Every parent-to-be should be ready for nights when they will be more awake than asleep. It is inevitable but only with newborns. After few weeks, your baby can get used to a natural day-night rhythm. Here are some of the things you can do with newborns to avoid problems with sleep later on:

1. Decide about the place where your baby will sleep at night and try not to change the place too often. It is up to you whether you want to have your baby as close to you as possible or you have prepared a separate bedroom for the baby, just make sure that you are comfortable with the arrangement. Some mothers prefer to have the baby in their own bed, while others can´t sleep when having the baby close to them because they are disturbed by every move of the baby. Do not feel ashamed of it - your baby needs a relaxed, happy mother. For me, it was comfortable to have my son next to me in our bed during the first six months. Then we moved him into his own bed but he is still with us in our bedroom. The only reason for that is that I still breastfeed him two times during the night and I would have problems to fall asleep again if I had to stand up and go to another room.

2. At night keep the lights in the room where the baby sleeps mild. It is a good idea to use a small baby lamp that allow you to check on the baby anytime without disturbing him.

3. During the night, change the baby´s diaper only when necessary. Do not talk or play with the baby. Your baby will soon realize the difference between night and day.

4. After five or six weeks, when the baby can stay awake after feeding for a while, make at least 15-minute-long break between feeding and sleeping. Do not use feeding as a method of lulling baby to sleep. Try to follow this rule at least in the evening, before night sleep.

5. During the day, do not let the baby sleep more than two hours at a time. There may be two, three or even four naps during the day but you should try to keep the baby awake for at least two hours (optimum four hours) before night sleep.

6. Introduce a "lullaby ritual" - do the same things, in the same order and pace every evening before putting your baby to sleep. Use calmer tone of voice, do not try to make the baby laugh too much (funny and motoric games and activities are ideal for afternoon, when you want to keep the baby awake). Lullaby ritual should end by putting the baby to bed still awake and letting him/her fall asleep by him/herself. Using any soothing method, like rocking the baby in your arms, using pram or some carrier, holding baby´s hand etc. until baby falls asleep will not allow the baby to learn to sleep alone. Your baby will then need your help every time he/she wakes up during the night and that can be as often as ten to twelve times, depending on how deep sleep your baby has. The bad news is that children start to have really deep sleep after one year of age but there will still be several phases of shallow sleep every night when the child might ask for the same thing that helped him/her to fall asleep in the evening - be it feeding, pacifier, rocking, carrying...This tip may sound rough, but the baby will learn to fall asleep alone quite easily. It may take several evenings but it´s worth it. After the lullaby ritual simply put your baby to bed, kiss him and leave. If the baby starts crying,wait for three minutes and go back, caress the baby, maybe tell him something and leave again. Wait for five minutes and if the baby still cries, go back again. With older babies, especially those that are already used to some soothing methods, it may take longer, maybe even up to an hour, but do not worry - your baby will know that you love him because you keep coming back and after few evenings (in worst case after two weeks) baby will get used to this situation and will go to sleep alone without any trouble. I started to do this kind of evening ritual when my son was four months old (until then he had health problems and I didn´t want to cause him another, however short and small, discomfort) and he started to go to sleep alone after only three nights and every one of those three evenings it only took him about 15 minutes to fall asleep. Since then he is utterly happy when he is put to bed, I kiss him and go out. Of course, from time to time there is a night when things are not so smooth but it is usually because of some health reason.

These two words are key to success. I believe that every mother feels what is goo for her baby but we, mothers, sometimes tend to do more than good, which can sometimes cause more trouble. And we can´t believe that our babies do not need to be with us all the time. Anyway, a good night sleep is beneficial for the baby and a blessing for parents, so why not try it?