New dad Glenn Fleishman has learned seven ways to help his baby boy sleep through the night.
5. Small noises should be ignored at night. We were pretty ready to jump up and feed or comfort Ben when he made any sound at night. And that was fine in his early weeks when he wasn't a good sleeper and his melatonin hadn't kicked in to start helping him tell night from day. But more recently, we were still doing it. Our post-partum doula/sleep consultant said more or less, he'll tell you when he needs something; his peeps and snorts can be safely ignored because he'll rise out of heavy sleep into light and back into it many times a night. She was right. The minute we started waiting for real action–not minutes of screaming, but a real "wah wah"–we started getting real sleep. It's tough. But it's the way to go and doesn't damage the kid. When you leap up every time he or she peeps, you're disturbing his or her sleep, the sleep folks say.
