Things You'll Need:
- Swaddling blanket
- White noise (fan, vacuum)
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Step 1
The first thing you want to do is make sure the baby is well fed during the day. You want the baby to take more food in, and sleep more. This can be tricky until you learn your babies routine. The first 5 weeks are learning your baby. Play with your babies schedule to see if you let the baby sleep longer certain times of the day, does it help or hurt your chances of getting the baby to stay asleep longer?
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Step 2
Newborns need to be swaddled. Wrap them tightly. The larger the swaddling blanket the more secure the baby will feel. Swaddling is VERY important all day long, everyday. Don't give up on the swaddling. Your baby might fuss, but it's not because it's swaddled.
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Step 3
Use white noise at night to help adjust your babies schedule. A fan not pointed on the baby, the hum of a vacuum, a special teddybear with white noise, is what you want to put next to your baby so that they are soothed to sleep.
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Step 4
Keep a journal. You want to write down your babies every move. When the baby eats, sleeps, soils, pees, and has crying bouts that are inconsolable. Many parents will confuse a witching hour that is "normal" with colic. It should be easy to tell the difference if you keep a journal. Is it the same time every day? Chances are it's not colic. Witching hour is totally normal, and necessary part of learning about life.
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Step 5
Just before bedtime, you will want to make sure you do the same routine every night. If you want to read to your baby, give your baby a bath, etc. Something that you feel you can live with for a very long time cause your baby will get used to this routine. Don't do something you think is "right" but feel you can't live with it.
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Step 6
You will want to push the babies sleep schedule further back so that the longer stretch of sleep is in the middle of the night. So if you find that your baby sleeps from 6pm to 12am. That will be 6 hours of sleep that you could be getting through the night. So what you will want to do is keep the baby up till 7pm, and then put the baby to sleep. See if the baby will sleep till 1am. If that works, do the same the next night. If it doesn't your going to want to play with the babies schedule and ideally get the baby to sleep around your schedule. Your babies bedtime might start when it's your bedtime. So if you sleep at 10pm that's when your going to want the baby to start going to sleep.
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Step 7
As your baby get's older, their sleeping stretches will go longer. You can start to put your baby into sleep earlier and the baby will sleep later for you. It's very important to get your babies routine down pat NOW as a newborn then to wait.
Comments
southernemma said
on 4/8/2009 Man, wish I had known this a few years ago! Thanks for the info...I'll pass it on. 5*
SimplyFrugal said
on 3/30/2009 I agree with the emphasis on getting to know your baby and his or her needs.
SimplyCuttings said
on 12/28/2008 Good reading; my daughter has a two-week-old who tends to have her days and nights a bit confused. 5 stars.
Pamelateda said
on 11/29/2008 Great article! Thanks for writing it.
oneloved said
on 8/29/2008 "Crying It Out" is NOT OK for your baby! A baby whose cries are ignored learns to distrust that his needs will be met, and weakens the bond between mother and child. Examine the evidence: "Science Says: Excessive Crying Could Be Harmful To Babies" http://www.askdrsears.com/html/10/handout2.asp