How to get your newborn baby to sleep through the night. The age-old question. The one thing that both my husband and I longed for as soon as Little E came into the world. SLEEP! While we were in the hospital, all we could talk about was getting to go home so we could sleep in our own bed and how could we get our baby to sleep too!
So…as you know, I’m a new mom. Or should I say and old mom who is starting over? My husband and I have a 13 year old, a 9 year old and we decided to give it one more try and go for a third…9 years later. Guess what? We feel like new parents all over again! With my first two, I read all the books. But this time I figured that I had done this before and I didn’t need to read them again. Boy was I kidding myself!

I should have taken those 9 months and did a little refresher! We forgot everything and are relearning it right now (baby is almost 3 months old!). We are settling in to our new life and I thought I would share a few of the things that I’ve learned, so that you don’t have to go through it yourself!

2 items you need to help your newborn baby to sleep through the night

Fisher Price Rock and Play Automatic Rocking & Vibrations

This Rock and Play is incredible. They didn’t have these lovely newborn nests when I had my other 2 kiddos, so this was totally foreign to me until another new mom told me that I needed one! I had to google it! Ha! I ended up buying this Newborn Auto Rock and Play that had less bells and whistles and it worked well, but the Fisher Price Deluxe Rock N’ Play Sleeper with Smart Connect blew the other one out of the water. I received that one as a gift to review and let me tell you, it is worth the extra cash.

There are a few things that I love about it:

It has an auto rocking motor that has 2 different speeds (the other one really only had 1 speed).
The motor is very quiet compared to the other model.
It literally has a little projection of pictures on the canopy that goes for about 15 minutes and then turns off automatically.
Plugs in (no wasted $$ on batteries…and if you run out in the middle of the night….eeek!!)
It plays a few different songs, plus white noise, which is little E’s favorite.
Has two little toys hanging from the canopy which sway lightly as the bed rocks. My kiddo lays and talks to these before he drifts off to sleep.
It folds up so that you can take it on road trips (we did this over the holidays and baby slept like a champ!)
Has extra cushioning for newborns.
It is super cute! I love the modern design…way better than those old school bassinets that I was going to buy before I heard about this!
It’s small, so if I have to, I can bring it into my bathroom or tote it downstairs easily.
The canopy blocks out distractions and baby can fall asleep easily.

Fisher Price Newborn Sleeper Rock N Play with Smart Connect

So this is one part of your plan to help baby sleep through the night, I think it is the most important part! It is absolutely worth the extra money, I can’t recommend it enough!

Swaddling Sleep Sacks

The other item you need to help your newborn sleep through the night is a Swaddling Sleep Sack. Again, they didn’t have these when I had my other two kiddos, but wow! I wish they would have! We were actually not really believers in the “swaddle” until one day, someone said that we should give swaddling another try after I told her that baby E wasn’t sleeping for very long.She recommended swaddling very highly and I just happened to have been given a Micro Fleece Halo Swaddle Sleep Sack. She also mentioned that it mimics the feeling of being held to a baby (duh!! why didn’t I think of this?? ) and that helps baby sleep longer!

So I gave it another try and WOW! Now I try not to put baby down for a nap without it!

I use this one when baby needs to be kept a little warmer. Right now at our house, it’s basically a blizzard outside and a little cooler. I typically use this when baby has a light cotton sleeper on and not a fleece one sleeper, otherwise he gets a little too warm.

When baby is wearing a fleece sleeper, I usually put him in one of these light weight stretchy cotton SwaddleMe Original Swaddler.

What I love about both of these swaddling wraps is that it takes the guess-work out of swaddling. I can do it quickly and easily and even teach my husband and kids to do it to0 (all though somehow they always revert back to me doing it for them!).

So for us, those have been the 2 items that have helped us with our newborn sleeping through the night! He’s been sleeping through the night since about 5 weeks (6 hr stretches) and now he is sleeping for 8 hr stretches at a time! Its been awesome! Can someone say hallelujah??!!