Hey Mums and Dads, my name's Emma. I'm a paediatric occupational therapist and mum to two gorgeous children. Today I'm going to share with you seven tips, which will help your newborn baby sleep during the night and the day so that you don't have to hold them all the time.
But before we do, I just want to let you know, there's a free PDF document in the description box below, which covers your baby's developmental milestones that you can be expecting from 0 to 12 months of age. Which you can print out and refer to it at any stage during your Bub's first year of life. The other thing is, if you're interested in getting some parenting tips and tricks to make your life as parents easier and give your baby the best, start to life, make sure you subscribe to my channel and hit that bell button to be notified when I release a new video every week.
And if you've like this video, give me a thumbs up. So you've got a newborn baby who won't fall asleep at night or will only sleep in your arms. So when we're thinking about bedtime for a newborn baby at night, it's around 10, 11, 12 o'clock at night, and it's a long nap at this stage,.
But we want them to be out of our arms essentially so that we can all have some sleep. So these 7 tips are going to make it easy to be a baby when they're put into their cot to stay asleep and to ensure they don't get too tired. So the first tip is to make sure your baby is truly awake and not in light sleep.
Which can be really, really confusing as a new parent. So basically newborn babies, they enter all sleep by going into light sleep, which looks like they're awake. So they're fussing around a lot.
They're moving their arms. They're making lots of noises, but their eyes are closed. And you'll see that their eyeballs are moving underneath their eyelids.
Um, but they look like they're awake at this stage, but they're actually in light sleep. Newborn babies spend the majority of their time in light sleep. They only going to deep sleep for a short period in each sleep cycle.
So deep sleep looks like your baby's truly asleep. So their body's completely resting. They're not moving.
And their breath is really, really deep. So often at this stage you'll creep over and you try and make sure that your baby is still breathing. So you put your hand on their chest to see it's still going up and down.
So when they're in deep sleep, we know they're asleep, but in light sleep, it makes us think that they're actually awake. When babies are in light sleep, they're actually more likely to be accidentally woken up too. So do be careful of that.
And the other thing is newborn babies when they sleep, they go through sleep cycles. So each sleep cycle is around 40 minutes and between sleep cycles your baby will kind of wake up for a short period of time. So we want to make sure that they're truly awake when we're picking them up.
So make sure that they are genuinely crying and they're only going wake from sleep for three reasons. And that's because they're hungry. So if you know, it's about two to three hours since their last feed, then they are going to be hungry and they will be genuinely awake.
The other reason they might wake is if they've soiled their nappy or they've had an explosion or they're hot/cold, or they've been woken up by a noise. And the last reason they'd wake up is if they're no longer tired. So first thing is really make sure that your baby is awake at this time.
So my second tip is to make sure the room is cool. So babies sleep best in rooms that are around the mid sixties to low 70 Farhrenheit. And so that's around 19 to 22 degrees.
They sleep best in that room temperature. If you can't get that, then just make sure you dress them appropriately for the temperature of the room. So a room thermometer is really, really handy because you don't need to guess whether or not baby's too hot or cold, you can just check the temperature.
And then I would refer to the sleeping bags. They often come with a little checklist on the temperature of the room, and then it tells you what the baby should be wearing based on the tog of the sleeping bag and the temperature. So that's really, really handy to refer to.
And it just takes the guessing game out of it because parenting a newborn baby is hard enough. That's something you don't need to guess about. So room thermometer and referring to those sleeping bag, temperature gauges for clothing and sleeping bags is fantastic.
The third tip I'd recommend is to make sure the room is dark. So it needs to be dark enough that you can't actually read a book. And that's not with anything to do with this circadian rhythms babies at this age don't have that yet.
They don't have that. They're not producing that hormone. So, and that doesn't happen until around three to five months.
Why we want the room dark at this age is to ensure that when your baby comes into light wake, so between sleep cycles, they aren't going to be kind of stimulated by what's in the room. Because if it's dark, they're not going to notice that there's a shiny toy over there or there's a window with lights and trees and birds outside. What they're going to see is a dark room and they'll go back to sleep, if they're not hungry, if they're not uncomfortable and if they're still tired.
The fourth tip is to keep the bedroom quiet, where your baby's sleeping. Now I cannot tell you how many times I've been told that a baby needs to learn how to sleep in a noisy environment. That is completely false and extremely irritating for me.
And that's because who sleeps in a noisy room? No one, no one ever sleeps in a noisy room. When you think about babies, they're really, really easily stimulated.
The other thing is they've got a startle reflex. So when there's a loud noise, you'll actually see your baby jump. And that is a reflex, but because they're in light sleep, most of the time when they're sleeping, they're going to be woken up by that reflex.
So we want to keep the noise consistent in their room and not really, really loud. So if you can't do that because you've got a really noisy household, then that's completely fine. I'm not expecting everyone to tip toe around the house while your baby's napping.
Cause they're going to be napping all the time. What you're wanting is, I would think about using a white noise machine. So the white noise machine should be continuous when you're using it.
So it plays for throughout their whole nap. And when they're older, it's throughout the whole nighttime and that's noise should be continuous and it should be consistent. So it should be like rainfall, not with thunder in it.
Just rainfall or radio static or a waterfall. Um, it shouldn't be the like nature with the bird noises or a whale breaching or crashing waves. You want it continuous and consistent, so we don't activate that startle reflex.
So the fifth thing that I would think about is swaddling your baby, or using a sleeping bag. The swaddle is fantastic because it actually mimics the womb. Keeps your baby nice and secure and ensures they're warm.
But don't make sure we don't overheat because that's associated with, um, SIDS, but it keeps them nice and warm. I prefer to use a sleeping bag that kind of swaddles the baby with their arms down. And that's purely because it dampens that startle reflex that your baby will have.
So often babies at this age, they need our help to fall asleep. So they might fall asleep in our arms and then we'll transfer them into the cot. When I would use the other, like the Love to Dram one sleeping bags where their arms or out, you'd put them into the cot and then as soon as I put them into the cot, the movement of putting them down onto the cot would mean that they'd startle.
So they'd actually wake up again, which is really irritating. So I was generally using the Halo Sleeping Bag where you can wrap with your baby's arms down so that when I'd placed them in the cot, their arms would stay down. And I wouldn't activate that startle reflex and then they'd stay asleep, which was amazing.
I didn't like swaddling my babies with a wrap, a Muslim wrap. And that's purely because I was so sleep deprived and I was very concerned that I wasn't going to do it properly. And if I didn't do it properly, then I wouldn't sleep well.
So I wanted a sleeping bag that enabled me to keep my baby with their arms down. Just meant that I didn't have to stress overnight that I didn't wrap them correctly and they might get out or they might suffocate. So that was an easier option for me.
Just if you are swaddling or using a sleeping bag where their arms are included, just make sure you remember to stop swaddling or using that sleeping bag, so transition with their arms out when they're close to rolling. Because we don't want them to accidentally roll and then not be able to get out of that position while sleeping. Sixth tip is to when you're doing, when your baby's waking in the night for a feed, you try and keep the environment really not stimulating for your baby.
So keep the lights dim. So I'd only use a nightlight. Um, if you need to, and I'd stay in the room if possible, where your baby's sleeping, cause that white noise machine hopefully is going.
And also I know really hard, cause I know that you kind of want to watch TV to keep yourself awake, but just know that if you put the TV on, it's going to stimulate the baby, um, when you're feeding them. So it might be harder to get them to go back to sleep. So really keep the nighttime routine kind of not fun.
So you just feed, you change, you feed and put them down. And my last tip is to avoid an overtired baby. Now that's going to happen for a number of reasons.
Newborn babies need to sleep after about 45 minutes or 120 minutes. So you just look for your cues that your baby's giving you that they're tired. So they might be wiping their eyes or rubbing their eyes.
They might be yawning. They might actually look away from you, which is a signal that they're too tired. They're tired now.
So, or just kind of zone out. Um, so if they're kind of giving you those signals, I'd put them to bed. If your baby has had a really long nap, so about three hours, then they're probably going to stay out for that 120 minute mark after waking for that, from that nap.
But if they've only had a really short nap, so like 40 minutes, 20 minutes, they'd be wanting to go back to bed after about 45 minutes. So do put them back to bed after that period of time. Remember 45 minutes, isn't long, it's generally enough time for you to feed your baby, maybe change their nappy and feed them again and then put them down.
A bit of playing there. It might depend, it might be too rushed at that point. The other thing is which I really want to stress is that when you're holding your baby or they're being passed around to multiple people, when they're sleeping, they're not actually sleeping well at all.
That's called habituating and it's basically your baby's trying really hard to block out any other kind of noises that are happening around the room. Also movements. They're trying to filter that out so that they can sleep.
So you'll notice when your baby wakes up from this time when they're being held, um, throughout the day and people are talking around them, they're actually going to be really fussy and not that happy. So generally placing them in a room which is quiet and dark, where they're not going to be woken up accidentally by people is a better way for them to have their sleeps. And it means that they'll be happier when they wake up.
Now I'm not saying you need to not let anyone hold your baby when they're sleeping, just be aware that your baby's going to be fussy after that period of time. So maybe the next nap that they have, they should have in a room, in a cot or in a dark quiet room if you're needing to hold them. Dummies and pacifier or pacifiers might be something you want to consider do remember that they don't really recommend it if you're breastfeeding until about six weeks after breastfeeding or when breastfeeding is fully established.
So the six week mark is just generally, they think it's assume that breastfeeding would have been fully established by then. If you're concerned about introducing the dummy, because you don't want your baby to become reliant on it, that's not necessarily true. You just need to make sure you remove the dummy at six months or when you're going to start sleep training.
And that just ensures that your baby doesn't learn that the dummy's kind of a sleep aid, which means that they'll wake up continually throughout the night when they're coming to those sleep cycles when they're older. Because until about eight months, they're not actually able to put the dummy back into their mouth. But you can totally use a dummy now for your newborn baby.
Sucking is really a calming thing for your baby to do. It's one of the most calming things that they can do. So if they accept it, then I would say, there's no trouble.
Like don't be concerned about using the dummy at all. It's probably just a bit of a lifesaver at this point. So that's it Mums and Dads.
Those are the seven tips, which I hope will help your baby learn to sleep in their cot and not in your arms for the whole nap. Do remember to be consistent and keep going with it. My sister has recently had a newborn baby and she had to use the Halo for like the sleeping bag for a few days and introduce white noise and block out the room to make it a lot easier for her baby.
And now he's sleeping quite well. Just a heads up at around two weeks of age, your baby is going to go through a fussy period, which is like often referred to as the witching hour or the period of purple crying. If you want strategies on how to manage that difficult time, check out my video, which will be in the description box below.
And if you want some activities to do with your baby to entertain them, when they're in that content period, when they're awake, I've also made a video on that. So check that out. If you like this video, make sure you give me a thumbs up.
And remember if you want more parenting tips and tricks to make your life as parents easier and give your baby the best start to life, subscribe to my channel and hit that bell button to be notified when I release a new video every week.
