Ways to help your baby sleep

Position 1
Hold your baby so that her ear is against your chest. Let her hear your heartbeat. You can manoeuvre her into this position by slipping one of her arms around your upper waist. Her shoulder, head and one side of her body should be in contact with your body. You can sit if it makes you feel better as you will feel the strain of the baby’s weight on your back if you need to hold this position up for more than 15 minutes. Just be wary of where your baby’s arm is at all times.

Method 1
Use Position 1 then gently tap on the bottom of her thigh or her bum bum in a constant tempo. When she is drifting into sleep, slow down your tempo until you ‘come to a complete stop’. Once you stop tapping, do not immediately place her into her crib. Let her sleep without the ‘tapping’ momentarily. If she stirs, resume tapping and repeat.

Method 2
Use some soft music (light classics or voiceless music work best) and the swaying of your body with her in Position 1 to mimic the motion of a rocking cradle. Hum along with the music if she is still but does not want to close her eyes. This may mean that she likes it ‘there’ and does not want you to put her down, thus refusing to sleep. The humming will put her at ease and her eyelids will drop fairly quickly.

Method 3
If you do not have music, hum a simple nursery rhyme in a fairly low tone and combine the use of the tapping motion in 1. When she starts to drift off, lower the volume of your voice until you can stop humming completely. Retain the tapping motion until she does not stir. Use Method 1.

How to tell if she is already in dreamland.
While some babies keep very still, they may not be fully asleep yet. To tell whether they are really asleep or not, lift a limb (arm or leg) gently then let go so the limb drops. If you feel resistance during the lifting, or if the limb shows any other movement apart from just plain falling (shifts to the side, adjusts itself so it is more comfortable) then you need to keep at it.

Wait another 5 minutes before you try it again. Or stop when you hear snoring.

Good luck.