Newborn Sleep & Settling FAQ

Are you experiencing difficulties with settling your newborn, or your baby is not sleeping well? While new babies do mean less sleep than you are used to, there is no need to suffer stressful days and nights when there are many simple solutions to help you and your baby.

Most newborn sleep & settling problems are very common. These frequently asked questions & answers should give you a good idea of where to start.

In this article

My baby hates being swaddled

My baby keeps escaping from his wrap - help!

My baby is very hard to settle

What are baby tired signs?

Should my baby have a routine?

Could my baby have colic?

My baby will only sleep when I hold her - what can I do?

My baby feeds to sleep, is this a bad habit?

My baby looks asleep, but wakes screaming 10 minutes later

My baby only sleeps for 20 minutes at a time

Where should my newborn sleep?

My baby hates being swaddled

Lots of babies cry or wriggle while Mum or Dad are wrapping them. Often it's because your baby is already over-tired. We encourage you to persevere with swaddling, as it's the simplest way to help your baby settle quicker and sleep longer. Be confident that you know what's best for your baby!

Often using a more secure swaddle will stop your baby struggling against the wrapping, such as using a Miracle Blanket. New babies show they are tired about an hour after waking - listen for grizzling, and read about tired signs below.

My baby keeps escaping from his wrap - help!

It can seem hard to learn to swaddle effectively but our step by step swaddling instructions should help immediately. These instructions are for the 'Down, Up, Down, Up' (DUDU) technique.

Swaddling often comes undone due to the wrap being too small. The majority of wraps sold in baby shops and department stores are far too small to be effective. We recommend 1m x 1m for newborn, and 1.2 x 1.2m for babies over 3 months.

You can also invest in a simple fitted wrap, such as a Miracle Blanket. These great wraps securely swaddle your baby without the baby origami.

These are the signs your baby shows that she is tired. This is your best indicator of when to put a newborn to bed, rather than sleeping at a set time.  

Tired signs include:

• Grizzling

• Jerky leg movements

• Wriggling

• Making fists

• A fixed stare

• Facial grimacing

• Looking away from you

My baby is very hard to settle. He screams for ages and I have to rock him to sleep for half an hour every time he is tired

Chances are your baby is already over-tired when you are trying to put him down for a sleep.

Look for early tired signs, such as jerky legs and a glazed look. If he is rubbing his eyes or yawning, your baby is over-tired and needed to be in bed about 10 minutes ago.

Generally, a newborn should be up for no more than an hour. That's an hour out of bed including feeding and changing, not an hour of play-time!

To ensure you can quickly settle your baby, we recommend you watch two DVDs - Sleepytime by Plunket will teach you to recognise your baby's tired signs. The Happiest Baby teaches you incredibly simple techniques to calm your baby's crying and go to sleep in minutes.

Where should my newborn sleep?

Like lots of questions with babies, there are many opinions on this question! Some parents like their baby to sleep in their room while others prefer baby to sleep in a nursery from early one.

Here are some points for you to consider when deciding where your baby will sleep:

• The Ministry of Health now recommends that having baby sleep in the parent's bedroom for the first 6 months will reduce the risk of SIDS.

• If baby is sleeping in the parent's room, you can all disturb each others sleep.....babies can be very noisy with grunting, grizzling, snuffling etc.

• A baby sleeping in their own bedroom will often 'sleep through the night' sooner than a baby sleeping in the parent's room. This is because mum and dad won't hear every little grizzle and baby will have more opportunity to learn to put themselves back to sleep.

• However, in the first couple of months, all babies need to be fed at least once, if not more times, during the night. So if baby is in another room, that means more walking about the house to get baby.

• We do not recommend co-sleeping (baby sleeping in the parent's bed), as there is an increased risk of SIDS for co-sleeping, particularly if you smoked in pregnancy, you are excessively tired (who isn't with a new baby!), either parent has been drinking or taking drugs.

• Also, babies who co-sleep are often far slower to sleep through the night, as they are often very reliant on breastfeeding or parental help to resettle during the night. The longer babies co-sleep, the more the habits of needing parents help to resettle are formed.

• It can work well to have baby in the parent's room for the first few months while baby needs night-feeds and the SIDS risk is highest, then move baby to their own room.

• If baby is sleeping in the parent's room, we advise baby sleeps in their own bassinet or cot. You can have cuddles and feed in your bed, but put baby back to their own bed for sleeping.

Where your baby sleeps is a very personal decision and not one that we can advise you on! These are just some of the factors you may wish to take into consideration when making your decision.