4 Ways to Help Newborns Sleep at Night

When you first bring your newborn home it is inevitable you will be up several times through the night because they eat every 2 to 3 hours. The hope is that between feedings baby will sleep, and you will to. My husband and I learned quickly there are 4 things that helps baby get to sleep and stay that way until it is time to eat again.

Burping: Every feed should be followed with burping, this is so important. Even if baby doesn’t seem uncomfortable right after eating, burp anyway! Often after 15 minutes of laying down a baby will wake up with painful gas. The scream is usually very sudden and alarming, and being new parents this was very unsettling especially at 1:00 am, 3:00 am….well you get the idea.

Sitting upright: Keeping baby upright for about 20 minutes after the feed helped prevent spitting up. There is nothing worse then getting up just 15 minutes later to a baby spewing milk out of their mouth and nose.

Yes, burping and sitting up means that you may only be left with 1, or if your lucky 2 hours to try and get some rest but I promise you it is worth it. It takes much longer to soothe a baby that is now upset than it would have to properly burp and keep up right in the first place.

Dark and Boring: At night don’t turn on any bright lights, use only a nightlight. Do not speak, or even make eye contact with your baby. You don’t want to stimulate baby, it will only make it harder to put them back to bed after a change or feeding. It will also help them distinguish between night and day. They will begin to realize nighttime is for sleeping. When your baby learns to smile and babble they will try their hardest to get you to engage. I will admit it is pretty hard to resist that gummy smile but sleep is precious and there is lots of time for smiles in the day.

Swaddle: The next thing you must do is swaddle, it really is amazing when done correctly. Swaddling is meant to make the baby feel like they did in the tight quarters of your uterus. Being born comes with some major adjustments and swaddling makes them feel more at home. Babies have a startle reflex and it can wake them out of their sleep, swaddling prevents this. The trick is to swaddle correctly, you want it tight enough but not too tight. Its a delicate balance and took my husband and I about a week to perfect it. We spent a lot of time folding and then realizing it was wrong, unwrapping it and starting again. In the first few days my husband tended to swaddle too tight and I too loose, what can I say it was a two person job. The bigger the blanket the better, and the best material we found was muslin. Many people swaddle with arms in, our daughter preferred her arms to be out from day one. Every baby is really an individual so if they seem to get upset with arms in take them out and see what happens. For whatever reason she never startled herself awake with her arms, only legs. We were swaddling pros…until suddenly we weren’t. Our baby grew quickly, and got stronger every day. One day our daughter was able to completely kick off her blanket we swaddled her in. We know longer had this swaddle thing under control. Our daughter had just gotten to the point she was going 3 to 4 hours between feedings through the night but because she was getting out of her swaddle she startled herself awake. We would have to pick her up to calm her down and then swaddle her again. Not only was this a pain but also dangerous, loose blankets are a suffocation hazard. That’s when I found the Halo Swaddle Sleep Sack. It is basically a sleep sack with a built in swaddle wrap. It is so easy to get them into, and they can wear as much or as little clothing under it. Our daughter sleeps with just her diaper on when in this. You slip them into the sack, zip it down and then secure the velcro swaddle around them, no fuss. I love that you have the option to swaddle with or without the arms. When baby learns to turn from their back to tummy it is recommended that you don’t swaddle but because the arms can be left out they can continue to wear the Halo Swaddle Sleep Sack.

Our daughter slept great with this, only waking and needing assistance for feedings and diaper changes. The way the Halo Swaddle Sleep Sack zippers you can easily do diaper changes without having to undo the swaddle. It comes in three different sizes and choice of cotton or micro fleece. Babies sleep changes between 3 and 4 months, they are more awake between sleep cycles then they were in the first 2 months. That sleepy newborn phase is coming to an end. The Halo Swaddle Sleep Sack will help your baby stay calm during these wakings and give baby the opportunity to learn how to soothe themselves back to sleep. I wish I had the Halo Swaddle Sleep Sack sooner, things could have been so much easier and we would have had peace of mind knowing it was safe.