Newborn Sleep Tips

💓Give yourself a break- the first few months are hard, and babies are learning to adjust to the world on the outside. Ask for help and try not to compare your baby to another. Every baby is different.

🌙 Set up a good sleep environment- Blackout blinds and if inclined, a white noise machine (but keep it on low volume outside of the room). This is especially important after 4-6 weeks when they begin to “wake up” more.

👶 During the day (7am-7pm), try not to let your baby sleep more than 2 hours at a time. Wake them to feed/nurse. This will help them sleep longer at night. This becomes easier after the 4-6 week mark.

🐤 Try to keep them up during the day for 30-90 minutes at a time (range depends on age and is easier as they get older).

🌯 Swaddling baby. Some babies genuinely don’t like being swaddled, but most do like it. You just need to do it tight. If they can escape, then it’s not being done correctly. That said, you can still swaddle just the chest and keep arms out.

🍼 Getting a longer stretch of sleep at night. It can be helpful to top them off with pumped milk in a bottle after nursing at night. The amount depends on how well they nursed and their age/weight, but typically I top off anywhere from an extra 1-3 oz after nursing.