Tips to Calm your Newborn + Creating Healthy Sleep Habits

Baby, Features, motherhood, Newborn, Resources

February 18, 2023

From Nested to Rested!! Today we’re sharing tips to calm your newborn and providing the best advice on creating healthy sleeping habits. Tweet Dreamzz Sleep Consulting is your go-to child sleep resource. They continuously put out free information and advice for your kiddo for all stages of childhood. They know that sleep problems can pop up out of thin air and parents feel lost! They have resources for children aged newborn all the way to 7 years old. Tweet Dreamzz is a team of two twin moms who find joy in helping parents navigate better sleep at home.

Tips to Calm your Newborn

⁣Swaddle

Your baby developed in a warm, compact environment. Swaddling helps mimic this during sleep while keeping them calm. ⁣Wrapping tightly with a receiving blanket or using a zip up swaddle with arms down is highly effective. If swaddling alone doesn’t calm your fussy baby, move on to the next step.

⁣Side/Stomach

Putting a fussy baby in the football hold on their side/slightly facing down (while being held) can trigger your baby’s calming reflex. Note: these postures should not be used unattended or when caregiver is at risk of falling asleep themselves. ⁣

⁣Shush

We can recreate hearing the heartbeat in the womb by shushing, white noise, running shower, fans, etc. ⁣Keep in mind that the shushing needs to be as loud as your crying baby or louder. The noise can then decrease once baby is calm.

⁣Swing

Our babies were used to 12-15 hours of motion a day. So, our new babies will love to be rocked, bounced or very lightly jiggled with their heads supported. ⁣Use the swing after the previous S’s have been completed. Then place baby in the swing while attended. The swing isn’t meant solely to calm them, but instead, it will prolong a calm period for your child.

⁣Suck

Breast, pacifiers, fingers, repeat 🙂⁣ It takes practice to learn to suck. Lightly tap the pacifier out of their sucking hold in order for them to learn to bring it back it. Holding the pacifier stagnant in their mouth doesn’t teach them how to grab it with their mouth and suck. If your chid is breastfeeding, let them practice sucking on your nipple before introducing a pacifier. This will help feeding to become established quicker.

Creating Healthy Sleeping Habits | Newborn sleep schedule

A newborn will have a very erratic rhythm at first where a schedule will seem impossible. At first, Tweet Dreamzz recommends following a sequence of events instead of a time on the clock. Their schedule, environment, and routine will all play a role in optimizing baby’s sleep schedule.

The routine is called Eat/Wake/Sleep. View the full sample sleep schedule. Through personalized sleep training plans, the Tweet Dreamzz team helps new parents go from restless nights to blissful mornings.

Bonus Questions

Tell us about yourself outside of being a sleep consultant

Lindsay is a mom to twins and retired corporate marketing professional. After her twins were born, she was so sleep-deprived she found herself not wanting to drive back home after a trip to Target. She quickly decided there had to be a better way to get more sleep that didn’t involve her and her husband taking night shifts for the next few years. When not talking about baby sleep, Lindsay is reading fiction novels and hanging out with her twin 5 year olds!

What’s your best advice for creating healthy sleep habits as new parents?

“My best advice is to experiment with giving your child space to fall asleep without your help. Independent sleep foundations can start as soon as Day 1. Our newborn course gives you a step-by-step guide on how to achieve placing your baby down in the bassinet or crib for a long stretch of sleep. Pair that with an ideal routine throughout the day and optimal environment at night, and your baby may be well on their way to becoming a good sleeper from the start!” – Lindsay Loring.