Share your pearls of wisdom about babies' sleep with Pampers and you could win a £200 John Lewis voucher NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

We’ve been asked by Pampers to find out what Mumsnetters’ pearls of wisdom are for getting your little one to sleep as much as they need.

Pampers say “Getting your baby to sleep as much as they need is the holy grail for parents, and everyone loves hearing their baby wake up in the morning with a giggle. Whether it’s teething, wind, or a damp nappy that’s disrupting those golden hours, every parent has their own tried and tested methods to help guarantee their little one has a restful slumber. Pampers Baby-Dry nappies with Micro PearlsTM stay up to 2 times drier than ordinary nappies, giving your baby the sleep they need to wake up giggling.”

Pampers are asking Mumsnetters to share their own pearls of wisdom for babies' sleep. They want you to post the useful nuggets of advice, the most valuable tips, which worked for your baby and which could help another baby to get a bit more shut-eye.

Whatever your top baby sleep tips are, Pampers would love to hear them.

Everyone who posts on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one winner will receive a £200 John Lewis voucher.

Please note your comments may be included on Pampers social media channels, and possibly elsewhere, so please only post if you're comfortable with this.

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

PS: To be in with the chance of winning a pack of Pampers Baby-Dry visit facebook.com/PampersUKIre or tweet @Pampers_UK and use #BabySleep and nominate another parent to do the same to help more babies get enough sleep! See facebook.com/PampersUKIre for T&Cs.

routine is by far the best approach! Nice warm bath, story and light off! Stick to it and the baby will soon get used to it and sleep easier!

I found that sleep became more of an issue when my baby was past the 'newborn' stage - much more stamina to stay awake! I also learnt about the 40/45 minute sleep cycle and this make elongating sleep a bit easier to understand and manage. Similarly, make sure the conditions in which you baby fall asleep remain the same - eg if you cuddle them to sleep, when they come into the lighter bit of the sleep cycle they will expect you to be there, and will wake up fully. Kind of like if someone took away your pillow and duvet while you were sleeping, you'd probably notice before the morning!

I also discovered that what works to help a baby to sleep one week, won't help the next. Equally 'sleep training' isn't a long term 'fix'; illness, a night away, clocks changing, can all take you back to square one. Sleep is unpredictable!

Sleep does indeed breed sleep; this has been one thing that has been consistent from newborn to toddler stage!

Routine and comfort are the most important things!

Buy a rocking chair!

Their little eyes are drooping tiredly before you can say mumsnet rocks!

I would say bedtime routine is good, but also don't compare your baby with others - there's always some baby that's sleeping perfectly at night!

Manage your expectations and don't get obsessed with when they'll 'sleep through'. They might not ever do it; mine didn't.

Once I'd accepted that they were naturally night-wakers through to school-age I stopped driving myself completely bonkers by trying a million different strategies.

And invested in a very good coffee machine

keep to a routine our night one was, bath time, pj's, feed, always fall asleep during that feed and put down to sleep. try and keep to the same times and routine what ever yours is.

Swaddling and dummy!

A drop of brandy on your finger and rub on the baby's gums when teething

Make sure baby has a regular daytime nap - this helps bedtime sleep for some reason! Establishing a routine before bedtime is important. This can include bath time, story time and bottle or beaker. Make sure room temperature between 18 and 21 degrees. When baby wakes, pop in and give reassurance you're there but don't take out of bed even if you'd really like to - unless of course, baby is unwell.

Luckily my daughter loves her sleep. Been doing bath, bottle, cuddles, bed routine since 2 weeks old (ish) and has slept 12-14 hours through the night since 3 months, with the odd disruption. She is now 5 months asleep 6.15pm-7.30am give or take!
Lucky momma.

Routine for me was the answer, wind down time before bed quiet dark room and a small musical toy that they took to and they went to sleep easily.

I ditched the baby gros at night - doing up all those poppers in the middle of the night was driving me crazy! Instead i bought long cotton baby night gowns which made night time nappy changes a breeze.

When I was pregnant with DD, DH used to sing a song to my bump that he wrote. When she was born, he sung the same song to her in the delivery room and she stopped crying straight away (I may have cried a bit at this point though). We've kept singing this song to her whenever she needs calming or soothing, and one of us always sings it to her at night time. It seems to help and (usually!) she drifts off to sleep. It's been one of the most beautiful things about being a mum for me.

We always bathed them, then put them down in a room with very dim lighting and I'd sing to them or play calming music, while stroking their arm.
If we were having a bad night, I'd walk round with them in a baby sling, soon settled them back to sleep.

DS wasn't a great sleeper as a newborn, but what really helped was tight swaddling. Then, at the earliest opportunity we bought him a baby sleeping bag. We found he was kicking off the covers and getting cold.

Recognize that your baby is an individual, and won't necessarily follow the same pattern as siblings. Look for sleepy cues, turn down lights and any sound (TV, music) and, if it helps, let them fall asleep naturally in your arms or on the sofa ... If it's less stressful for baby it will be less stressful for you.

dark room, nothing distracting, gentle rocking... straight off to sleep!

Routine. Try to do the same thing at the same time every night.

Keep things as calm as possible close to bedtime

As long as baby is happy, fed and dry and not upset about anything, I enjoyed every second that my babies were happy day and night.

A good bedtime routine, and watch for tiredness. Be realistic though and try and catch naps where you can as well

remember all babies are different and 2 babies will have the same sleep patern so don't get stressed if they won't sleep at said time try and keep things calm and peaceful and remember babies pick up on stress x

With my 4 its been the routine option that worked from a young age with all of them: Bath, read them a Book(or a couple), Bed.

If we were out and not at home it would be fine but routine returned the next day. It helped them all and if they woke in the night, it was a quiet cuddle and back to bed or snuggle up with me if they were too distressed from a nightmare.

I breastfed and he slept straight away after a feed