are bound by a concern common to them all. How do you get baby to sleep and get her to stay asleep, so you can get some good shut-eye yourself?

Unfortunately you can’t anticipate when this is going to happen as you often can with other milestones in your baby’s life. You have a rough idea when you should expect her first smile, when solid foods should be introduced and when baby will be able to sit up unassisted. The one thing nobody can tell you with any accuracy is when you expect your child to give you that first good night’s sleep.

It is very important to start from day one in developing healthy sleep habits. Once everyone is getting to know the different signals, it will be that much easier to recognize those tell-tale signs that she needs to be put in bed.

Once baby reaches about two weeks of age, it’s time to start helping her to distinguish the difference between day and night. This is the first step to begin developing her sleep schedule. During daytime hours, take advantage of play time or singing using your normal tone of voice. Don’t stop yourself from daytime tasks. Baby needs to distinguish and grow accustomed to the variety of noises around him during the day.

If your baby wakes at night, it’s necessary to reverse the routine. Dimming the lights, reducing noise and other sources of stimulation are all necessary steps in teaching baby that night time hour are quiet. Try to keep a hushed voice, as well as not providing playfulness or animation, and he will soon make the connection that daytime hours are for being awake just as he will connect night with quiet time and sleeping.

Bedtime routines also play an important part in getting a bit more sleep. Try leaving bath time until right before bed. Warm water is very soothing to your baby, as is the whole bathing process. If you happen to notice that your baby gets too excited during bath time, this defeats the purpose of it being a calming experience. It might be best to move this to a morning ritual instead. Try to establish a new bedtime routine through soothing music or family bed-time stories.

Even when you are trying to establish a routine, when it comes to calming themselves many babies have challenges falling asleep. There are many opinions on the easiest way to help baby overcome these challenges.

One technique that has worked for many parents is the crying down method. This is something that can be tried once baby reaches approximately the 6 weeks old mark. Once you have checked and are sure your baby is not hungry and the other usual issues have been taken care of, you may want to try letting your baby cry a little until she calms down on her own. Starting with 5-10 minutes is fine, but if your baby is over-tired or over-excited this may take up to 20 minutes to achieve. Sometimes it’s difficult to ignore the crying, but try to wait the 5-10 minutes before you go into baby’s room. This procedure can be repeated for as long as it takes for baby to fall asleep on her own without the crying.

Some people struggle with the idea of letting such a small baby crying itself to sleep. If you are one of them, there are other alternatives you may find easier to deal with. An example of this would be when a parent decides to pay closer attention to the actions of the little one and cluing in on the signs that it’s time for bed. This method however could mean varying bedtimes each night. Some other parents may opt to lie close to baby, cooing and gently touching them to provide them with some comfort. Little by little, the parent starts moving further away from the infant, thus providing less interaction. This process gently weans your little one from needing you that close to them in order to fall asleep.

Any way you look at it, babies are precious to their parents, but they still need to sleep. Listening to a few tips from others and a bit of patience, a sleep pattern that is beneficial to everyone will soon show the way to that good night’s rest.