Sleep training is a big milestone to achieve. From trying to get your little ones to sleep to making sure that they stay asleep for the next 8 hours may drive you nuts.
You may even notice that your baby is starting to develop odd sleeping patterns that keeps changing every day. At night, you may often find them standing up on their cots and holding on the rails tightly.
Why Is My Baby Standing In Her Cot?
The simple reason why your baby is now standing on his or her cot at random times is that their motor skills are now developing when they are 6 months old. They are now learning how to exercise their muscles and learn new tricks like standing and even walking.
While we would see it as a good milestone, your baby won’t know how to sit back down until they are exhausted. Sometimes, they might just fall on the crib’s railings and hit their head (more common and less painful than you might think!).
Helping Your Baby Get Down At Night
If you notice that your baby tends to stand up at a particular time during their nap or sleep, it’s important we get them down because they may too excited to sleep or take a nap in favour of their new discovery.
Once that happens, they’ll get cranky because they didn’t get enough sleep. It can also trigger anxiety for you as a parent (coupled with not enough sleep of your own) and if you do not keep your cool, your child will struggle against being laid down.
Ideally, when your baby stands up on their cot, you must immediately put them down the mattress and leave immediately. However, don’t go to sleep yet and check up on your child. If they stood up again after a few minutes, lie them back down.
As much as possible, don't linger too long with your child once you get them to lie down.
Tips To Lure The Baby Into Lying Down
If your child resists your efforts in getting them down and would even hold to the bars, you will need to come up with new ways to get them to sit down.
Here are some great tips you can try
If your baby keeps on holding on the bars of their cot, you can step away for a bit and leave for a bit before trying again. If they continue resisting, leave them for a bit. Resistance would only foster further complications. With some patience, your child would slowly get tired and learn why they need to lie down.
You can also try teaching your child how to lie down on their own during the mornings. This will help them become familiar to the act so if they somehow got themselves to stand up, they would instinctively try their best to lie down as you taught them.
While trying to teach your child to lie down, you can encourage them through song. A good way to do this is to sing them the song “Ring Around the Rosie”. As you sing, hold your little one’s hand and once the line “Ring around the rosie… and we all fall down” comes, easily sit them down on their bottom. Not only will your child find the activity fun, it will encourage them to try doing it for themselves. It may take you a week or two to see the results. You can also use games as an alternative.
During their naptime or when it is time to sleep, you can sing to your child or speak to them in a soft tone to get them to relax and feel sleepy. Once they lie down, you can stroke their cheeks or their back to get them to sleep. Of course, you have to make sure that you stop doing this before they fall asleep because it can teach them how to sleep independently.
You can also try to shorten naptime and get them active, letting them to play and stand as they please. Once nighttime comes, your child would fall asleep easily and deeply. I have found swimming for half an hour in the evenings help my baby fall asleep much easier and lessen the chance of her waking up.
Try revising your child’s nursery to make it more conducive for naps and sleeping. When your child is around 6 months to 1 year old, their senses are in full swing and anything catch their attention. If you create an environment that can throw their senses off and get them sleepy, your child won’t be able to resist sleeping. You can change the room’s temperature, change the curtains and close the large lights. If you are sleeping in the same bedroom as your child, do make sure that you have whatever you need in your bedroom before his bedtime and try not to enter your bedroom while your little one is trying to fall asleep.
You can also get a white noise machine or a music box to add to the mood. The humming or the soothing melody can lull your child to sleep.
Changing the crib of your child is also a good way to entice them to sleep rather than get them all adventurous at night. You can use crib nets or pack-and-play crib toys that would catch their attention. Gliders can also be a good way to lull your child gently. Just make sure that your child is older than 6 months old before you place any toys in his cot.
You can also purchase a baby sleeping bag since it could prevent them from moving around too much. It can also hold them in place since their legs can’t move much when in the sleeping bag.
Finally, if you are breastfeeding your baby at night, you can allow them co-sleep with you in your bed while they are nursing. According to studies, babies who co-sleep with their mothers and nurse at the same time sleep longer. It also reduces the chances of your child sticking to the rails on his own. While in bed with you, you can monitor them and ensure they sleep deeply.
Conclusion
Getting our baby down from standing on their cots may take time before our baby concedes and goes down on their own. As a parent, we have to be both consistent and patient with them because our child needs our guidance and forcing them would only cause a huge struggle from your child.
Of course, savour each moment as you help your child pick up the skills he needs because before you know it, they will be running circles around you.
If you want to know when we’re running our next talk on sleep or any of our other talks and workshops, go here on our website or join our Facebook page for more information.