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Becoming a parent for the first time is the most fabulous and most terrifying thing that will happen to you! While your ante-natal class will prepare you for labour, what you really need preparation for is the first night at home with your baby! Your baby will start crying and may not stop for hours!

We all instinctively want to calm a crying baby. However, we often don’t have the experience or skills to know HOW to calm the crying and get baby to sleep. Your baby is tiny for such a short time, so do what you can to really enjoy the first months of her life and make this a wonderful time for you all.

There are easy to learn techniques and many fantastic products available to help you not only survive, but enjoy the fourth trimester! All new babies cry, but be confident that you will know how to settle your baby and ensure you all get the best possible sleep.

New baby routines & sleep times:

A very simple routine can really make a difference to how your baby sleeps – both how easily it is to settle your baby and how long she sleeps for. Plunket and many other experts recommend the simple routine of Feed, Play, Sleep. Using this routine will mean you avoid the temptation to feed your baby to sleep, and learn other techniques to settle her. This will make it easier get your baby to learn to sleep through the night as she gets bigger.

Newborns need about 20 hours of sleep a day, so that doesn’t leave a lot of time for anything other than feeding, a quick kick on the floor and back to bed. Always try to have your newborn back to bed within an hour of when you started feeding. This will get easier as you get quicker feeding.

Essential for getting baby to quickly settle is recognizing your baby’s tired signs. If you miss the tired signs, baby can get overtired and be much harder to settle. Ask your Plunket nurse for their ‘Sleepytime’ video, which shows the tired signs. Signs your baby is ready for sleep include jerky leg movements, yawning, wriggling, making fists, grizzling, eye rubbing, a fixed stare and facial grimacing. Your baby may show one or more signs, but swaddle them and put them back to bed as soon as you see ANY tired sign.

New baby survival information:

Dr Harvey Karp is the master baby calmer! His techniques are easy to learn and incredibly effective. After reading his book or watching his DVD, you will stun and amaze your friends and family as you confidently calm your crying baby and she sleeps fabulously from day one! Dr’s Karp teaches you the 5 S’s – Swaddling, Side/stomach position, Ssssshhhing, Swinging and Sucking – fabulous techniques to replicate the environment your baby has enjoyed for nine months.

Swaddling:

As Dr Karp teaches you, and you will experience from your wonderful hospital midwives, swaddling is the most essential skill for new parents after feeding! Swaddling replicates the snug space baby is used to and ensures that her ‘moro’ reflex (flailing arms) doesn’t wake her up. Swaddled babies generally enjoy an extra hour or two sleep between wakings. The majority of babies love being swaddled but they like it done right – a wrap that comes undone easily will not calm baby or improve sleep.

Choose a swaddling wrap that is soft, stretchy and plenty big enough (at least 1m x 1m for a newborn) to follow your wrapping instructions. The majority of wraps available in NZ are not big enough, so The Sleep Store imports a comprehensive range. We also have ‘easy-wraps’ if you want a simple option for the first few weeks!

Swinging:

Your baby is used to being rocked for at least 16 hours a day, so being left lying still in a bassinette will be very strange for her! You can easily replicate womb movement by rocking or jiggling your baby, but this can be very tiring! However there are also these great ways to effectively rock baby to sleep that not only save your arms falling off, they can help baby build great sleep habits from day one.

Side/stomach:

While the recommended position for sleeping is on baby’s back (to prevent SIDS), the side or stomach position can be incredibly effective at calming crying before you put baby to bed, especially with reflux or colic. Use a sleep wedge or check out Dr’s Karp’s book or video for side/stomach excellent holding techniques.

Sssssshing – Music for Sleeping:

Your baby is used to the loud wooshing noises inside your womb! A quiet bedroom is likely to further upset a crying baby rather than help calm her. White noise’ is recommended to replicate womb sounds rather than playing lullabies to newborns and Dr Karp gives you lots of suggestions for creating white noise around the home. His DVD also includes some white noise tracks. Or you can buy this award winning ‘womb recording’ to really make your newborn feel at home! (Available exclusively through The Sleep Store in NZ).

Sucking:

Many babies also want to suck for comfort, and are not coordinated enough to suck their own fingers until they are at least 4 months old. You may want an alternative to your little finger or breast for comfort sucking. Nuk Soothers are a great size and shape for newborns. Avoid introducing a soother until breastfeeding is well established, and always offer once baby has been calmed with the other S’s.