How To Get My Newborn To Sleep In Their Bassinet
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
By Kimberley Fernandez - CLD, Baby-Led Sleep & Wellness Specialist
Kimberley has been working with pregnant and new families in their birth and postpartum journey since 2006, and currently supports families in the early days of life with their newborn and sleep support up to age four. You can find out more on the website. Sleep Support Postpartum Support
One of the biggest questions I get as a sleep and newborn care specialist is, "How can I get my baby to go into the bassinet for longer than 5 minutes." Baby not wanting to be put down in the bassinet is a common occurence. New parents will exclaim, "My baby hates their bassinet or crib" To this I say, they don't hate the space you want to put them in, they just love you more. With you, in your arms, next to your chest, listening to you breathe and hearing your speak and your heart beat is what makes them feel safe. And don't we all need to feel safe to sleep? Be honest, if you were in a new place and you heard strange noises at night or you had just seen a scary movie, how well do you sleep?
Plus, if we can get you a few hours of sleep, that will go along way to helping you heal both physically and mentally from your birth and make managing these new changes in your life a lot easier.
For newborns, everything is new to them. And their brains are working in survival mode. That means they will need to stay close to the person or people that will help keep them alive. That's you. You are food, love and protection, all rolled into one. But does that mean you can never put your baby down? Maybe, but there are things you can try to make your baby feel safer in their sleep space so you can get some time without them, to hopefully sleep yourself or eat or have a shower.
Babies feel safest when they are in your arms. Therefore we need to try and recreate that feeling in their sleep space, whether that's a bassinet, crib or cradle.
First things first. Your arms are snug. So how can we recreate that? Swaddling can help. While I don't recommend swaddling beyond the first few weeks, it can help recreate not only the safety of your arms but also the safety of the womb where they felt safest.
Next, your arms are warm. Heating up the surface of the bassinet with a hot water bottle or a heating pad (Note: remove the heat source before putting baby in the bassinet) will mean baby goes from warm to warm as opposed to warm to cold. That temperature change can make a big difference and startle baby awake.
But what else can we do? How about smell? Your baby is bonding to you through all their senses and one of the most powerful ones is smell. Therefore, I recommend taking the bassinet or crib sheet and sleep on it yourself, placing it between you and baby while you feed them, wear it around inside your shirt for a few days and even sprinkling a little breastmilk on it so that when baby lays down on it, they will still smell you and feel like they are still next to you.
That brings us to closeness. The recommendation from the Canadian Pediatric Society and Health Canada is that baby should be within arms reach of an adult in the night time hours to help protect against SIDS or SUID (Sudden Infant Death Syndrom or Sudden Unexpected Infant Death). That means having the bassinet or craddle beside the bed for the first 6 months of baby's life. Some families find this difficult or choose to have their newborn further away or in another room. I highly recommend you have baby close to you, beside the bed if possible so that if baby wakes, they can see you and they can hear you breathing and you can reach out and touch them if they stir in the night and it isn't feeding time.
And finally, how about some white noise. That shhh-ing sound that baby hears while in the womb sounds like any white noise and can help them feel like they are still in that safe space. Some will suggest this is a sleep crutch that should be avoided but if it helps baby sleep I'm not going to knock it. Most of us, as adults, will sleep better with white noise, or pink noise or even brown noise (I'll be honest, I"m not sure what the last two are, I use a fan overnight which is considered white noise). And if you would prefer to not utilize it forever, you can wean baby off of it slowly, by lowering the volume slightly every few days.
I hope this helps you better understand what's going on with baby in those first few weeks and months. And that you are able to utilize these tips to get yourself a little more sleep and rest as you recover from your birth and learn about your new little human.
P.S. Before You Go!!
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