Help Baby Snooze Better

Great sleepers are made, not born. Take back the night with this 24/7 guide. 

- Erin Zammett Ruddy

I’LL NEVER forget the night we hit rock bottom. My 10-month-old daughter, Molly, started whimpering at 2 a.m. By 2:07 a.m. she was loud enough to make my heart pound. My husband, Nick, rolled over and moaned, “She’s ruining our life.” Shamefully, I was starting to feel the same way. We had been on board for sleeping in spurts for the first few months, but this kid had taken the night shift to a whole new level. The real rub was that we knew it didn’t have to be that way. Molly was our third child, and, unlike what so many of our friends with three promised us, she was not the mellow one. She was our hardest baby, and for one reason: She was not a great sleeper. Our other two were. In fact, they were so good that I’d been feeling a little smug. But here’s the thing: They weren’t born that way. Nick and I helped them get there by creating a routine that worked for us, and sticking with it. With Molly we tried but were, well, tired. This story has a happy ending, however: Molly is a great sleeper now. She always had the ability all babies do! We just had to help her hone those skills and fix the mistakes we’d made along the way. “There’s no such thing as a bad sleeper, just bad sleep habits, and they’re usually reversible,” says Ingrid Prueher, a paediatric sleep consultant in Connecticut, US. Avoid these common sleep saboteurs, and you’ll enjoy your baby a lot more when you’re well-rested.

1. not starting a routine