3 Tips to Help Your Newborn Sleep

Mothers of infants know extremely well, there is nothing more lovely than the sight of a sleeping baby. However, getting a newborn to fall and stay asleep can be extremely challenging. The following three tips can help sleep-deprived moms get their precious bundles of joy snoozing away in their cribs or bassinets, which in turn allows them to get some much-needed rest.

White Noise

While some new moms might think that babies need total silence in order to sleep, many newborns actually sleep better with some background noise. When you consider that baby spent 40 weeks growing inside mom’s body listening to her heartbeat and the variety of other noises a body makes, this advice actually makes a lot of sense.

For example, as Dr. Harvey Karp, a pediatrician who is devoted to helping babies sleep better, states “The Happiest Baby, the Super-Soothing Sleep CD is a great option for white noise, because moms can not only use it at home during bedtime, and also while riding in the car.” As he explains, just like white light is a mixture of all of the light colors, white noise combines high and low-pitched sounds and whooshes that are very similar to what the developing baby heard while in the womb.Dr. Karp specially engineered the CD, and it has been shown to help babies sleep one to three hours longer.

Swaddling

In addition to helping infants sleep, swaddling in the supine position−which involves swaddling and placing baby on his or her back−may help reduce colic and fussiness. For many infants, a gentle and supportive swaddle helps them transition from the relatively tight quarters of the womb to the outside world by providing support in a natural position, with the legs and hips flexed in a snugly-wrapped blanket.

For moms who would like to give swaddling a try, SwaddleDesigns offers a beautiful selection of swaddling blankets made from super soft cotton flannel and premium lightweight cotton marquisette, and cotton muslin. SwaddleDesigns also offers helpful advice for moms and dads who are trying to master the art of swaddling. In fact, the company is so devoted to helping sleep-deprived new parents learn to swaddle their infants correctly, the swaddling blankets feature a sewn-in 123 Swaddle label with cute step by step pictorial directions, and a QR code that parents can use to instantly connect to SwaddleClub. SwaddleClub is a free online resource that can be easily accessed by a smartphone and offers tips on swaddling as well as helpful baby care videos featuring Dr. Harvey Karp and white noise. Moms can order the swaddling blankets directly from SwaddleDesigns, or they can purchase the swaddling blankets at their local Target store, in the baby section.

Sleep Time

Keep the bedtime routine the same every night. This can be challenging during the holidays. but if you keep familiar steps in the routine every night it helps baby learn when it’s time to sleep. Dr. Karp says it’s perfectly fine to let baby fall asleep in your arms (but don’t fall asleep yourself holding the baby). Dr. Karp suggests to help a baby older than six weeks learn to stay asleep after you place him or her in a crib or bassinet by waking baby with a gentle jiggle and then letting baby fall back to sleep. While moms might understandably hesitate about waking an already-snoozing infant, Karp said this “wake and sleep” approach will teach infants how to naturally get themselves to sleep and learn how to fall back asleep.