In the very early days with your newborn baby, it is unrealistic to expect long, uninterrupted nights of sleep. Demand feeding, the need for reassuring cuddles and your baby's lack of awareness of the difference between day and night can all contribute to disturbed sleep for you and your partner. By around six months, however, it's reasonable to expect more prolonged periods of sleep, and some babies will happily sleep through the night at this age. If your baby is showing no signs of settling, though, follow our advice for a guaranteed peaceful night's sleep for all the family.

Ready For Bed
If you found it difficult to establish a bedtime routine when your baby was young, don't worry, as six months is not too late to start. At this age, your baby will probably recognise bedtime cues more readily, as she has a greater understanding of her world. The chances are that your six month old is already settled into some sort of daytime routine with established meal times and play sessions - perhaps even regular naps.

Our body clocks are linked to meal times so the daily bedtime routine could begin with your baby's tea. She will need plenty of time to get used to the idea that her day is coming to a close - if you rush her into bed, she'll only panic at the sudden sense of separation from you.

After tea, spend some time playing, reading or singing with your baby, but keep your activities low key so that she begins to wind down and isn't stimulated. Follow her playtime with a bath, final feed, a brush of her teeth and bed. These rituals become linked with sleepiness and are known as sleep-associated behaviours. Make sure your keep your routine the same each day.

Teddy Time
You may have resisted putting toys into your baby's cot for fear of suffocating her, but as long as she can roll over unaided, it is quite safe for her to go to bed with a soft toy. Make sure that her teddy bear is tucked up and waiting for her when it's time for bed, so your child associates seeing teddy with going to sleep. Eventually teddy's reassuring presence should help your baby get herself back to sleep if she wakes in the night.

Spend some time cuddling your child's teddy, so that it smells of you. Your child will recognise your smell and feel comforted if she wakes.

Not Too Many Naps

Handy Hint

Take up every offer of help you can get, even if it's just enough time for a bubble bath. If you're finding life a strain contact your health visitor, who should be able to organise some support.

It may be that your baby sleeps too much - or too late - in the day. Experiment with her daytime naps by altering your own routine. If, for example, she often falls asleep in the car in the late afternoon, try to avoid driving at this time of day. Instead, arrange to be at home playing, or, better still, in the stimulating company of friends. This may be impossible, however, especially if you have older children to collect from school. See if you can arrange to share the school run with a friend - or try walking to school with your baby in her pushchair. If she still falls asleep, despite all your efforts, then just wake her when you get home.

Don't be afraid to wake your baby from her morning nap. Try different combinations of daytime sleep until you find a pattern that encourages more sleep at nighttime.

Some mums swear that a good daytime nap helps their baby sleep better at night. Often babies that don't sleep during the day can become wound up by the evening, and won't sleep through the night.

Give Her Some Space
Current advice from the Department of Health is to have your baby sleeping in your room until she's between six and nine months old, to help reduce the risk of cot death. Most babies are ready to make the move by this stage, even if you have some doubts. You baby will be more easily disturbed at this age, and may wake up when you get into bed or if you or your partner cough or turn over.

It's also at around six months that your baby develops the ability to keep herself awake if disturbed - a skill she didn't have when she was younger.

Choose a time when other parts of your baby's life are settled. It's not a good idea, for instance, to move her to her own room when she is already coping with you going back to work.

Neither is it fair to move her if she's experiencing separation anxiety, which commonly occurs between seven and nine months. In this case, wait until she's around 10 months, by which time she should be over her clinginess.

Don't Cut Her Off
Some parents believe that babies need absolute quiet in order to sleep, but many babies can be unnerved by total silence - especially after being in a busy, noisy environment for most of the day. By all means keep your baby's room peaceful, but don't cut her off altogether from the family sounds coming from downstairs. She is less likely to feel alone or abandoned if she can hear that you are nearby. She may also object to sudden darkness so try leaving the landing light on until she goes to sleep.

Some babies find songs and music soothing, so try leaving a tape playing softly in her room. You can also buy light shows, which project dreamy images on to the bedroom walls and ceiling, while a lullaby plays. Try story tapes too - the reassuring voice may send her off to sleep.

Night Feeds
By the age of six months, your baby should no longer need to feed in the night, especially if you've started weaning her. If she's still waking and demanding milk, it's probably more for comfort than out of hunger. It can be more difficult to wean a breastfed baby off these comfort feeds than a bottlefed baby. One way could be to ask your partner to cuddle her back to sleep when she cries, so that she won't be able to smell your milk. Eventually, when she is no longer looking for the breast, you can take over comforting her again until she realises there is nothing to wake for. It may take a while but she will learn to manage without you.

If you want to wean your bottlefed baby off night feeds, try putting water instead of milk in her bottle. If your baby is not easily fooled, you could try giving her diluted (milk and water) night bottles until she will accept water instead and eventually, nothing at all.

Handy Hint

The more relaxed you are when it's your baby's bedtime, the more likely it is that you will both get a good night's sleep.

Early Waking System
Morning sunshine filtering into your baby's bedroom, especially in the spring and summer months can wake your baby earlier than either you or she would like. One way of ensuring her room stay dark in the mornings is to buy black-out curtains or a roller blind. These are available from large department stores and will cut out virtually all daylight from her bedroom, helping her sleep longer. However, it is a good idea to allow a little indirect light into you baby's room, perhaps via a landing window, so she feels reassured and can see where things are.

Some babies, especially those who can sit up on their own, are happy to amuse themselves for a while after waking, as long as they have something to play with. Try leaving a soft book or a favourite toy at one end of her cot.

Three Steps To Success
If your baby finds it hard to settle, it could be worth following this sleep training regime - recommended for babies over six months old only. This programme may help your child fall asleep on her own and it takes about a week, but works for most babies.

Follow the same pattern each night:

1. When your baby cries, reassure her in her cot. Kiss her and say goodnight, then move away. Busy yourself in her room before returning to reassure and kiss her again, showing that you have things to do, but you're still there for her.

2. If she continues to cry, move slightly further away, still reassuring her that you'll be back soon. Make yourself busy as before, then keep your promise.

3. Gradually move further away. Leave the room for a couple of minutes, but never leave her to cry for long periods of time. Five minutes is too long as by this time, your baby will be crying in real fear of being left.

On the first night, you may have to return to your baby repeatedly over several hours, but by the second night, things should improve. By the third night, things should be much better; on the fourth, dramatically so. You may experience disruption on the fifth night, when your baby tries to go back to square one. Persevere, and by the sixth or seventh night, she should be settled.

Last Resort
If all else fails, try one of the following:

• Have nights when you go to bed at the same time as your baby or soon after. Prepare food earlier in the day so you can eat early and warn friends not to ring you after 8pm.
• Arrange a weekend lying in rota with your partner, where one of you gets up on Sunday. This way, you will each get a couple of extra hours in bed at least once a week.
• Leave your partner in charge while you stay at a friend's house.
• Ask your mum or a close friend to come and stay with your baby while you and your partner enjoy an overnight stay in a hotel.