My Drowsy Baby Won’t Sleep
Almost every infant sleep book or program mentions “drowsy.” If we are talking about newborns, you may have found that most instruct you to put your baby down drowsy but awake. Sometimes this works great, and other times it doesn’t…so now what?
This is where many of us get stuck! So let’s talk about what to do when your little one isn’t going to sleep.
As we move out of that newborn stage, drowsiness can actually become a sleep prop or sleep association - meaning your baby requires this help to fall asleep. If we think about sleep as a journey, and we start at point A (which is wide awake), and need to get to point B (drowsy) and then point C (asleep), how we make it to each step of that journey becomes important.
So to help your baby begin sleeping better, this is the journey that we need to fix! Our goal is to have your child able to make that journey all by themselves - or independently - so that each time you lay your baby down to go to sleep or they experience a naturally occurring wake-up between their sleep cycles, they can make the journey back to sleep easily and on their own.
Typically somewhere down the line of using drowsiness to help your little one go to sleep, it stops working. They begin waking up more throughout the night or during naps and they won’t be able to get from points A - B - C. They’ll be needing you to come back into their room to help them get back to sleep!
This process can become very frustrating for both babies AND caregivers! Constantly needing assistance to return to sleep can majorly interfere with rest for both parties. So our goal is to start teaching our babies how to fall asleep from point A. The only way to do this is to be cautious during your nap and bedtime routines to make sure your baby is not already getting into the drowsy phase.
What exactly does drowsiness look like? It can be difficult to read sometimes, so here are some things you want to be on the lookout for:
Zoning out or staring blankly. If you see your baby just staring off into space, this could be a sign of them getting drowsy. To avoid this leading to them drifting further into that first stage of sleep, talk to them, tickle them, or remove them from the breast or bottle if eating before you resume their feed.
Heavy blinking. This is a big sign of drowsiness, they are almost to the point of dropping off to sleep! Again, talk to them, sing, put them over your shoulder to burp, or tickle to rouse them a bit.
Closing eyes for several minutes at time during their bedtime feeding. Once out of those early newborn days, the more awake and alert we can keep our babies, the better they may eat AND sleep!
We ultimately want your baby to stay alert and awake throughout nap time and bedtime routines so when they go into their crib for sleep they are starting their sleep journey from point A.
If you just adopted this new strategy, you’ll likely receive a bit of protest. Don’t fret, this is actually a good sign that your baby was relying on that assistance to get to sleep. This struggle just shows that they are having a harder time starting and finishing the sleep process on their own. This protest will be short lived, it usually only takes a few consistent nights for your baby to learn how to start their sleep journey independently, and they may also begin sleeping through the night.
If you would like to chat about your family’s sleep challenges, I’m happy to connect to see if we can get to the bottom of your struggles! Email me at lauren@screams2dreams.com or book a free 15-minute call.
Sleep well!
