The hardest part of pregnancy starts with the birth of your baby. That is, how to put my baby fall asleep? Isn’t it! Almost all newborns are always hungry, restless and in a rare case if ever, make it through the night without waking up. I know as a soon-be-mom you’re struggling with short sleep of your new baby. Take a look at these 14 awesome baby sleep tips to give your baby a beautiful sleep.
How to help your pretty little monster with sleeping? OMG, it is harder than giving birth. Till he was in the womb, it was all well. But now he is in the outer world which confuses him how to survive without his cozy, silent, and warm bed of womb. That feeling irritates him all day, so either he urges for your nipple or he spends his day crying.
How would this tiny one ever understand that his mother is tired! Do you remember a time when slept for hours without being disturbed during your pregnancy months? Thought so… pregnancy never gave you time for a good sleep and all apparent reasons.
It’s said ‘when a woman becomes a mother she sleeps with her one eye open’. (To watch her young one sleep soundly)
I learned as a soon-to-be-mom, nothing is predictable except for sleep deprivation, whether it’s due to the arrival of your newborn or any other reason. Usually, babies get up a lot during the first three months of their life. I know, you are trying your help your baby with sleeping, but it is all going in vain!
With a newborn, it is impossible to take a good nap. I also really struggled hard to figure out the whole baby sleep thing for quite a long time when I had my first baby. My baby girl gave me a run for the money when she was born and I spent a considerable amount on learning all the baby sleep tips there are on the earth.
After trying all there is, we both, I and my husband tightened our belts and pulled ourselves together with a plan and implemented it. And hear me saying ‘We do it’! We made our baby sleep for a complete 10 hours at night, that called up for a deep sigh of relaxant. Woohoo! We won the battle!
I know you all want to know these excellent newborn baby sleep tips that we hacked onto. Without wasting no further time, let’s skip to these tips but don’t forget to be patient along the way… it is a high road!
1. Swaddle
First, give a gentle massage to your newborn and after swaddling your baby tightly (not tough tight) which gives him a sense of warm motherly snuggle. Swaddle keeps your baby warm and secure. It can keep your baby free from being disturbed by his own startle reflexes.
Swaddling creates a pressure around your baby’s body which gives him a sense of security… and also a feel of his old home, your womb. These types of sensation help him sleep well. But remember one thing, don’t swaddle him tightly on his belly and chest, but around his legs and arms.
I suggest for HALO SLEEPSACK COTTON SWADDLE And WOOMBIE, both help to keep the baby swaddled snuggly and safely. These are amazing!
You can stop swaddling once your baby can get his arms out of it and roll over, regularly. Though continue to use the Halo Swaddle around his torso but don’t swaddle his arms.
2. Dreamfeed
Dreamfeed is when you wake up your little one around 10 pm and encourage him to nurse on both sides for 5 to 10 minutes. It is a kind of feeding you can do in the evening before you go to bed. You’ll usually have to rouse your baby for Dreamfeed.
As a new mom, you need better sleep to recover from your postpartum. Only sleep can heal you to get back to normal from your postpartum difficulties.
dreamfeed is given to the babies in the late evening to help them sleep soundly at night. And after that… you can drift off to sleep. With DreamFeed, you can get rid of sleep deprivation, as no one is going to be there to disturb your sleep. You can use it until your baby is four months old. Isn’t Dreamfeed magic! You must try it and you would know, too.
3. Limit the nap during daytime
As I already consider that the hardest part of motherhood is to make your newborn sleep soundly. The trick is to wake up your baby at daytime from his sweet nap which can hurt you. Because usually newborn babies sleep during the daytime and keep wake during the night like my kitten.
Out of our motherhood, we, of course, would never want to disturb our babies. But is there not a loophole always? The other way is to limit their nap at day time, let him sleep him for 2 or 3 hours, after waking him up, feed him, play with him and then lay him down for another nap.
Breaking up during day nap make your baby sleep longer at night time. When your loved one gets tired of playing with you, let him take a recovery nap. Till your newborn is taking a nap, do your chores.
In this way, you can get your sleep. Apply my trick and Enjoy your valuable sound sleep.
4. Use of White Noise
White noise is defined as a TV but without a cable. You must have noticed, when you are on the TV and there is no cable connection, it would get to the static channel and make an annoying sound of trtrttr^$#&*(() this sound is called White Noise.
This annoying sound makes the baby sleep! Is this not amazing? Merriam Webster defines white noise as “a heterogeneous mixture of sound waves extending over a wide frequency range.”
In simpler words, it is a mixture of sounds of high and low pitches or everything between them. This sound drowns out the rest sound and when your baby hears different sounds, his brain gets confused while picking the familiar one and gets his brain in a fuss. Confusion makes him fall asleep.
You can try A REGULAR FAN and a WHITE NOISE MACHINE. You can place the fan on medium and the machine somewhere in your baby’s room rather than directly next to the baby. So, it is not too close to the baby’s ears. Using white noise is immensely helpful. Try it and you’ll know.
5. Avoid eye contact
We all have an idea when it comes to making our baby sleep, i.e., never to play in their wee-hour. Apart from that, you should also avoid staring into your newborn’s eyes at the night time. “When your baby locks eyes with you, it’s almost like they are drinking a double latte-their heart rate speeds up, their blood pressure rises and it makes them more awake,” says Alan Greene., M.D., author of From First Kicks to First Steps.
You can make plenty of eye contact during the daytime, this way, maybe, your baby can know that it is a FUN TIME!! These fun time, of course, boosts your baby’s brain development and bonding with you.
6. Regulate the Temperature
We sleep a little better when the room temperature is cold(moderate). Aah… almost euphoric to sleep in a cold aura with a thin(or thick) blanket. Well, your bundle of joy is no different. So, keep your baby’s room warmer at daytime and cold at night. The optimal temperature for an infant’s sleep is between 65 to 70 F.
Nothing to worry if you don’t have a thermostat to control, just leave the windows slightly open or use a fan at night while sleeping. But remember one thing, keep your baby far away from windows and fans and don’t allow the room to gets too hot or too cold.
7. Light Dimmers
Light is one of the best ways to regulate babies as well as adults – The circadian rhythms “biological clock” or body clock. Plug your lamps into the dimmer units which you can easily get from any hardware store.
In the evening when the sun goes down, lower the lights even if your baby isn’t going to the bed. To support these rhythms, make sure that your home is a little darker even in the daytime or when your newborn is taking a nap.
8. Following the wake, sleep, eat pattern
Observe your baby when he wakes up, he immediately urges to eat. Sometimes he wakes up and starts to play and after a while sleeps again.
This wake, sleep and eat cycle has several purposes. First, it encourages full feeding by allowing the baby to eat immediately after waking up. In this manner, the baby will get energy right after his nap and he is now more active to play and to work out.
He is free of feeding… now that he is adequately fed and you are also tension free of feeding him again and again. Also, by feeding the newborn after sleep rather than before sleep, this cycle prevents the baby using the food as a prop.
But it doesn’t mean that you will never feed before sleep. Some time baby needed a little Tender loving care (TLC) for a nap and you must feed him when he make an urge for it when he needed. The conclusion is that for most of the day avoid to feed him right before sleep. A newborn can be healthy and active only with frequent feeding and rest.
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9. Change diaper wisely
Make some strategies while changing the diaper of your baby. Try to change the diaper before going to sleep. It prevents the baby from waking up frequently.
If the baby wakes up while changing the diaper, without wasting a single minute swaddle him again for immediate sleep. If you change the diaper after the night feeding, it can be challenging to make the baby sleep again. You can use absorbent nighttime diapers and thick diaper cream to protect his skin from DIAPER RASHES.
10. Cut the caffeine
If your newborn seems unusually wakeful that means you have to cut your caffeine habits. Some babies under 6 months may be more sensitive to their mother’s caffeine intake. You have to reduce your coffee, tea, and soft drinks intake.
You know it better, too much java can rev you up and leave you wide-eyed. It can do the same to your newborn if you’re breastfeeding. Caffeine from coffee or tea can turn up in breast milk which can affect your newborn. It can accumulate in his body very quickly and stay with him longer as it does with you.
So, you must give up your caffeine habit for some time until he becomes enough old. It is better for you as well as for your baby’s health too.
11. Burping of baby
Many babies nurse less avidly at night. So, burping is not a must. If he is feeding less that means he swallowing less air, resulting in no burps. At night.
12. Hit the bottle
One more trick is to pump your extra milk from your breast in a bottle. if your baby wakes up often at night, make a goal to get him used to drink your pumped breastmilk from a bottle. You and your spouse can trade off feeding. By sharing the night shift job of feeding your newborn, you both can enjoy long stretches of sleep. Isn’t it the best idea!
13. A spa treatment to your baby
Studies at Touch Research Institutes at the University of Miami School of Medicine found that newborns who get a bedtime massage fall asleep faster and sleep more soundly than the one who didn’t.
Before Bed, give your newborn a gentle loving massage using slow strokes, moderate pressure with a baby – safe oil.
14. Cozy sleep spot
Improve the quality of your newborn’s snooze time with a bassinet. Babies like to sleep better in bassinets partly because they feel safer and cozy.
These are few of the super duper ideas to make your baby fall asleep faster. You must try one these, whichever works better for you and be comfortable to get rid of the sleepless nights.
Take Care.
