The Best Ways to Get Your Baby to Sleep
After the birth of a child, exhaustion and fatigue can be one of the biggest problems parents face on a daily basis. Night after night of interrupted sleep can take its toll, and instead of having the nurses by your bedside that you’re used to, you have to do it all on your own. Most babies wake up every 2-4 hours in order to feed, so getting sleep when and wherever you can is very important!
New mothers can be some of the most tired people on the planet, from changing nappies at crazy hours of the night to breastfeeding in the middle of a nap. Help is on the way however! Every new born baby is different; some will sleep all night whereas other will cry. But there are some simple tricks to maximise your new born baby’s sleeping habits, allowing you to get a good night’s rest and preparing you for the day ahead!
Make Sure Your Baby is Accustomed to their Room
After spending 9 months in the comfort of a womb, making sure your baby is settled into their new crib and surrounds is one of the easiest ways to get them to sleep. A baby’s brain is constantly growing and learning, and leaving them to nap alone at least once a week will allow them to become used to their new environment – benefitting both of you in the long run. If you want to be by your baby’s side when they sleep, why not buy a cheap divan bed to snooze on. By becoming accustomed to their surroundings early on, they’ll be more inclined to sleep for longer periods, meaning you can get some more shut-eye too!
Remove the Distractions
If you want your new born baby to sleep as much as possible, then you’re going to have to keep distractions to a minimum. The nursery should be a designated room for sleep, so if there are toys and other eye-catching bits things to look at, your baby is going to be up all night. Distractions in the crib confuse new born babies, and keeping things simple for the first year or so will allow easier night’s sleep as well as helping your baby to get to know its new home. The room may look bare, but it’s the best way to get those ZZZ’s in!
Check the Temperature
Make sure the temperature is cool and consistent in your baby’s nursery. Many parents make the mistake of keeping their nursery too warm, however in order to get the best night sleep, babies need a room temperature between 68 and 72 degrees. The placement of the crib in the room is also essential. Make sure your baby is sleeping well away from any windows or doors to stop drafts, and also any fans or temperature-altering devices.
Sound
Excess noise can also be a distraction for babies trying to sleep, so why not buy a white noise machine to cancel out any unwanted household sounds, from boilers to televisions. Nothing was more soothing than the womb where they’ve spent most of their lives so far, so creating those conditions could help your baby to get to sleep a lot faster!
[About the author: This guest post has been contributed by Zoe, a freelance blogger and writer who enjoys spending time with her two little nephews. Image: peasap]
With our first child we were as green as green could be and seemed to make every rookie mistake possible. This was especially true in the area of developing sleep rhythms and routines. Your list is great because it contains the obvious culprits that we so often blast past when we’re in the fog of parental fatigue.
The sounds issue was a really big one for us. White noise is definitely the parents friend! We utilized free apps on our iphones/ipads like Ambiance which have a huge selection of white noise variations and soft music that we found perfect for sleeping. Of course we kept the device up and away from our little one on a shelf and the benefits were fantastic.
The counterintuitive sound issue for us was we found that too quiet wasn’t good. We tip toed around like we were walking on egg shells with our first much to our and more importantly our kiddos detriment. Some kind of background music/sound was key because without fail when it got too quiet or still the crying would begin!
When you think about it we would think that they would need it to be warm for them to sleep. Thanks for sharing this great tips!