It’s not just with babies, most of us enjoy a nice shower before settling in for the night. It’s calming, relaxing, and somewhat a perfect nightcap to end our busy day. It’s a quick shower for us, for the baby it’s an intimate warm bath that lets parent and baby to bond more. In terms of baby sleep advice, the warm bath is not the only thing that we can do to get our baby sleeping like a, well. like a baby. We have gathered other good advice that you can try with your baby, try them out and see what works best.
Conditioning for sleep time
Every one of us sleeps every day, it’s an activity that obviously requires the least energy and effort. It is only logical to try and condition our baby before sleep time by controlling the activities we are going to do with them right before we put them to bed. These are all great baby sleep advice, bath time, and sleep time tips, we only ask that you try them. Avoiding activities with high-level energy and enthusiasm before catching those z’s. We don’t want our baby worked up with playtime and such then try to tuck them into bed. Let’s guide our babies by gradually decreasing the stuff they do energy and excitement-wise as their sleep time nears. This conditioning will also prepare them mentally by helping them recognize that it’s almost sleepy time.
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Touching, feeling, and singing
There are some things we can do to help baby feel sleepy, especially as a first-time parent and are just discovering that babies don’t sleep as we do. If there’s a challenge, touching and stroking their backs while we rock them to sleep is one great bit of baby sleep advice. Singing our baby lullabies are a traditional way and used all over the world by our moms, grandmas, their mothers, and their mothers’ mothers. If you need help in the singing aspect, the Irish Post recently reported one of the best songs, and from a very surprising artist, that could help make babies fall asleep.
Baby sleep advice on lights and sounds
As a part of conditioning the baby with quiet activities, we can also set the mood with lights and sounds. Making them feel sleepy should be done in their bedroom, with the lights dimmed and night light turned on, and some type of soft background music playing. While Siri and Alexa could help with the music, there are the traditional baby toys that are accompanied by soft music that could help babies get to dreamland. Good baby sleep advice would be to purchase musical toys that could lull babies to sleep, such as this Baby Einstein product that can be purchased on Amazon.
The perfect baby bath before sleep
Babies really do enjoy a nice warm bath, it seems to make them remember the warm and comforting feeling they enjoyed for nine months in their mom’s womb. So how can we make this bath a perfect one for our baby before we put them to sleep? Smart baby sleep advice would tell us to make the bath before bedtime a somewhat quiet, soothing playtime. While we can have a lot of fun with our baby, let’s dial it down for the bedtime bath. This will condition the baby’s mind that it’s almost time for bed. This one is more for the intimate and personal moment between baby, parent, and all about baby bathing bonding.
Have a sleep schedule
One important piece of baby sleep advice is to have a routine for it, a schedule of things we do with the baby right before we put them to bed at night. This one requires daily execution and a lot of patience on our end. Doing it as a habit and a routine will be wonderful for both baby and parents, and everything else will be easier once the routine is running smoothly and going like clockwork. Make a list of activities before bedtime, like bath time, feeding time, and what time we go to the bedroom to help baby fall asleep. Stick to the list and be patient with baby if they can’t sleep easily at first.
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Baby sleep advice: Bed is best
While baby sleep advice, bath time and sleep time can vary according to the parent, the place where the baby should be sleeping should only be the safest one in your house. It is best to have the baby sleeping in their own bed or crib. If we are having them sleep in ours, it’s best not to sleep with them to avoid SIDS. Let’s always set them down on their back and we should sleep in the same room, but not on the same bed with them. Reducing the risk of SIDS is also avoiding baby toys and pillows with them on the bed while they sleep, even those designed to accompany babies during sleep according to Consumer Reports.
Crying is not code for baby needs me right now
Dr. Richard Ferber gives us a bit of golden baby sleep advice through the Ferber Method. It’s a technique that helps the parents train the child to soothe themselves back to sleep. A crying baby does not always mean we should rush to them and pick them up and rock them back to sleep. Sometimes they just need to see our faces and know that we’re right there. Dr. Ferber suggests that we time the crying before appearing to the baby. The first maybe try 2 minutes before you let the baby see you. Then make it 3 or 4 minutes the next time, then gradually make the duration longer as we train our baby to soothe themselves back to sleep.
Sleep patterns for different baby ages
Babies, in their very formative months, have different sleep patterns. While the Ferber Method is good baby-training and baby sleep advice we can apply, it’s not advisable for newborns up to four months. This is because babies and their sleep patterns and needs are different. The younger ones (0-6 months) will require more cuddle time to fall asleep, rocking them to sleep and soothing them with lullabies are effective. They sleep a lot but in short intervals. The older they get (6-12) the easier it becomes, less rocking for them and more soothing words and songs. We can put them down on their bed quicker and they sleep for longer intervals than when they were younger.
Naps are as important as nighttime sleeping
A power nap is a rejuvenating method some people use to recharge themselves during the day. If adults do it, babies need them as well. Some parents may think the reason why a baby can’t sleep well at night is that they had a long nap earlier. Nobody said we can’t wake them up from their nap. It’s good baby sleep advice to wake baby up from their nap, especially if it’s gone on long enough, or once we’re done doing our other chores and getting a power nap ourselves. Schedule the naps like we schedule their sleep at night, it’s the best way. Naps help a baby’s physical development, they need all the z’s they can get in these early years.
It’s for mommy, too!
These pieces of advice and methods may or may not work well for us, but the important thing is that we are able to aid our baby in getting their required hours of sleep. Newborns up to 6 months require around 14 hours of sleep while 6-12-month-olds, about 12 hours is great. While they sleep that long, it doesn’t mean the mom does or all at one time. Moms and parents have a lot of other things to do and it’s not all about baby bathing. Getting the baby to sleep faster in the most efficient way is precious time that mom will cherish and value. Let’s not stress ourselves by taking care of our baby and not getting our own required 5-8 hours of rest.
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