A baby is a tiny, precious wonder. Figuring out their needs feels tough and sometimes leaves you feeling powerless when you can’t soothe all their worries.
But, you’re a mother who is not a miracle worker, despite creating a beautiful miracle of your own! You deserve a break and a few methods of getting your baby to sleep without exhausting your body and mind even more so.
Surprisingly, there are limitless ways to encourage and sway your newborn off to a night of deep sleep, and actually, many marvelous ways of doing so don’t involve you holding the baby.
Babies are rather dependent on us as expected, however, many parents aren’t informed about that independent and alone time that can help aid them in calming themselves down without you. If we suggest a method that you don’t like, and it upsets you to be too far away from your baby, then not to worry.
Try something else we recommend! Eventually, you will find something that just works. Your baby is unique, and so are you for being their strong, wonderful parent. So, be easy on yourself, you’re doing great!
Whether you’re a new mum, dad, or guardian, you deserve to feel a little more reassured about how your baby is feeling, you’re doing your best and that’s what matters.
The History Of Bond Between Mother And Baby
Sometimes, you can feel a bit helpless when caring for your baby, and it’s a tough job, so you should give yourself more credit when it’s due! But, one of the oldest methods, is letting your baby sometimes cry it out.
They have a lot of emotions that they don’t understand, and if they were never able to cry, this wouldn’t encourage healthy behaviors. That element of crying releases the stress your baby feels from just learning to be alive! So, perhaps when they next cry, you just cannot seem to comfort them out of it.
Talk to them and release your own emotions. Most of the time, whatever you are feeling, they are too. Finding a balance between understanding the emotions and encouraging them to be felt, maybe worth a try.
An age-old method would be to use your own voice in many ways! Singing has been proven to calm your baby, regardless of if you’re good at it or not. Mothers have used this method for thousands of years, and it is in your instinct, as well as your babies, to find comfort from it, including yourself when you’re feeling overwhelmed.
Singing can be a release of your own emotions, too. Letting yourself feel that moment between you and your baby, through singing, can be a wonderful way to create comfort and long-lasting bonds.
Step 1 – Understanding Boundaries
Sometimes, you have to be free of your baby for a while, whether it’s to get stuff done around the house or have some downtime for yourself because you’re a human being that needs rest in more than one way.
Your baby can be surprisingly independent on their own in some situations if you can encourage yourself to let them be. It can be extremely hard to succumb to not touching your baby in any way, especially when they’re upset. But, this can encourage them to begin to maintain their own emotions from as early as a few months old.
Much of what we know about being a parent, can be incorrect sometimes or developed over time for convenience. Trust your baby and your instincts.
Step 2 – Activities During The Day And Evening
Playing with your baby and making funny faces at them, anything that will keep them awake during the daylight hours, so they can sleep longer and better during the nighttime hours.
Of course, they can have a few naps during the day, that’s what they need. But engaging with them when they are awake is a fantastic way to not only bond with them, but ease that nighttime routine a bit for you.
When it comes to nighttime and the evening, you know yourself that winding down is the best way to get a good night’s sleep. Baths, reading, music, and background noise can all help create that calm and relaxed environment. Remember, when you are calm, your baby can be calm.
Step 3 – Maintaining A Routine
Setting up a routine that you can realistically stick to can help encourage the patterns and behaviors that remind your baby, it’s time to sleep! That’s how our brains are wired most of the time, so helping to develop this in your baby at a young age can encourage better coping mechanisms when they are older.
If you feed your baby in the evening, then stick to this routine, so their body clock starts to tell them the day is ending soon. Also, if your baby starts to doze off, take this opportunity to lay them in their crib or bassinet. It’s best to do this when they are already falling asleep.
Step 4 – Blankets And Swaddling
A great way to encourage and comfort your baby into a deep sleep is to learn how to correctly swaddle your baby! There are many methods to aid you in finding your own way to swaddling, and that tightness to the wraps is what is going to create extra comfort and support to their small sleeping form.
Many photographers use this method not only to create cute photoshoots for your baby, but also to keep the baby cal, and asleep, the example of wrapping your baby is an age-old technique that has been around for a long time. There’s a reason it works so well!
This is a fantastic video on the many methods of swaddling your baby!
Step 5 – Rhythmic Motions
Babies are used to being cradled and rocked to sleep, that’s how they slept while still inside your belly, that repetitive motion of mum moving around during the day stays with them, and finding a method to rock them to sleep similarly might just work for you!
Placing them in their crib and gently swaying them side to side can be a great method, but if you have any other ideas, feel free to try those too!
Why not try sitting and ready with them while doing so, or gently singing or humming? All these ideas have been proven to work overtime because your voice is what is familiar to them after all.
If you can find a way to create a pattern of singing or humming whenever they are calm, this can encourage the same feelings and behavior when they are not.
So, conditioning them to associate your voice with ease, is the perfect way to encourage them to sleep. It can also boost your confidence in knowing your baby inside and out, which may help you in increasingly stressful situations. Trusting yourself is where it all starts!
Step 6 – Using Your Scent
Your baby has become so familiar with you over the course of their life so far, they know your scent, whether you carried them, or not. So, use this to your advantage!
Using any article of clothing can provide this comfort, or if you have a teddy that they like, carry it with you throughout the day until you put your baby down to sleep, that scent can remain with them then!
Any way that you can infuse your own scent onto an item, can encourage your baby to find comfort when you’re not necessarily around, including when they are drifting off to sleep. Try your partner’s scent too when they’re not in the house to see if this brings the same level of comfort to your baby!
Final Thoughts
We hope you’ve found a method or step that works for you and your baby in this article, there are countless methods to getting your baby to sleep without being held, and it would be impossible to fit them all in!
At the end of the day, your baby has a special bond with you alone, and sometimes you just have to try anything and everything until you find the method that does the job. And you will find it!
Ann is a friendly person who loves to experiment, and she hopes that her experiences can help others personally and in their homes.
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