Tips For New Parents: How to Get Your Baby to Sleep?

The sleeping pattern of babies is often unpredictable. Some babies sleep for longer, whereas others take short naps and become active again. Some babies go to sleep as soon as they reach the bed, and some remain awake throughout the night.

During the first six months from birth time, your baby holds a startle reflex, due to which the baby has a feeling of falling. This sensation results in jerk motions, and your baby eventually wakes up even from a deep sleep. You can tackle this issue with a tight swaddle that allows the baby to sleep longer and peacefully. Use thin, soft, and breathable fabric for swaddling the little one that does not cause overheating and offers excellent stretch.

The baby bamboo muslin is a perfect choice to swaddle your baby. It is silky, soft, breathable, and highly absorbent compared to cotton fabric, thus making it ideal for your baby’s skin. Additionally, its anti-bacterial and thermo-regulation property offers a hygienic environment while maintaining the right temperature as per the baby’s needs. Swaddling the newborns lets them feel warm, restful, and secure, just like they feel in the mother’s womb.

Tips to Swaddle Your Baby Safely

Following are a few tips that make swaddling easy and safe for babies:

1. Avoid over-layering the newborn.
2. Never swaddle your little ones above their shoulders. This means their head and neck should remain uncovered and not swaddled.
3. The baby wrapping must not be too tight. It should be firm but gentle and comfortable.
4. Swaddling babies should not restrict their hips and knee movement. Try to wrap in a way that they can kick freely while positioning their legs, similar to frog legs.
5. After swaddling, make your little one sleep on their back instead of front or side pose.

Teach Your Baby About Night and Daytime

It can be helpful if you teach your baby about the difference between daytime and nighttime from the start. When it is daytime, play games with your baby, open the curtain, let the sunlight come into your room, and don’t worry about daytime noises when your baby sleeps. However, when it is nighttime, make sure to follow these points:

• Do not play
• Don’t talk too much, and keep your voice low
• Put your baby down on the bed after feeding them
• Switch on low-powered light

Observe Signs if Your Baby Is Sleepy

You need to observe your baby and find out if they are sleepy or not. If babies show any of the following signs, they are tired and sleepy. For example:

• The baby looks worried or starts frowning.
• Starts arching backward and clenching their fists
• Become overactive or makes jerky movements
• Newborns tend to sleep more because they get tired. Some babies get tired instantly, while others keep playing for longer. Generally, it takes 1-2 hours after waking for your babies to get tired and start crying, yawning, and grimacing.

It is critical to respond to these signs to make it easier for babies to sleep and prevent them from becoming distressed.

Establish A Proper Bedtime Routine

As your baby gets three months old, you should introduce a bedtime routine for them. The bedtime routine is essential to prevent sleeping problems afterward. Plan a soothing and simple bedtime routine for the baby. Try the following tips for this purpose:

• cuddle your baby and give them a good night kiss
• create a relaxing and calm atmosphere in your room. Dim the lights.
• Read your baby a story
• You can provide a warm bath to your baby before bedtime
• change nappy and put your baby in cozy nightwear
• put the baby in bed
• Have beautiful music in the background or sing a lullaby as you place your baby to bed

Dealing With Disturbed Nights

If your baby murmurs at bedtime, you need to control the urge to rush toward them. You can leave them for a few minutes and check if they can settle independently. However, this also depends on their age. It is usual for newborns to wake up several times during the night; thus, you have to deal with their restless nights until they form a proper routine.

White Noise

If your baby is fussy, white noise does wonders and proves amazingly helpful for the baby to fall asleep. It is a particular sound type that allows your baby to experience deep and longer sleep intervals. White noise is equally vital as swaddling.

According to a study, white noise made 80% of babies fall asleep within five minutes. Likewise, it also helped calm crying babies and increase the sleeping time of colicky babies.

How Does White Noise Calm a Baby?

White noise affects the calming reflex of your baby. It provides a comforting zone to the little angel and indicates to the baby that it is time to sleep. Although you can find different white noise apps and machines, not every white sound proves helpful in calming the baby.

Low-pitch, dull and continuous sounds work as lullabies for babies to make them sleep. Sounds that are inconsistent such as birds chirping or waterfall sounds, fail to do the trick.

White noise also suppresses the surrounding distractions. These may include a noisy bus or radio playing in the vicinity. Likewise, it also covers internal discomforts like slight hunger and teething pain.

Conclusion

Every baby has its pattern of sleeping and waking up. Your baby’s sleeping cycle may not necessarily be the same as yours. Thus, it is best to sleep when your little one sleeps. In the early days, if the baby is on breastfed, he/she may doze off for a short interval while feeding. This is the moment where you have the chance to take some rest.

Remember, illnesses, teething, and growth spurts can impact your baby’s sleep. Therefore, you should try to understand their tired signs, establish a bedtime routine, use white noise and swaddle your baby for a peaceful sleep.