After nine months of pregnancy, you finally have your beautiful newborn in your arms. As a new parent, you will be face with learning a number of things for keeping your baby comfortable and safe. One of the primary challenges for the majority of new parents is sleep – for both baby and parents. To ensure your baby adjusts well and you get rest, which you will need, you can do several things to help establish good sleeping habits.
You need to remember that a sleep schedule takes time so patience and flexibility are keys to success. Although you will have lots of advice from families and friends, remember that not all babies respond to the same techniques. Therefore, you might try something offered but if you find it not working, rather than keep fighting the system, move on to something else. Just stay open to possible solutions for helping your baby sleep, learning over time what does and does not work.
As you spend more and more time with your baby, you will begin to learn his or her behaviors. As a new parent, you want to establish right patterns but again, you need to be flexible. Therefore, if you can get your baby to take all of his/her naps in the crib – great but if you find your baby prefers to sleep in the carrier or playpen during the day, then so be it. Many times, you will find that in the first few months of life, the safest and most comfortable place is near mom or dad, not necessarily the crib.
While it would be nice to force your baby to sleep when and where you want, this expectation is simply not realistic. Even so, you can make nap or bedtime attractive, something your baby looks forward to doing. We suggest you also try various things to put the baby to sleep. In this case, you might see if rocking works, singing, nursing, patting the baby’s back over your shoulder, using sound machines, and so on. You may need to try several things before you discover that one magical thing that works best but keep in mind, it may not work 100% of the time.
Helping your baby get to sleep using methods of security and parent soothing has a long list of advantages. For instance, your baby is learning the right way to go to sleep, making the experience enjoyable. Additionally, the right techniques will build a stronger bond between child and parent, building trust and happy memories. Just remember that as a new parent raisig a baby is a learning process for you and your child. Then, the responses of the baby will vary not just from day to day, but also child to child. Therefore, what might have worked exceptionally well for your first child may not be the answer for your second child, which is the reason patience and flexibility are so crucial.