- There are a few mistakes I see new parents doing,
which makes helping a newborn fall asleep and stay asleep
so much more difficult than it needs to be.
These parents often don't know they're making a mistake.
In fact, they're following advice
that has been given to them
by their parents or their friends,
which is actually based on myths or old wives' tales,
and are definitely not helping.
Once the parent knows what these mistakes are
and stops doing them,
their baby's sleep changes overnight.
So in this video,
I'm going to talk about what are
the common newborn sleep mistakes I see parents making.
And most importantly, what you can do to ensure
that you don't make these mistakes.
But before we cover that,
make sure you click on the free PDF document
in the description box below,
which covers the developmental milestones
you can be expecting for your little
in their first year of life.
This will give you an invaluable peace of mind,
as you'll know when to be expecting skills
and when to be concerned.
So the first mistake new parents often make
is they actually miss their baby's tired signs or cues.
So after being awake for a very short period of time,
all newborns display tired signs.
So there's early tired signs and late tired signs.
The tired signs are basically losing interest in you
or in toys, so they start to look into the distance.
Their body movements either become really jerky,
or they start to become really still and quiet.
They become fussy.
They start yawning and rubbing their eyes,
and they might also start pulling at their ears
or their face.
Now, as soon as you see your baby's unique tired signs,
you want to start putting them to bed
because what you want to do at all cost
is avoid an overtired baby.
Now, if you miss those tired cues,
your baby is going to move into the overtired phase,
which means that you are going to spend hours
with a crying, fussy baby
who is going to be really difficult to put to sleep.
Because as soon as your baby becomes overtired,
their body releases the hormones cortisol and adrenaline,
which are basically stimulating hormones
that you use when you are in the flight or fight mode.
And as you can imagine,
when a baby is in that mode, so they're stressed,
they are going to find it really difficult
to settle down into sleep.
And then when they're asleep,
they are going to rouse and wake up a lot more frequently
than they would if you put them to bed
as soon as you see their tired signs.
So make sure you watch out for those early tired signs
and when you see them,
get your baby ready for bed and put them to bed.
In addition to missing the tired signs,
new parents are often not aware of how long a baby
needs to be up between naps.
And this results in them keeping the baby up way too long,
which then leads to an overtired baby
who is going to be really fussy
and extremely difficult to soothe
and put to sleep, as well as stay asleep.
So generally, a baby who is four months of age and under
will need to have a nap
after being awake for 45 to 120 minutes.
Now, if your baby has had a really long nap, so a few hours,
they might be able to stay awake 120 minutes.
But if they've only had a short nap, so like 30, 40 minutes,
then they will need to go back to sleep again
after being awake for 45 minutes.
Now, because we know that babies under four months of age
need to sleep anywhere from 45 to 120 minutes,
you can start to look out
for what your baby's tired signs are around this point.
And as soon as you see them, you start to put them to bed.
The third common sleep mistake I see parents making
is keeping their baby up longer in the day
so that they will have a better sleep at night.
Now, parents are often told
that if you limit the day naps that your baby has,
they're going to sleep better at night.
This isn't the case for a baby
under four months of age at all.
What you are doing by limiting their naps in the day
is leading to having an overtired baby
who is going to find it really difficult
to fall asleep at nighttime
and they're going to wake more regularly during the night
versus if they had regular naps throughout the day.
Under four months of age, babies will nap on demand
and they may have up to five naps in the day.
There is no such thing as a nap/sleep schedule,
but just let your baby rest as they need in the day,
because that will make nighttime sleeps a lot more easier
and they're going to sleep for longer.
Fourth mistake I often see new parents making
is they make the bedroom
or the sleeping environment too distracting.
So they want it to be really welcoming for the baby.
But as a result, it is often way too distracting
for a little one and it can keep them awake.
Babies are really inquisitive.
They're seeing things for the very first time
and they can become overstimulated.
So it's not surprising that the baby mobiles,
some wall arts,
the nightlights and music that's playing in the room
can actually distract your baby
and stop them from falling asleep.
What you want to do in your baby's sleep environment
is ensure that the room is dark.
So you want it to be dark enough
that you can't actually read a book.
And this will make sure that when they wake up
between sleep cycles or they're trying to go to sleep
with your help, that they're not going to be distracted
by the things in the room, which will keep them awake.
The other thing you wanna ensure
is that the bedroom itself is quiet.
Now, I know it's ridiculous to assume
that you will be able to stay quiet
the whole time your baby's napping.
You shouldn't do that.
What you should do is look at getting a white noise machine.
So that is consistent noise
that is generally radio static or a waterfall.
And that essentially blocks out
all the noise that's happening in the house
so that when your baby is asleep,
they're not going to become startled
by those sudden loud noises
and accidentally wake themselves up.
And if they do wake up between sleep cycles,
they're not going to hear you out in the kitchen or the TV,
or you talking to another individual and think,
hey, what are you doing?
I wanna wake up and be out there with them.
So it will help to ensure that your baby
will go back to sleep, if they wake between sleep cycles.
The fifth mistake I often see
is parents going and picking up the baby too soon.
So newborns are really, really noisy sleepers.
And that is because they spend most of their time
in REM sleep, which is a movement filled sleep.
And when they're in this sleep,
they are squirming, crying out, grunting, fussing,
making lots and lots of noise.
The other thing is when babies are sleeping,
and all humans sleep,
we essentially go through sleep cycles.
And what happens between sleep cycles
is you will wake up briefly,
but if you are tired and not hungry or uncomfortable,
you will go back to sleep.
And that is the same with babies.
So if you hear your baby screaming out
or grunting or crying, what you wanna do is wait,
because either they might coming
into a brief period of waking between sleep cycles
or they're just in that REM sleep.
And if you leave them,
they will go back to sleep and stay asleep.
But if you rush in and pick them up,
you are going to wake them up.
And as a result,
they are going to be really cranky and fussy
and it's like they wanna go back to sleep again,
because essentially, you've worked on them up
and they weren't ready.
And the last common sleep mistake I see
is parents trying to encourage their baby
to have an early bedtime.
Now, unfortunately, before three months of age,
babies have a really late bedtime.
Now, when I'm meaning late, it is late.
It's around 10 or 11 o'clock at night.
And the bedtime is erratic.
So it changes from night to night.
After three months of age,
you will notice that their bedtime starts to creep forward
and it becomes more consistent.
But before then, you're just really going to have to go
with the flow and be guided by your baby
on when they are ready for bed,
because if you try for that early bedtime,
it's just going to frustrate you because after a short nap,
your baby is going to wake up again and be ready to play
before they're ready to settle in for the night.
So those are the mistakes I often see new parents making
with their newborn when they're trying to get them to sleep.
If you want more information on sleeping tips for newborns,
then check out this video.
And if you want information on newborn cues,
then make sure you check out this video.
And I'll see you next week,
where I'll share more parenting tips and tricks.
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