3 Newborn Sleep Schedule Tips (That Had My Second Baby Sleeping Through the Night by Six Weeks Old)
Ah, newborn sleep. It’s such an emotional topic & I have start by saying I am in no way an expert on this topic… I literally held my first-born baby for every.single.nap until he was over 12 months old! I’m. Not. Kidding... So needless to say I was a total skeptic that a newborn baby could (or even should!) be sleeping through the night by 6 weeks old.
But honestly, baby girl (my second baby) was actually sleeping through the night from 10pm to 5/6am at just 5 weeks old already… and I don’t say that to brag… I say that as a mama who once held her newborn baby boy (my first baby who is now a toddler) for every.single.nap until he was over 12 months old. So I thought I would share the 5 things I did differently with my second baby that helped me teach her how to sleep through the night by six weeks old. No crying involved. Well, except for my happy tears from a full night’s rest.
PS don’t forget, every baby is a little different and will respond to some sleeping habits better than others. I’m just a mama who found a few things that worked for her & wants to share in case they work for you, too!
5 Newborn Sleep Schedule Tips (That Had My Second Baby Sleeping Through the Night by Six Weeks Old)
#1 Read the Book Cherish the First Six Weeks - it’s a game changer!
I didn’t follow any sort of schedule with my first baby until he was closer to 3 or 4 months and even then I don’t think bathtime was even at the same time every night until he was over 12 months old. I scroll back through my phone and have pictures of him wide awake smiling & playing on the bed at 9:30pm! *insert facepalm here* I’m literally cringing as I write this… #firsttimemomprobs. Breastfeeding my babies has always been super important to me and since I’ve largely adopted the “feeding on demand” philosophy for breastfeeding I also thought that meant to I had to have my baby sleep on demand as well. That lead to baby number 1 taking 20 min naps in the car here & 45 mins naps in my arms (while I wrote blog posts like this with one hand on my laptop) there… So when my second baby arrived, I knew I had to give this whole schedule thing a try! And wow, was it a total game changer!
After doing lots of research, I opted to follow the book Cherish the First Six Weeks by Helen Moon, and I highly recommend it!! I literally can’t recommended this book enough! It takes you week by week from newborn to six weeks old and gives you a schedule to follow to help your baby learn to distinguish night from day and be sleeping through the night by 6 weeks old!
It also gives you really great burping, swaddling, and bathtime tips! I followed about 90% of her advice and used my mama intuition for the rest and to make it work the best for our family’s specific needs (see below), but it was the best decision I made for adjusting to being a family of 4!
Example: she recommends playing an hour long playlist every night starting at bathtime all the way through until baby is fast asleep at night. I never actually followed through with this part but instead, I found that baby girl tended to fall asleep best to this random list of about 4 songs that I would play every time I was bouncing her to sleep those first few weeks… and now I still use this same list of 4 songs on repeat (& always played in the same order!) to get her down for a nap or bedtime & it works like a charm to help her calm down and know its time to fall asleep! Honestly, the songs aren’t even lullaby-type songs.. one of them is Meghan Trainor’s “Better When I’m Dancing” … what can I say, the girl likes to bounce to the beat!
Following a schedule was such a game changer with my second baby and it even helped me transition through the first six week of her newborn life easier, especially as a new mama to 2 kiddos! I can’t recommend it highly enough!
Side Note: the author does talk about things like vaccines and other newborn care that I can’t say I 100% agree with her opinions on, but the sleep advice is spot on! Or at least it was for me & my second baby!
#2 If You’re Breastfeeding, Don’t Forget to Pay Attention to What You’re Eating
I’ve struggled with various food sensitivities my whole life and so it’s no surprise to me that my baby have a few food sensitivities, too. Everything I read online says that you’re baby’s inability to sleep long stretches or excessive burping (or whatever it is keeping baby awake or waking baby up every 20 minutes) is not related to what you’re eating whatsoever. NOT true. At least not for us… because as soon as I cut out almond butter, sunflower butter, and sweet potatoes my baby girl stopped waking up six times per nap to painful burps!
The “experts” may want to call it a coincidence, but sometimes mama really does know best. ;) So trust your gut, listen to your mama instinct & don’t be afraid to experiment by cutting out a few different foods to see if your baby’s extra gassiness gets better! It’s totally worth it when your sweet little babe sleeps peacefully & isn’t struggling with painful burps or tummy pains from gas anymore! I just started by eliminating any foods that may cause me gas or be harder to digest in general (ex/ dairy, nuts, eggs, etc) and went from there until she didn’t seem to have gas pains anymore. Start with one food at at time & be sure to give it a few days to see improvements before trying another food, because some foods can stay in your system a while longer than others!
#3 Try Different Swaddles Until You Find The One That Works Best for Your Baby
Does your baby like being held while he or she sleeps? Yeah, mine did too. It’s only natural for newborns to want to be held and snuggled close next to you, between the extra body heat and the comfort of mama’s smell, it’s the closest thing to being inside mama’s cozy belly like baby has been for the past 9 months… But your job as mama is to help baby adjust to life outside the womb (& make sure everyone is getting a good night’s rest if possible.) So I paid close attention to how my baby girl liked being held while she was sleeping & then did my best to mimic that same environment of being held in her bassinet. For us, that meant elevating the head side of her bassinet —we use this travel crib + the bassinet conversion kit— a couple inches with towels (like her head was elevated in my arms while she slept), using a Dock-a-Tot to make her feel snuggled in (like my arms holding her body while she slept), and picking a swaddle that allowed her arms to be up by her face AND her hands be out of the swaddle (since she liked to touch her face and suck her thumb when she needed help falling back asleep when she startled awake but wasn’t ready to wake up yet). It might sound like a lot of work, but its totally worth the extra effort to just slow down and pay attention to those little details that your specific baby prefers when he or she falls asleep in your arms.
SWADDLES TO TRY: I remember watching my husband master that perfect newborn blanket swaddle within 5 minutes of our first baby being born… you know, the swaddling technique they teach you in the hospital and within .2 seconds your wiggly little newborn busts out of the minute the nurse leaves the room? Yeah, I never quite mastered that one…Here’s a few of the swaddles I’ve tried and loved… My first baby really loved using the Love to Dream Swaddle UP because he preferred his hand up by his face but he wasn’t a thumb sucker, so he didn’t need his hands out of the swaddle. I also love that it zips up, so easy! Whereas, my second baby really loves the Halo Sleepsack Swaddle because she likes her hands up by her face AND needs her hands out of the swaddle to be able to suck her thumb. I love that it as both the zipper underneath and a velcro part for the swaddling. Now that baby girl is almost 4 months old and can roll over, I simply swaddle her body and not her arms and can still use this same swaddle!
Okay, there you have it! My top 3 newborn sleep schedule tips that had my second baby sleeping through the night by six weeks old! I hope these newborn sleep tips can help you transition into this beautiful new stage of motherhood a little more smoothly & maybe even get you & baby a little extra sleep, too! I would love hear if any of these sleep tips were helpful for you?! Send me a DM on Instagram @adrianna.bohrer!
xo, Adrianna
PS Baby girl is now 4 months old and still sleeping through the night like a champ… but she does occasionally wake up around 4 am (rather than 6/7am) when she’s teething! But luckily after I nurse her for a few minutes, she falls right back asleep until 7am! PPS If your baby is teething and you’re looking for a natural way to help ease the pain, we LOVE the Camilia drops by Boiron!
SHOP BABY SLEEP FAVS at TARGET:
SHOP BABY SLEEP FAVS at AMAZON:
Guava Family Travel Crib + the basinet conversion kit (available on their website)
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