Do you remember the sleepless nights?
Sleepless nights, or seemingly sleepless nights, are a natural part of becoming parents. New babies wake to eat around the clock, and some seem to prefer the nocturnal hours for socializing. As normal as it may be, staying awake all night, or getting up three or four times in the night is exhausting and one of the most challenging parts of early parenthood. Fortunately, there are ways to survive.
Sleep Training
Newborns are much too young for cry-it-out styles of sleep training, and they also should not go more than two to four hours between feedings until they are closer to six weeks of age. There are steps you can take, however, to help your new baby work toward a better night routine.
The most common newborn problem with nights is the baby prefers to sleep all day and party all night. Of course she wants company, so she keeps her parents up, too. To reverse this rather annoying newborn habit, be sure you wake your baby every three or four hours to eat during the day and add proper stimulation.
Keep the house bright with natural sunlight and maintain a normal volume of noise. After baby eats, stimulate her for a little while – not hours, just as long as she is willing to “play.” When she starts yawning again, put her back down for a nap in the middle of the action, or somewhere close enough to sense that the rest of the household is up and about.
At night, keep the room dark where she is sleeping and play a soothing white noise. Keep conversation and cooing to a minimum and don’t wake the baby to eat unless your doctor has instructed you otherwise or it’s been four hours since her last feeding. It won’t take long for your little angel to realize that days are for playing and nights are for sleeping.
Most importantly get her Baby Ota swaddle! It will make her feel like in womb and that will help her sleep and feel much more secure. My trick was to wear Baby Ota swaddle on my chest for little bit so it got my smell than I wrapped my babies in it and they slept like a logs.
