Baby Sleep Tips with @positivelyparenthood

From the moment your baby arrives into the world, there are a handful of things that you can do to help support their sleep. Read on for Heidi's top tips for a restful night's sleep for your baby (and you) . . .

When baby is in utero, they are used to hearing the swooshing of the blood through Mum’s placenta, which means they are not all that used to quiet and loud, sharper noises. Using white noise for your baby helps drown out any of those unusual noises and will often help them to fall asleep (and stay asleep) more easily.

In the first few weeks, your newborn will be quite sleepy and will mostly sleep anywhere. Once they hit around six weeks of age, daytime sleep often becomes more difficult. Using a blackout blind for daytime naps, and also at bedtime during the summer when the evenings are lighter, is really useful in aiding a restful sleep. Early waking and short day naps are some of the trickiest sleep challenges to improve and having a darker room increases the production of melatonin: the hormone that promotes sleep.

When a baby enters the world, the environment is very different to the one they've been accustomed to for the past few months. Babies are used to being curled up in the womb, where movement of arms and legs is minimal. Swaddling your baby can be hugely beneficial in replicating this feeling. It also helps to reduce the Moro reflex — this is also known as the startle reflex which babies are born with and causes them to throw out their arms and legs when startled, which wakes them up.

Babies are unable to regulate their temperature, so we need to do a little more to help them. The Lullaby Trust's Safe Sleep Guidelines suggest that your baby should be sleeping in a room of 16–20°C with appropriate sleepwear on — this means adding a layer in the cooler months and then ensuring baby does not get too warm in the summer months. Lightweight swaddles and sleeping bags are ideal for helping your baby maintain their body temperature, meaning they sleep better too!

A well-fed and winded baby is a happy baby! Although well-meaning relatives or friends may suggest that breastfed babies don’t need winding, or that one burp is enough, my very biggest tip on helping baby to sleep well would be to ensure that they are taking nice, full feeds every couple of hours as well as being winded in different positions, helping dislodge any burps. A stuck burp can be the difference between a 30-minute nap and a long restorative two-hour nap, so working on this during your baby’s awake time can be huge and is one of the least talked about tips for baby sleep!

You cannot spoil your baby, so lots of cuddles and naps whilst they're laying on you during those early months is a perfect way of helping bridge the gap between being in the womb and them entering the big world outside. Thinking about your baby’s sleep environment and practising putting them down for some of their sleep will create healthy sleep habits that you get to keep for life!