Establishing healthy habits right from the very beginning is an excellent way to avoid sleep problems down the road. It’s really about understanding how newborns sleep and beginning to work with them to create great sleep habits and associations (yes associations can be good!).
Here is the thing with newborns, they are unpredictable, their sleep is erratic and they can get fussy easily. Also they’re sooooo snuggly (sigh). It’s just about giving parents the information so that they can set realistic expectations for their baby’s sleep, feel confident about how they approach sleep and set themselves up for success in the future. Newborns are a blank slate, they have not yet developed any sleep expectations or associations and so creating a great sleeper is easiest at this age. This is when crying will be minimal and when good sleepers grow into champion sleepers in months 3, 4, 5, 12 and toddlerhood. 4 month regression? What regression? Many great sleepers aren’t even phased by these “regressions”.
This is absolutely NOT sleep training, this is just slowly applying great sleep habits that will serve them in the future. No tears (well, all babies cry. but you know what I mean).
Here are 10 practical tips that will help your newborn develop a healthy sleep foundation:
Tip #1
Environment
Make sure your babies sleep environment is:
1. Safe, always follow the AAP safe sleep guidelines (no blankets, teddy bears, pillows, hard firm mattress, tight fitted sheet, avoid exposure to drugs, alcohol & smoke etc.). Always better to be safe than sorry.
2. When it’s “awake time”, open all blinds and expose baby to sunlight. This is a great cue that it’s DAYTIME and will help with the development on their biological clock in a few months (right now it’s not developed yet).
Light, food and social interaction are cues that help develop our circadian rhythms.
At night and during naps it should be dark, I mean pitch darkness.
Why? Babies have stored up maternal melatonin when they are born (that’s why they are so sleepy all the time). At 3 weeks the stores of melatonin - the hormone that makes you sleepy is depleted. Babies don’t start making their own melatonin until 8 weeks of age, although they do get some from their mothers milk. You can understand why between 3 and 8 weeks we experience the most fussiness in babies (6 weeks is when fussiness and crying peak). Melatonin is only produced in the dark. Light inhibits the production of melatonin and thus baby will not be able to produce enough if they are always in the light. This is why for sleep, always try to place baby in the dark as much as possible. I don’t think there is anything wrong with having baby take some naps on the-go or in the living room, or on mama (love my mama naps) however, you want them to at least practice taking one nap in the dark. They will not always sleep this peacefully in stimulating environments and you want to prepare for months 3-4 when catnaps emerge (believe me you want to get ahead of this, cat napping will soon become a THING).
Tip #2
Swaddle
Arms in snug swaddles work best for newborns. Swaddling helps to calm babies as it brings them back to how tight it was in the womb, re-creating these conditions helps to settle a baby who is not used to having their limbs flying everywhere and startling them awake. Once a baby is settled in a swaddle they will sleep better and longer.
*ask me for tips on how to swaddle baby properly.
Tip #3
Sound machine
Introduce a sound machine for all day and night sleep. A sound machine is another great way to calm a baby and it’s also a great tool to make sleep longer and block out ambient noise. They are fantastic. In the womb it’s as loud as a vacuum cleaner 24/7 so a quiet room is unnerving for a baby. Make sure the sound machine plays continuously for the whole duration of sleep and doesn’t turn off. I usually go with just white noise as music can stimulate the brain. A sound machine used at every sleep time can become a great cue and can help transition baby through sleep cycles. I have a few portable ones for naps on the go! Babies can use sound machines until 12 months old.
Tip #4
Wake your sleeping baby
YUP that’s what I said. You want baby to sleep their longest stretch at night. They will usually only do one long stretch so we try to have that at night time (fun fact: “sleeping through the night” for a newborn is 5 hours. So that’s your long stretch- sorry mamas! remember realistic expectations). Wake baby if nap is longer than 2 hours, they will also likely need to feed every 2.5-3 hours. Newborns sleep 16-18 hours a day but that sleep is sporadic and unorganized. You want baby to sleep 11 hours overnight and the rest during the day, but at this age they will not be sleeping 11 hours straight, baby’s gotta eat!
When they wake during the day feed them, give them 60-90 minutes of awake time (60 minutes is usually recommended and it stretches up to 90 minutes by 3 months). I usually see parents try to stretch wake window to 90 minutes too early and baby becomes overtired. Try to keep it at 60 minutes and watch for baby’s sleepy cues (see tip 7).
Just to clarify, by 60 minutes I mean that is from the time your baby opens their eyes to the time when they close them. This includes feeding, changing them and nap routine (see tip 8).
Feeding baby most of their calories during the day will also become very important. Babies are really good little calorie counters so if they aren’t getting what they need during the day, they will need to compensate at night. Make sure baby gets good full feeds and cluster feed in the evening if they are showing hunger cues.
Tip #5
Drowsy but awake
This is easy for a newborn who is sleepy. Try laying baby down in a state of drowsiness but awake (eyelids heavy) at least once a day. This is work for your future sleep. Your goal is to have baby fall asleep independently. If baby cries, cuddle them. Settle them. This is not about letting baby cry, at this age it’s not recommended. Save this for when baby is calm and will drift off to sleep on their own. It’s a good exercise to practice. Don’t be afraid to hold and cuddle baby as well, balance is key.
Tip # 6
Accept Naps
Irregular cat naps are totally normal for newborns. The average newborn nap ranges from 20-120 minutes so don’t stress about the length of naps. If they won’t settle for a nap and you see it’s been a 60 minute wake window and their cues are telling you “i’m sleepy!!!.” Get that nap in however you can (baby wearing, swing, car). At this age you can have up to 4 naps a day.
Tip # 7
Sleepy Cues
This is how your newborn communicates with you. You want to follow these cues because it takes about 10 minutes to go from I’m sleepy to I’m overtired, and then you have a fussy baby that will not settle for sleep easily. Watch your baby closely.
If you see any of the following and it’s been approximately 60 minutes put them down for a nap right away.
Red eyebrows
Averts eyes
turns head
blank stares
You have less than 10 minutes if baby starts:
yawning
rubbing eyes
pulling ears
becoming fussy
You are long gone into overtired territory if:
Arches back
becomes rigid
makes fists
crying hysterically
Tip #8
Establish nap and bedtime routines
Repetition is key! Babies need time to relax before sleep (everyone including adults need some wind down time before sleep). Give them this time to wind down and get sleepy. Having a consistent routine will help with this and it will eventually become a cue for sleep, making them drowsy even when beginning the routine.
Nap time routine example: (5 mins) remove from stimulating environment, feed, dim lights, sound machine, swaddle, bed.
Bed time routine example: (25-30 min) Bath, pjs, sound machine, read book, feed, swaddle, bed
Customize this for YOUR family but do the same things at the same time, every day.
Tip #9
Consistent bedtime
Set your bedtime between 7-8pm knowing that baby will likely need an awake feed or dream feed between 10-11pm, this will be your last feed of the night and hopefully that long stretch will follow.
An awake feed is done with the purpose of getting baby to build some sleep debt that will get them through that long stretch. Spend one hour feeding, changing and at that hour mark (or 10 minutes earlier) put baby back to sleep.
This can also be considered their “late bedtime” but I like to keep bedtime at one consistent time just knowing there will be another wake up at this time.
Once baby gets close to 12 weeks we can often turn this awake feed into a dream feed-picking up baby and feeding while asleep in the dark. Dream feeds are great because your partner can do it and you can go to bed early! Do it mama!
Tip # 10
Watch and Wait
Often when newborns move at night, a mamas eyes pop open at the first noise and they rush to them and pick them up. I totally did this!
My tip here is to wait 40 seconds, listen to baby. Ask yourself are they really awake? Newborns are LOUD sleepers, they are often in a light sleep and will whimper, growl, groan. It often seems like they are awake but they are not, well.. until you pick them up. Watch them and give them a few seconds before intervening, most of the time they just fall back into a deeper sleep or they will just be loud (my husband had no problem sleeping through these noises..urghh.).
In the end, you want to enjoy this newborn phase. Cuddle that baby, smell that baby smell and recognize the importance of sleep for those little brains and for mamas wellbeing. It’s important you all get the rest you need to enjoy the moments.
Contact me and I can send you a sleep success checklist that will help guide you! I’m here to help you.
