Safe Sleep Tips for Baby: Relaxing Rest at the Right Time

Every new parent is concerned about safe sleep tips for baby.
The whole family needs relaxing rest, at the right time.
Life gets super discouraging if your newborn isn’t sleeping at night.
Proper sleep is important for everyone: parents and infant.

 

So baby comes home from the hospital

and everyone is glad to home, a new little family alone together at last.

And life is good.

At first.

A newborn usually sleeps around the clock, except for eating and crying and being changed and bathed.

But that all changes in just a few days.

 

As a new parent, you love the quiet hours during the day

when baby sleeps and you can get your rest, too.

However, it’s good to be aware that the sooner you develop the proper night/day rhythm,

the happier everyone will be.

There is a science to infant sleep patterns, believe it or not.

Learn to understand how, why and when babies sleep, and life can be a lot easier, maybe even develop some regularity.

 

Safe Sleep Tips for Baby:

Babies have the same circadian sleep/wake rhythms we do.

With one difference.

They aren’t born that way. The rhythm has to be developed, and if we understand that, we can follow certain best practices to get baby into that rhythm.

The best way to do this is to live normally.

Have baby where you are during the day, not tucked away in a dark, quiet corner to sleep as much as possible.

Because they need the exposure to natural light as much as possible to help develop proper sleep patterns. They will sleep if they need to, in spite of being in the center of noise and activity. However, there’s less chance of them oversleeping and getting out of rhythm.

When evening comes, we’re used to turning on the lights and continuing our activities per usual.

This may seem natural to you, but if you want safe sleep patterns for baby, the sooner you accept that normal life is over, the better off everyone will be.

 

 

Of course you’re not going to bed when the sun goes down. Our lives don’t operate that way. But if you can, keep the lights as few and as dim as possible in the hours before bedtime. This might make you sleepy before baby, because, face it, you’ve worked a lot harder all day than your newborn.

The type of lights you use can be a help, too. Bulbs that filter out “blue” light will be more relaxing for baby’s eyes. Electronic screens especially can disrupt sleep. Can you give up your phones, computers, all screens in the pre-bedtime hours? Seems a little over the top, but science proves that this is beneficial for all of us, but especially for little ones. Another option is using blue light filters on the screens, which according to this company is beneficial for everyone.

Use a low watt, amber bulb in the room where you get baby ready for bed. Night time feeding, diaper changing, putting on her little jammies, and finally rocking her to sleep (or laying her in her bed) can all be done by this dimmer light.

 

 

Consider your baby’s emotional state.

Make the last hour before bed, or as much time as you can, a slowing down, settling time.

If baby is calm, relaxed and feels safe and loved, she will sleep much better. Consider creating bedtime rituals that baby will begin to realize signal the end of the day and sleep time.

Respond soothingly to your baby’s emotional feelings. Research supports the importance of being responsive and available before baby’s bedtime. That means you need to manage your emotions, too! Be aware of your own needs, and get help sooner rather than later if you suspect you have postpartum stress or even depression.

If baby doesn’t seem sleepy at bedtime, don’t stress. Tell yourself that tomorrow will be another day, and she may be ready to sleep at the right time another day. If you try to force relaxation or sleep they will start to associate bedtime with stress and fight it more. Just continue to follow the bedtime ritual as calmly as possible, even if it’s a little later than you’d like.

 

Go to sleep when baby does.

After baby’s last feeding at night and peacefully asleep,

don’t go to the office or kitchen or wherever and get some more work done.

Instead, go to bed yourself, and sleep when baby does. That’s the best way to get more sleep.

Because the work will be there in the daytime hours, and it doesn’t really matter if cleanup waits till morning. You won’t grow maggots in your kitchen over one night of leaving dishes on the counter. Sorry for that exaggerated visual, but it proves a point.

 

 

If baby wakes up at night.

Sometimes babies start to wake up, cry, open their eyes and act restless. And they’re actually still sleeping or will go back to sleep on their own.

Don’t be too quick to get up to soothe them, unless you can tell something is seriously wrong. Give them the chance to learn to soothe themselves back to sleep. If you go to them at every movement or cry you’ll train them how to get you up at night.

If you do have to get up to tend to them, do it quietly, slowly and be very boring. Keep the room as dark as possible and avoid eye contact. Eye contact gives baby the message it’s party time. Don’t stimulate them in any way with talk or singing until it becomes absolutely apparent that their night is over. Sigh.

 

Burping or changing baby at night.

Don’t.

Unless baby is already wide awake for some reason.

Doing so will probably wake them up completely, something you want to avoid if at all possible.

If you put baby to bed as recommended, on her back on a firm mattress with no extra bedding or pillows that can cover the head and cause suffocation, baby will be just fine without burping.

And that introduces the subject of safe sleeping.

Babies are much safer sleeping on a firm mattress, on their backs, without frilly soft covers about them. Dress baby in a warm sleeper and avoid covers altogether. This has been found to help prevent SIDS type deaths.

Make sure the baby’s bed meets current health standards. And follow the guidelines your doctor recommends.

And then,

relax.

Because you’re doing all you can to practice safe sleep tips for baby and you. 

Of course you’ll worry a little, especially with that first, precious newborn. It’s human nature, and part of the protective instincts God gave us.

So do everything you know to practice safe sleep habits for baby, then trust that

God can protect your baby and help him sleep better than your worrying can.

 

Bless you and your newborn with peaceful nights!
We hope our safe sleep tips for baby can help you out.

Until next time,

Love, Kim & Dorothy

 

NOTE: For further reading, this article gives further information on the topics we barely touched on here. And gives much supporting scientific evidence.

TO HELP TRACK the rhythms of your newborn, you may want to use a Baby’s Firsts Calendar, with stickers and spaces to add notes and memory information for your newborn’s first year.