What You Need To Know About Baby Sleep

Not getting sleep is probably the top thing that people will comment about when you are expecting a baby. If I’m being totally honest, I don’t even think the lack of sleep has been that bad for me, and I have a 6 month old now. I definitely have learned a lot about baby sleep thanks to Taking Cara Babies courses to help though. Here are a few tips to get your baby to sleep better, whether that is through the night, or for a few hours longer.

If you haven’t read my post 7 Ways to Play With Your Newborn (0-12 weeks), that is definitely worth the read! These are good things to do during baby’s awake time!

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Day Time Impacts Night Time

Make sure your baby is on a good nap schedule. If they are getting too much, or too little day time sleep, they won’t sleep good at night. Be sure to feed your baby every 3 hours during the day too. If you don’t, they won’t get enough calories in, which will make them wake up more frequently at night. Even if your baby just barely fell asleep, wake them up if it has been 3 hours since they last ate!

Items You MUST HAVE to Help Your Baby Sleep!

I don’t like spending more money than I have to, but these items are MUST HAVES! My baby definitely wouldn’t be sleeping so good without these items. First off, WHITE NOISE MACHINES are the best! Your baby is used to being in the womb where there is a lot of white noise. White noise will help your baby feel comforted and like they are in the womb again, which will help them sleep better. I really like the one linked because it is an inexpensive one and is honestly so easy to use. It’s also a night light and I love it!

Another MUST HAVE item for baby sleep is BLACK OUT CURTAINS! For the same reason as the white noise machine, babies are comforted by darkness because it is similar to the womb. Using blackout curtains can really help your baby have a good nap schedule, which will impact the night schedule! The ones that I linked are THE BEST! My hubby and I use the same ones in our room!

Whether you think it’s true or not, babies LOVE to be swaddled and it will definitely help your baby sleep. Just because they cry when you first swaddle them, or because they are fussy for a while at first, doesn’t mean they don’t like it. Can you guess what being swaddled reminds them of? It reminds them of being in the womb! This comforts them and WILL help them sleep better. Once your baby is rolling around, swaddling isn’t safe anymore, but for the newborn stage, it is seriously the best thing for baby sleep! There are so many different swaddles out there, but I really liked the HALO SLEEPSACK SWADDLE for my baby! It helped make the transition to a sleep sack easier! This one linked is a fleece one, which is great for winter, but they also have lighter materials for summer. We don’t want that baby to overheat!

Temperature Makes a Big Difference

Speaking of overheating, it is important to make sure your baby is just the right temperature while sleeping! The room should be a nice cool temperature, but of course, not too cold. Dress your baby in one more layer than what you would be using/wearing while sleeping in that room. If a baby is too cold, they will constantly wake up. If a baby is too warm, that is a risk for SIDS! Taking Cara Babies has a lot of awesome information on this. Check out her story highlights on Instagram to find more tips about temperature and sleeping.

Routine is Key for Good Baby Sleep

Babies and kids live by routines. If you mess up their routines, they’re likely to have a chain reaction. Having a consistent bedtime routine will help send a signal your baby’s body that it is time to go to sleep. Using these tips in this post, come up with a bedtime routine that works best for your baby and family. It can be a short, simple bedtime routine, or it can be long. Baby sleep is directly impacted by a good, consistent bedtime routine (and nap routine for that matter).

There is SO much more to know about baby sleep, but hopefully these tips will help you get started in the right direction! If I didn’t take the TAKING CARA BABIES sleep class, I wouldn’t have a good sleeper and I’d be totally clueless about all of this stuff. If you can, I would recommend it!!

Do you have any other tips for baby sleep? If so, tell me in the comments!