Baby Steps: Sleeping Through the Night

Baby Steps

by Clementine Lue Clark

Along with many other parents of young children, I’ve been thinking about my baby, Alma, sleeping through the night.

One of the practical things we’ve tried to do is to stick to a nightly bedtime routine. We give her a bath, read her a story, sing a song, swaddle her, and say a prayer. Often the prayer is “A Verse for the Little Children” (Mary Baker Eddy, Miscellaneous Writings, p. 400):

Father-Mother God,
Loving me,—
Guard me when I sleep;
Guide my little feet
Up to Thee.

This prayer tells me that Alma has a direct relationship to God, who loves her—not through her human father or mother, but directly. God is protecting her every moment of the day and night, and her innocent childlike nature has the capacity to grasp this and demonstrate it.
I remember ending each night’s prayers with that verse when I was a child. My brothers and I even made up actions to go along with each line to help us remember it.

My husband and I say this prayer to help Alma—and ourselves—see that God is caring for her every moment of every day and night. When she was tiny and eating every few hours, I prayed to know she has all the spiritual nourishment she needs and that it’s sufficient to sustain her throughout the night. Alma is a crucial part of the family and fits harmoniously into it; this includes sleeping through the night.

At first, we kept strictly to Alma’s bedtime and her routine. As the weeks have gone on, we’ve traveled to visit family members, and her routine has been varied. The one thing that hasn’t changed, however, is her nighttime prayer.

If Alma does wake up a little earlier than normal, before running to her, I take a moment to say a prayer silently to myself. Often I say “the scientific statement of being” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 468). Last night, it was these verses from Proverbs: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” (Prov 3:5, 6)

I pray to know exactly what to do at that very moment. Often different things come to me, and I have to be open and humble to listen to them and act on them.

One of the things I’m learning from being a new parent is that things change all the time. Once I feel like I’ve learned what to do under certain circumstances, it changes! I’m so humbled to know that, as so many young mothers have before me, I can rely on scientific prayer to guide me through each decision that has to be made.

Today I’m grateful to know that Alma is indeed an active member of our family and playing her part in harmoniously demonstrating God’s love for each of us—night and day. And we can all sleep peacefully at the right times.