Coming home with a new baby is such a daunting experience, and a steep learning curve. It can take babies quite a while to get use to life outside the womb, and settling themselves into sleeping patterns.
A customer recently asked this question on our Facebook page, and we thought other readers might be interested too.
She asked “my baby boy really gets upset when I put him in his cot in the middle of the night after a feed. He’ll do his feed, burp, a clean bum, and cuddle and he will fall fast asleep but then as soon as I place him in bed he freaks out. Any advice please”
Well firstly, you are not alone going through this – getting babies fed and resettled in the middle of the night is hard work!
We asked our friend, the sleep expert, Louise from The Sleep Store for her advice. This is what she offers:
At 2 months, your baby may well still be missing the ‘womb service’ he experienced for 9 months. Being cuddled in your arms, hearing your heartbeat & being fed is just like in the womb, then putting him down into the cot removes all the yummy things that settle him to sleep. So you could work on trying to continue some of those sensations once he is in the cot.
Use a really firm swaddle and don’t unwrap him for his night feeds. Just sniff & only change his nappy if it’s a poo. Keeping him warm & snug, and bundled like a cuddle is essential. Plus using a Safe T Sleep over his swaddle is another way to give that firm cuddle feeling.
- Play loud white noise on repeat all night in his room (white noise is a blurry noise like an untuned radio station). Inside the womb its louder than a vacuum 24/7, so the quiet during the night can be extremely unsettling for a newborn. Have the white noise going while you feed, so there is no change when he goes into bed.
- A dummy is often the icing on the cake, especially at the end of a feed when baby may still want the sucking for comfort.
- From this age it is a good idea to start putting baby into bed drowsy or awake, and using patting or some gentle rocking to get baby to fall asleep, or the dummy may be enough. That way they fall asleep in bed rather than on you.
