My first baby is turning one this week and nights have felt rough lately. Lack of sleep can affect your entire day and how we function as parents -and humans for that matter. I’m no expert by any means, but hopefully these few tips for helping your baby sleep can be useful to you and your baby in some way.

1. Follow a sleeping routine. If we pay attention, our babies usually fall into somewhat of a routine themselves. That being said, I was a nanny to three dear children for 6+ years. They all slept so well and put themselves to sleep for every nap. I thought I knew how to do it when I became a mother. If found my own baby was harder to put to sleep than another’s. This was very hard for me to accept at first but knowing my bond was different with my own son helped me accept it better. The App Huckleberry may also be helpful for you.
2. Find a designated nap/sleep area. Our son prefers to nap in our living room which isn’t ideal. Like I said, I’m so expert here. But we are working on taking him to the nursery to nap as a routine. Baby’s love routine and knowing what to expect. Choosing the same location for a nap can let them know it’s nap time by just entering the room.
3. Close the blinds and add some white noise. We don’t have black-out curtains but I do shut my blinds. Robert prefers the sound of a fan over a white noise machine so we use that instead.
4. Apply magnesium lotion. I rub magnesium lotion on the bottom of Robert’s feet and legs before he goes to sleep at night and it really seems to help him relax and sleep better. I use this brand: 8 Sheep Organics.
5. Keep expectations low. This was the most helpful thing for me. I don’t want to expect too much out of my baby and make it unfair to him and myself. I will have bad nights ever so often. They are constantly growing and adjusting and their little bodies go through so much in such a little time.

Try different things if you do need help and be gracious to yourself. You were made for this!