Baby Sleep & Routines from NEWBORN to 3 MONTHS

Kellie Eason RN, RM, IBCLC

 Kellie Eason RN, RM, IBCLC Kellie is a Nurse, Midwife and International Board Certified Lactation Consultant in private practice, with over 25 years experience.  She has a special interest in providing personalised support for families with complex infant feeding issues as well as Gentle Sleep & Settling Solutions for Newborns to 3 Year Olds.  
​Kellie works collaboratively with holistic practitioners at Osteo 4 Kids & Adults in Preston, Melbourne as well as providing FaceTime & Skype Consultations & home consulting services within the Northern Suburbs of Melbourne. 

We know that 80% of babies begin having consolidated sleep overnight by the age of 8 months.  
This has to do with the physiological maturation within the sleep center of the brain.

SLEEP TIPS FOR YOU & YOUR NEWBORN TO 9 WEEKS OF AGE

• Set a nightly bathtime and massage routine to help them start learning about the difference b/w day & night
• Let your baby be near you most of the time
• Make sure your baby is kept warm, dry and fed 
• Make sure you tag team sleep with your partner or a support person
• When you are ready, a feed - play - feed - sleep routine can be useful
• Babies weren't born reading clocks, so please be patient

FEED PLAY FEED SLEEP ROUTINE DURING THE DAY
FEED your baby when hungry
PLAY -halfway through the feed, try winding your baby, changing his/her nappy and some tummy time & face to face contact during the day
FEED complete your baby's feed, including winding time
SLEEP - your baby is likely to fall soundly asleep for 2-3 hours after a calming and relaxing feed

PRENATAL PREPARATION CAN HELP ALLEVIATE THE STRESSORS OF LIFE WITH A NEWBORN

• Seek out your supports before your baby is born
• Delegate chores and household/family tasks to others around you
• Batch cooking during pregnancy can give you extra meals in the freezer 
• Your supports can bring over meals for you too
• Organise your bills to be paid via direct debit
• Consider meal delivery, use of a cleaner for the first 6 weeks

YOUR BABY IS 9-12 WEEKS OF AGE

• By now, your baby will be staying awake for longer than usual
• Don't keep your baby awake for longer than 2.5 hours, as it by then, that they usually get overtired and difficult to settle to sleep
• FEED PLAY FEED SLEEP DURING THE DAY as above
• FEED (nappy change) then SLEEP ROUTINE OVERNIGHT (play is omitted overnight)
• Consistency, predictability and patience is key here
• It takes around 3 weeks for babies to adjust to these kinds of routine changes
• Remember that your baby is still not capable of reading the clock as yet

PLAY WITH YOUR NEWBORN TO 12 WEEK OLD
Important for bonding, development and baby exercise/muscle strengthening and progressing though developmental milestones.  It also helps tire them for sleep

PLAY IDEAS

• Singing nursery rhymes or any other song
• Reading a book
• Making faces
• Tummy time
• Use of hand, wrist rattles for your baby to move to
• Engage with your environment - walk around with your baby and point to and discuss things that you see (for example the tree, car, bird)

OBSERVE YOUR BABY'S TIRED CUES
During play, look out for your baby's tired cues and then settle your babe to sleep:

• Disengagement/lack of face to face contact
• Slowing down of body movements
• Yawning
• Irritability/fussiness
• Reddened eyebrows

GENTLE WAYS OF PUTTING YOUR BABY TO SLEEP

• Into cot either asleep or awake when demonstrating tired cues
• Stay with them until they appear as though they are in a peaceful sleep so that they are learning that mummy or daddy is there for them until they don't need help to transition to sleep

If your baby is fighting sleep and/or not wanting you to leave the room:

• Pat & shussh your baby
• Pat & shussh the mattress
• Stay with them until they appear as though they are in a peaceful sleep
• If babe wakes within 1 hour = resettle
• If babe wakes within 2 hours = resettle
• If babe wakes within 3 hours = resettle

Please remember all babies  have unique needs, responding differently to different methods of settling/resettling - it may be that you need guidance with different ideas to suit your family needs.

If you are struggling with settling your baby to sleep and establishing a routine, seek help!
I highly recommend beginning with a medical assessment to exclude any conditions which may be inhibiting your baby's sleep. This is a routine part of our care at Milk...early parenting support 

If you feel like you need help, give us a call on 0473 799 478 or check out more about what we do at 
www.milkearlyparentingsupport.com/sleep--settling-consultation.html