This is the easy part. Take all of that soothing comforting stuff that you were doing during the day and only do it at night. When your baby wakes up at night for a feeding, creep into the room as quietly as possible. Say as little as possible. Change the diaper, feed your baby and leave. The first few times you may have to go back into the room because your child is used to acting just like you do during the day. Eventually, however, they will catch onto the idea that nighttime is when we sleep. If your baby has a mobile above their crib that has to be wound up, do not wind it up again. Otherwise, you will become nothing more than the robot that winds the mobile. If nighttime is boring enough, your child will be more likely to sleep.
During the night, your child will almost always sleep better if he knows how to comfort himself. Work at training your child to put in his or her own pacifier. Teach your baby how to find his fingers and toes. Before you know it, your child will fuss for a couple of minutes (which can seem like an eternity) then fall back to sleep. If your child likes music, play soothing music. However, do not under any circumstances play the same music during the day. If your child needs music for the afternoon nap, use a different CD.
What to do if your Child is in Daycare
After several months at home with my child, it was time for me to go back to work. For many parents, work beckons even sooner. You might think that you have no control over teaching your infant about the difference between day and night once she is in daycare. Fortunately, this is usually not the case. My wife has experience working as a daycare provider in a large capacity daycare center. In the portion of these centers devoted to infants, there is usually a room filled with cribs that is separate from the main room. When a child falls asleep they are often placed in that room. However, I once visited my wife at work and found several partially dozing children in the playroom. They were sitting in “bouncy seats.” When I asked my wife about the difference between sleeping children in cribs and sleeping children in the playroom, she informed me that some parents request that their babies remain in the main room except during the recognized nap time. While there are usually not enough seats to accommodate all of the infants, it does not hurt to ask.