I had a routine where I gave a feed at 8pm went straight to bed and my husband would stay up till midnight then bring our son to me to give a last feed and change. We all got to sleep about 1pm and generally slept till 6am. The hours before midnight were so precious for me. Someone once said to me an hours sleep before midnight is equivalent to two after midnight.
I always found that if they stirred in the night it was best to leave them for 5-10 mins. 9 times out of 10 my little one would fall back asleep all by themselves and didn't actually need anything
Make sure you have a clear path out of the room, the amount of times baby has woken up because I’ve stood on something or kicked a toy. Even the slightest of sounds used to wake my daughter
I really wish I'd known that is is perfectly acceptable to to walk away from a baby who is still awake, (as long as you have a baby monitor of course), I spent countless wasted hours attempting to get our older 2 back to sleep once they woke, they weren't screaming, crying or in distress, simply awake. It wasn't until our third child was born, (after a considerable gap), that I realised that some babies really do need that imput, our youngest has Down's Syndrome and sleep apnea, if he was left alone he could stop breathing etc.. What I'm trying to say is that new parents should cut themselves some slack, catch up with your sleep when you can, even if your little bundle happens to be awake, (but safe) at the time.
Don't get bullied into sleeping in the same room as your baby for 6 months! My son kept waking himself up hitting the sides of his moses basket, so we moved him into his cot in his own bedroom at 8 weeks old....he slept 12 hours without waking every night after! However, my daughter moved over at 12 weeks and woke up every night until she was 1...so not an infallible system!
My mother taught me a trick which, if you are like me, sounded bizarre but I use it and it does work. When your child has had a full day but is still feeling restless place a small bar of mild soap by the child's feet (it works even better with lavender soap). It has to be close to the skin. I don't know why it works but it works for us and my mother said she did it to me too regularly. Remember the child has to be already tired though.
Get a dimmer switch fitted in your bedroom, where baby will sleep with you for the first few months. When feeding or changing baby at nighttime, keep the lights down low and keep noise to a minimum. There’s no need to play with baby after a night feed, put baby down back to sleep after a feed.
a lovely fun bath time and a routine helps and also some fresh air - i used to worry over colds and them getting too cold - i think now as long as they are wrapped up the fresh air rreally helps!
Having a good routine and making sure you have blackout blinds in the room your baby will be sleeping, they even helped when the clocks changed there was no disruption to the sleep pattern
For my youngest it was a soother , my daughter never had one she suffered with terrible colic the only thing that soothed her was some back ground noise , tv or music on quietly in the background
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