The Sleepy Checklist

When you’re sleep deprived, your brain can’t quite manage the same tasks it nails when you’re well rested, and unfortunately, problem solving is one of the things it will struggle with most!

So, if your child’s sleep is a big problem, but your brain is struggling to find an answer; what do you do?!

Well, if you’re anything like we were before we sleep trained, a big cry and a cuppa is what you do! Next up, we’d recommend buying the relevant Sleepy Guidelines for your child through our Sleepy App – the golden advice in these has worked wonders for so many families.

But, for something you can do right now, we’ve come up with a checklist of questions that may help you make a start on saving your family’s sleep. Run your eye over down these lists and see if you can figure out a change that might work for your babe and your family…

 Baby’s sleep environment

• Is it warm enough/cool enough?
• Is it as dark as it can possibly be?
• Do you have white noise or ambient sound?
• Do they have an age-appropriate comforter?
• Is it calm (boring) enough? An exciting room can keep baby awake just from looking around.
• Does the baby feel happy or sad when they enter their room? If sleep is stressful, you may need to create some positive associations with the room.

Before bed/nap time

• Is your baby hungry or thirsty? These can really mess with sleep!
• Do you have a pre-bed routine? A bit of quiet time, then book, a cuddle, a song?
• Is your baby exhibiting tired signs? (And do you know what their tired signs are? This is key!)
• Does your baby need to go down earlier/later?
• Have you talked up how great their room/bed/sleep is during the day?
• Do they need a fresh nappy before bed so wetting through doesn’t wake them?

During sleep time

• Does your baby wake after a certain amount of time?
• What’s waking your baby? If they’re hungry, tank them up. Cold – more layers. Hot – less layers!
• Do you have a plan for how you’ll resettle them back to sleep? Make sure everyone in the family is on board!
• If they’re upset – can you settle them while they stay in their cot?

After their nap/in the morning

• If they slept well, did you give them lots of praise?
• Do they need a little cuddle before re-entering the world?

Mum and dad

• Have you and your partner talked about how you’ll approach sleep?
• If mum is breastfeeding and therefore associated with food, can the other parent deal with overnight wakeups?
• Are you and your partner on the same page with what you’ll do about bedtime and wakeups?
• Have you done everything you can think of? Do you need some extra help?

This is not everything, but it’s hopefully enough to give you that ‘oh, I need to try such-and-such’ moment. And if you need a little extra assistance, sing out! We’re here to help.