5 Solutions for Reversing Baby's Days and Nights
WARNING: Baby tips ahead!
Wouldn't it be nice if people came with that warning on their forehead before approaching you while pregnant or with your new baby? It would give you an opportunity to run away. If you're not looking for some, what I hope to be helpful, advice- we'll see you on the next one. :)We've been lucky enough to have had two of our three babies after 10 PM. Now that I think about it, ALL of our babies have been born in the afternoon or into the night. No early birds here! Along with the night-owl arrivals comes the added bonus of confused days and nights for our little people. Groot has been no exception to this occurrence for us. As such, we've been able to work on our solutions for reversing a baby's perception of days and nights.From what I've heard, read and learned, babies sleep for around 20 hours per day during their first few weeks of life. This means that it may be difficult to know if your baby is actually confusing their daylight hours or if they just being babies! I'm happy to share a few tips we've learned to help your new little one to know that party time is during the hours of the sun! No night-time ragers here, please!1. Feed on demand: At the early onset of your newborn journey, especially if you're breastfeeding, you'll want to feed your baby when they are hungry. You'll have to learn the signs (rooting, sticking out the tongue, becoming fussy, etc) that signal baby is almost ready to eat. If our littles got to a full-on cry due to being hungry, we knew we had waited too long. This also caused them to suck in a good amount of air and caused some spit-up-prone times as well. No matter when baby thinks it's time to party, you'll still be feeding once if not two or three times overnight. We practiced feeding on demand for the first two weeks as baby and mom tried to figure out milk supply and a schedule. As much as we'd like to get a good chunk of sleep, you may just want to accept that you'll be seeing more of the wee hours than you did in college. Eventually, you'll be able to help your little one stretch to 2-3 hour breaks between feeding but in the beginning, just feed 'em when they're hungry!2. Let there be light: If your baby is confused about party time and sleepy time make sure you do what you can to teach them. During the day, make noise, keep the lights on and don't swaddle them unless they're napping. We're not trying to keep them awake but to know that there is a clear difference between day and night. This provides an added benefit as they'll be able to nap during noisier times which will bode well for you if they need to nap in a noisier environment while you're out and about when they're older. So, keep the shades in the family room open, keep the lights on and know that it's okay for them to sleep in 20-40 minute spurts during the day. This is especially true early on as they are figuring out their REM cycles and the 20-40 minute mark is where the sleep cycle changes and often causes them to wake briefly.3. It's all in the routine: If you've been around here for a while you'll know how much I love my routines. Groot definitely has one at just a few weeks old. In the mornings we do his "breakfast" feeding, then get the older kids ready for the day and head down to the main level. Groot has some playmat and tummy time with his siblings before we allow him to fall asleep in his bouncy seat or swing. Allowing him to have this time to gently fall asleep without being held teaches him the skills to self-soothe and sleep which he will eventually translate to putting himself back to sleep in the middle of the night once he's older. hopefully. Then throughout the remainder of the day, the routine follows the E.A.S.Y system: (baby) Eats, (has) Activity, (baby) Sleeps and then it's time for (mommy) You! (Thanks Mom, for teaching us this one early on). This is not to say that he doesn't fall asleep in my arms often as well- we just try to keep that time toward the latter part of the day as my hands tend to be full with meeting the needs of the older two as well. It's all about balance in this circus.4. KISS:Not the smoochy kind, but we do love baby snuggles. This KISS stands for Keep it Simple, Sweetheart! (also known as Keep It Simple Stupid- but we're a little nicer to our mommies and daddies over here.) Night time is a simple time. We keep to a specific night time routine which includes a bath and diaper change, putting on PJs and calm words. We then put on his sleep sack, turn off the lights and feed the little man. Once he's been fed, burped and swaddles it's time for sleep. We put him to bed (on his back of course) and quickly hop into dreamland ourselves. When he wakes to eat in the night time we don't turn on the lights. We actually use the light from the bathroom through the door into our bedroom as our night light, but a normal nightlight would work just fine, I'm sure. We keep the lights off, change the baby quickly and quietly and feed and burp him quietly as well. We don't talk, sing or play during night time feedings. We don't want it to seem fun to be awake at 3 am so it's down to business and back to bed for the little guy. His needs are met, he's taken care of and hopefully, he's back to sleep until the next feeding. We keep it very simple.5. Keep CalmYour baby will figure out when it's time to sleep and time to party it just may take some time. You are most likely sleep deprived, exhausted and a bit overwhelmed by having a new baby at home. That's all to be expected. If you have help at home (a partner or support person) allow them to help you through the evenings when possible. Hubs changes overnight diapers and I feed the baby. This allows us both to share in the responsibility. There are times when I do it all for a feeding and allow Hubs a few extra minutes of sleep. This allows Hubs to take the baby at 5 or 6 am for a bit before he needs to eat again giving me a few more minutes of sleep. Again, balance. As I said earlier, your baby will figure it out. It just may take some patience and practice.Hopefully, the above solutions will help if your baby is struggling with day/night confusion!If you've found other solutions please share them below- we're always looking for new tips and tricks for surviving the early newborn weeks!Be Great,M