This post is brought to you by Whisbear.
As a second time mom, you’d think I have this whole parenting thing down right? Well, I’ve been finding that a new baby is a total blank slate. The things that “worked” on my older daughter may not work on this baby so it’s kinda like starting fresh. Which honestly can be a great thing! I learned soo much through parenting my first child and definitely know where I wanted to “improve” certain things, and sleep was absolutely one of them. My older daughter was not a good sleeper for the first few months of her life. During the day I had to hold her in my arms and she’d only sleep for 30 minute chunks, making me one exhausted mama. I had to rock her for hours to get her to fall asleep and it really wore both of us out. Eventually as she got older things started to improve but I definitely learned a lot in that process.
This time around, I knew I wanted to establish those positive routines as early as possible. Luckily, baby number 2 is a much better sleeper (so far at least!) but I still want to ensure that we start building a nice little sleep routine so the good sleep continues! Speaking of routines. I’m allll about them. Sure, I’ll be more flexible with this baby simply because I’ll have to be but generally speaking I love establishing a nice routine that your child can get used to. I think it’s so helpful in helping them develop good sleep patterns especially because babies need lots of sleep to grow and thrive and well mamas need sleep to survive motherhood 😉
Here’s what we’ve been doing so far.
Helping differentiate between day and night by creating an appropriate sleeping environment.
Newborns don’t know the difference between day and night so helping them differentiate that is critical to get them on the same circadian rhythm as us. To do that, I’ve been making sure Lucy sleeps in different environments depending on the time of day. During the day, we keep the lights nice and bright so hopefully she begins recognizing that it’s daytime. In the evening, we do the opposite and set a nice dim, relaxing environment up for her. This way, she begins to recognize when it’s nighttime and when it’s daytime. So far I think it’s working because she’s started to sleep longer stretches at night (woot woot!)
I’ve also been getting her used to various different sleeping environments.
With my older daughter, she quickly became used to either on me in a carrier or in her crib and refused to nap anywhere else (stroller, car seat, etc.) For the sake of my sanity and the fact that I have to keep up with an active toddler, I knew that this second baby would have to “go with the flow” and learn to nap on the go and in various places. I take the girls on walks and make sure to put Lucy down still slightly awake so she’ll actually fall asleep while in the stroller. Same thing for the car seat. I’ve also been putting her in the Mamaroo and have her fall asleep in there. So far, she cries a little bit at first but usually settles down and falls asleep within a few minutes.
Keeping the temperature nice and cool.
With my older daughter, we were the stereotypical first-time parents. Stressing out about “keeping her warm” and in hindsight probably overdressing her a few times. This time around and especially with a summer baby, we’ve opted to keep the temperature nice and cool and dressing Lucy appropriately (a.k.a not too hot!) I do still check her temperature but am much less paranoid about it than with my first.
White noise
White noise was a staple in our older daughter’s routine and when our trusted white noise machine that we’d used day in day out for about 18 months died a few months ago, we never got around to replacing it. Luckily, Whisbear reached out to me when I was pregnant and I immediately realized it would come in handy when baby number 2 was born!
Fast forward to now and we’ve been loving it. The coolest thing about it is its Cry Sensor. Basically, the Whisbear automatically turns on when the baby cries and emits a special type of white noise known as pink noise — not too loud but not too soft either that’s meant to mimic the sounds of the womb. The noise soothes and calms the baby and turns off on its own, turning back on when baby cries, brilliant! I grab it and attach it to the stroller and car seat when we’re out and about and to her crib during naps and bedtime. Needless to say, we haven’t missed our old machine at all. Though Lucy falls asleep much easier and quicker than her sister did, I still like the idea of having consistency in her sleep routine and white noise is one of those components that I think is helpful for baby sleep. Highly recommend giving it a try! (You can buy it on Amazon, Buy Buy Baby and Nordstrom.)
Final thoughts
So there you have it, our routine in a nutshell. Of course, Lucy is barely a month old so I know that we’ll have to adjust along the way but I’m a firm believer that starting sooner will hopefully set us up for a successful sleep journey with this little one! Any other tips and tricks I missed? Let me know in the comments 🙂
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