The first problem that babies encounter after they are born is their sleep problems. Within a few weeks after birth, the baby's sleep pattern is very chaotic, with varying lengths of sleep. There is no fixed time when to fall asleep and when to wake up, and it seems to be the same every day.
How to make babies fall asleep, especially babies under 3 months of birth? We must first understand the sleep characteristics of the newborn before we can prescribe the right medicine.
Newborn babies naturally have good sleeping habits. They can sleep soundly without any effort. However, within a week after birth, their sleep patterns can also change as the brain develops. This change may come from day-night confusion—long sleep during the day and long awakening at night.
A newborn baby sleeps about 18 hours a day. These 18 hours are not continuous, but appear at several hours as a phase interval. Generally speaking, babies will go through 7 "sleep-wake" stages in a day. These stages are as short as 20 minutes and as long as 5 to 6 hours. They start with a rapid eye movement period, showing several "rapid eye movement period-non-rapid eye movement period" cycles respectively.
Just came out of the uterus, and the baby lacks a sense of security.
Some people say that babies 3 months ago are not actually ready to become a baby and come to the world, but the baby's space in the belly is too narrow, so they have to grow in another place. So babies in the first 3 months can be regarded as "fetal" in a sense. In this way, the baby may be discomfortful, and more of a sudden lack of security, so they all express it by crying.
So how to effectively appease them?
actually requires a kind of "soothing reflex". Soothing reflexes are to create an environment close to the uterus, allowing the baby to feel the feeling in the mother's belly.
1. Swabbing method - wrap the baby's arms down comfortably
Wrap the baby is the first step to soothe. Swabbing method is the foundation stone for calmness and sleep! Babies under 3 months old cannot control their arms and legs. Babies do not realize that limbs are part of their body, and you just need to wrap your baby and you can immediately achieve soothing effect.
This is because proper wrapping can make the baby feel strongly safe and make the baby feel back in the uterus: safe and warm. At the same time, it is also to prevent the child from shaking his arms and legs to disturb himself.
swaddle bag can be used for 3 to 4 months. Generally, children no longer like to be wrapped by 6 months, but some children can be used until 7 to 8 months old. The feeling of a baby needs to be protected, and it can even be said that he likes being bound.
2, side/ lying on the method - let the baby lie on his side or lying on the
For babies, sleeping on his back is the only safe sleeping position, but it is the worst position to stop the baby from crying. It makes the baby feel unsafe as if it is about to fall. For crying babies, lying prone (lying on your side, pressing your stomach) is most useful. So when the baby is crying, holding the baby, that is, let the baby lie on his side and lie on his arms to comfort him.
When you have wrapped your baby correctly and the baby still has not been able to stabilize his mood, you need to try changing the position of the baby. As long as the posture is right, it is like a valve, the baby will stop crying immediately. Share two postures, and test them personally have the effect: reverse breastfeeding method; rugby hug, and airplane hug.
3, boo method - powerful, rumbling white noise
Baby hears different sounds in the mother's uterus for a long time. Research shows that this sound is close to the "huh" sound that people usually make, and is close to the noise emitted by household appliances such as hair dryers and vacuum cleaners . This low-decibel noise similar to huhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Therefore, making this sound to the baby's ear (of course, the volume of sound cannot be too high) has a good calming effect.
You can try to make a "shhh" sound in the ear of a crying baby or play the recorded household appliance noise. In principle, the sound volume should be heard by the baby.
White noise is not used 24 hours a day. They only need to be used when the baby is crying severely, or when taking a nap during the day or sleeping at night. White noise is more suitable for babies under 3 to 4 months of age.
4. Shaking method - rhythmic shaking, from slow shaking to fast and gentle shaking
The baby likes slight shaking very much, just like shaking in his mother's belly all day. Slight shaking refers to holding the baby with a very small shaking rather than a large sway. This is a misunderstanding for many new parents. A small shaking will not hurt the baby, but will make the baby feel comfortable and relaxed.
Many people will wonder, is it because the baby is spoiled by the baby and he needs to shake it in the future?
For 10% to 20% of babies who love sports, stillness is the most unbearable; for "lively" babies, the swaddling and rumble sounds are still effective for them in the first month or later, but afterwards, every 2 to 3 hours, as long as they do not actively shake them or walk around the room with them in their arms, they become more and more crying. A small, gentle shaking becomes a key step to activate the soothing reflex.
In fact, if your baby's crying has been relieved in the previous method, of course, this method is not needed. This kind of shaking 3 months ago is not an exaggeration, but it will be gradually reduced after that.
5. Sucking method - sucking your nipples, pacifiers, bottles or clean fingers
Sucking is a powerful soothing for your baby. Sucking your breasts, bottles, pacifiers, clean fingers and wrists can calm your baby down. When the baby is young, pacifiers are a good thing, and often they can calm the baby down all at once.
In fact, picking up the baby and feeding some milk to the baby, probably most of the time, sucking is the first and most used comfort method. You can also try sucking the pacifier and gently pull the pacifier out. You will find that every time you pull it out, the baby feels "about to lose this pacifier", and he will suck tighter, and the baby will feel drowsy after repeated recurrence.
