Have you heard of the mother whose baby’s sleeping for 4-5 hours a night, who sleeps without any problems both day and night and who is the most quiet baby in the whole world?
I heard about it too, but I haven't had such a baby. Thank God for the lucky mothers whose babies love sleep. But what should we do, those of us that are terrified when nap time arrives? How could we manage the difficulties of helping our baby to sleep?
What worked for us?
1. Hood (+ swing)
This was a method I used very often. I had a very strong hood, which was also a bit noisy. For babies, that sound is soothing, because it is not a sharp, shrill sound, but a background sound, similar to what they heard in the womb.
Sometimes I only used the hood and sat next to it to sleep a little (it seems that the noise was calming for me too), and other times I used it together with the electric swing. I would place the swing next to the stove and set it to a medium speed. It worked every time! My baby was fast asleep, and I could do another one around the house, as long as the hood was on, of course. If I stopped it, the baby would wake up. But it was a life-saving solution, which helped me to cook and take a nap from time to time.
2. Wrap or baby carrier
I think I mentioned it countless times on the blog, told stories and encouraged all the new moms I interacted with to buy a wrap! A wrap is a system of carrying the baby, made of textile, woven material, which somehow wraps around you, forming a kind of cocoon in where the baby sits. He likes that he clings to you, falls asleep feeling safe, and you have your hands free to do something else. It was a lifeline for me. There were days when nothing but nothing else would really work and within the wrap was the only way my baby would fall asleep. Writing on the blog with her placed into the wrap was really productive. I also cooked, cleaned, walked, I even went to the toilet like that😅
Although I really liked wearing a system (from 6 months I switched to one with buckles, because my little one couldn't stay still until I wrapped all the material around her), I still found it hard that when I stopped moving, she would wake up. And it was tiring to do something all the time. It works well for walking and cooking, but sometimes you are so tired that you would sit down for a while. This is probably not the case with all children but ours woke up as soon as I sat down. But I repeat, on some days, this was the only way it worked to put her to sleep, so It was extraordinary helpful to me.
LE: I decided to attach two pictures with me, carrying my babies, so that you can understand more clearly how this method works. I recommend ergonomic baby carrier systems, ie those in which the baby sits in a natural position, avoiding medical problems, which can occur due to non-ergonomic systems. The first picture is with the wrap that I used up to 6 months, and the second with the buckle system, which I used after 6 months. In both pictures, my baby broke sleep :)
Baby wrap
Baby ergonomic system carrier
3. The blanket
This trick was told to me by a more experienced mom and was one of the most helpful tips I've ever received.
Usually, newborns calm down on skin-to-skin contact with their mother, and their favorite method of falling asleep is you, calming down at your heartbeat, just as they did in the womb. And although that warm feeling is nice, when the little soul, which has been in your belly for 9 months, is now sleeping on your chest, the truth is that sometimes you also need to eat and cook and you can't really sit with your baby sleeping ALL the time, no matter how beautiful it may seem to you. The solution I found involved a fluffy and comfortable blanket to put between me and the baby when she goes to sleep.
When she’s in a deep sleep period (for example, when I touched her little hand and she didn't shy away, she didn't make any gestures) I would take her within the blanket and move her to the crib. This solved the problem of the temperature difference, because I tried moving her without the blanket, but she immediately felt the cold sheet in the crib and woke up. The blanket, however, remained warm and I wrapped her lightly in it, after placing her in the crib. It worked very well and even she even got attached to the blanket.
These are the three most used methods of putting pretentious babies to sleep, which I used. There are certainly others (using apps with white sounds, sleeping bags, even adding a T-shirt of mine in her crib, etc.), but these 3 helped me the most and I think it would calm any baby, no matter how much a bad sleeper he/she is.
What do you say about my methods? Do they it work? What worked for you and what didn't?
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