How am I to put my baby to sleep?
If you want an answer to this question, just look at your baby still in your belly. You should get to know her, and her sleep patterns better!
How do babies sleep before they are born?
- They spend 95-98% of their time sleeping.
- They move at least 50 times every hour.
- And that’s only their own movements! They are also rocked when their mothers move around.
Babies are embraced, surrounded by a lot of different noises that belong either to their mom, or to the outside world. They suck their fingers a lot; they practise suckling and they are not bothered by the fact that no food comes from there.
For a new-born baby, therefore, it is natural and normal that while sleeping
- she is often touched,
- she moves and is moved around
- and that sucking is accessible without nourishment being available.
The fact that touching, moving and suckling help babies fall asleep should not come as a surprise; it has been proven by studies and is now common knowledge.
Mothers’ milk provides further assistance: it contains sedative materials and hormonesꟷ generated in mothers in late afternoon and responsible for preparing them for sleep ꟷalso get transmitted to the baby which switches the baby over to night function.
Why do babies cry when left alone at bedtime?
If you start pondering over the above, it is quite obvious that we want our babies to behave differently from what they are accustomed to. Babies cannot fall asleep alone, without any help, and cannot maintain sleep without the familiar stimuli keeping them safe – neither during the day nor during the night.
Being alone and motionless in a quiet room (without being close to another human being or being moved) is an unbearable and foreign feeling to babies, and they perceive such situations as hazardous! It is no wonder then that in this state of mind they are unable to fall asleep, and when they end up in a situation like this, they ask for help, in the only way they can: they cry.
How am I to put my baby to sleep?
The most effective tranquilising methods are the following:
- breastfeeding;
- milk from a bottle,
- using a pacifier,
- rocking
- proximity,
- being moved (being held while walking, dancing or hopping on a large fitness ball),
- moving and being moved / (in a babycarrier, swing, car, etc.)
- humming, singing or talking to the baby
- and the combination of all the above.
Apply these methods creatively and freely, in any combination you wish! Care for your baby in any way you like because you are her best possible mother!