Planning your Baby’s Nursery to Promote Healthy Sleep Habits
It’s tempting when first planning your baby’s nursery to concentrate on the adorable bedding, cot bumpers and cute baby stuff available. But if you want your baby to sleep through the night as early as possible, planning the nursery around this will make all the difference in those sleep deprived weeks yet to come.
If you already have the nursery finished, and have a baby who doesn’t sleep well, you’ll find the following tips useful. Some simple adjustments may help to resolve the sleeping problems you’re faced with.
The most important thing your baby nursery needs is a safe place to sleep. Your baby will grow out of her crib or Moses basket quite quickly but it is still useful for helping a newborn become accustomed to sleeping outside of the womb. The Moses basket will help her to feel safe and secure.
When you’re ready to move your baby into the cot, simply place the Moses basket inside the cot for a few nights to familiarise your baby with her new surroundings. You can then start putting her straight into the cot.
It’s important your baby’s cot is safe. Cots with solid boards at the tops and bottom aren’t recommended. A cot with bars all the way around enables air to freely circulate while your baby is sleeping.
Choose a new, firm and clean mattress that fits well. A gap of more than 2.5cm between the side of the mattress and the cot is not safe.
You’ll need a lot less cot bedding than you think. Three or four fitted sheets for the Moses basket and the same again for the cot will be all you need. A baby blanket might be useful in the Moses basket but the safest and easiest option is a good quality sleeping bag.
The wonder fabric, bamboo, is perfect for baby bedding and sleeping bags because it has natural ant-bacterial properties. It also has smooth fibers making it silky soft and is without chemical additives.
A music player will help you use white noise or lullabies as part of your baby’s bedtime routine. These sounds will encourage your baby to relax and transition from awake to asleep.
White noise or rhythmical sounds will also help your new baby transition between sleep cycles. When your baby was in the womb, she was surrounded by the sound of blood being pumped around her mother’s body. Absolute silence is very disconcerting for babies and background noise helps to relax them. It will also help to drown out sharp background noises that might disturb your sleeping baby.
Blackout blinds are worth investing in. For every baby who sleeps well in broad daylight, there will be another who doesn’t. The sleep hormone is actually stimulated by darkness so taking your baby to a dark room for her nap is likely to result in a good quality sleep. Your baby will sleep better at night if she naps well in the day. She’s also likely to sleep longer in the morning if the sunlight doesn’t wake her.
It is worth investing in these basic items for your nursery to get yourself off to a great start with your baby’s sleeping habits.
Want to find out more about planning your baby’s nursery to encourage great sleeping habits? Then visit www.Sleepytot.com to get your baby sleeping through the night today.
Tags: Babies', Babies-Toddler, baby bedding, baby blackout blinds, baby cot, baby crib, baby nursery, baby sleep, baby sleep through night, Home, nursery bedding, Parenting, white noise
