Why Won’t You Sleep?
I feel like pretty much every parent has heard your typical ways to help your baby fall asleep. Sing to them, rock them, bounce them, let them cry it out, shushing them, or turning on a fan. I asked my local mom group on Facebook for their abnormal strategies and experiences and this is what we got, hopefully one of these works for your babe.
“Put the baby in a bouncer, tie a shoe string to the top of it and the other end to the part of the kitchen aid that moves and turn it on low. This bounced my baby for me and kept her asleep while I was able to get a shower in. We also would put a heating pad down for maybe 3-5 minutes before laying her down in her bassinet. We have a bin of pinto beans that we have our daughter step in a few times throughout the day every day.” -Sydney Mosley
“We would play Sandstorm by Darude to get our son to sleep from 6-12 weeks. Not sure why it worked, neither of us listened to that type of music but worked [like] a treat for a good while there.” -Emma Harris
“The songs that finally soothed my 3 month old baby into sleep during the -crying and fighting it- times are as follows: 1-800 by bbno$, Disco Snails by Vulfmon, and RAGE by President. I’m impressed with her random taste.” -Jaime Pierson
“Many nights were spent doing very random tasks while holding my daughter to try and get her to soothe/sleep. Something I found worked simply by doing it is lunges lol, specifically with one leg elevated on the bed while the other was on the floor. Any other way was not to her liking for some reason. My boyfriend does one single squat like bounce every 20 seconds or so, for some reason it worked.” -Bell Schiano
“My baby makes me SKIP or JUMP to put him to sleep. He also makes me aggressively shush him with my mouth literally to his ear for him to fall asleep.” -Chloe Dotson
“The first week home is nightmare fuel. You no longer have nurses to come in, check on you, take the baby if you need to sleep. It’s just you two…you are so sleep deprived you start hallucinating. Cause not all babies sleep great. Co-sleeping is “bad” but baby sleeps 5 hours in bed with me, and 2 ½ [without]. Newborn trenches are literally survival mode.” -CreativeLizard1070
“Look sleep when the baby sleeps is my favorite advice. I don’t care if I'm in the middle of doing dishes, taking a shower, laundry, cooking. It’s like stop, drop, and nap. That was the only reason I survived. If she went down, I went down.” -Brianna Lawley
“During moments of desperation, I would find myself slowly brushing my fingers over my daughter’s eyelashes to close her eyes over and over again while literally hypnotizing her by saying this phrase over and over again. ‘Your eyes are heavy, your breathing is slowing, your body relaxes, and your mind is calm. Eventually she stopped fighting so hard to keep them open and would just fall asleep.” -Isaiah Mosley
I also want to provide this resource for you to check at your leisure. Babies can get over tired very easily, and oddly enough it can make it harder for them to fall asleep and stay asleep. This website offers age appropriate wake windows as well as other great sleep information. Try and pay attention to the sleepy cues your baby is giving you as well, yawning, red eyes/eyebrows, staring out into space, and of course- crying.