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How To Keep Your Newborn From Waking Up All Night Long

I don't want to sleep like a baby. I want to sleep like my husband.

You want to know one of the worst feelings you'll have being a new parent? Finally getting your newborn to sleep and then having them wake up the second you walk into the room to get something. I can't tell you how many times I would forget my phone, or my glasses… anything important I seemed to forget by Jack's bassinet because you know… pregnancy new mom brain.

Another issue you are most likely facing with your new baby is them waking up several times during the night wanting to feed. Now I'm not claiming that the tips I'm about to give you will get your baby to sleep through the night or make you feel well rested the next morning, because that's just not going to happen. These tips might make your baby wake up a little bit less and let you get another hour or two of sleep, which we all know makes a HUGE difference. I could do incredible things if I got 4 hours of sleep during Jack's newborn phase.

How to Keep Your Baby From Waking Up All Night

Let's go over a few facts.

Your baby is smelling you and it's waking him up. Every time you enter into the room to get something while baby is fast asleep in his bassinet by your bed your smell wakes him up, reminds him he is hungry and wants to eat… right that second.

We decided to talk to Jack's doctor about this issue at his 2 month old checkup and her suggestions were AWESOME!

Since the baby is smelling you when you enter the room you need to keep your smell close by them. The doctor suggested that I wear one of Jack's swaddles for a few hours (long enough that my sent rubs off on it) and then wrapping Jack in that swaddle. This did work for us. I could tell a difference and that Jack definitely woke up less if I did enter the room when he was sleeping. Our issue with this though, was that Jack never liked to be swaddled. He hating having his arms tucked in. So that is why we loved his doctor's next suggestion the best!

It's the same concept as the last tip but IMO a little easier. To help baby from noticing your scent place one of your breast pads (that you have been wearing that day) and stick in his crib/bassinet sheet so that he smells your scent all night. Now this tip DID work for us and was something easy I didn't have to remember.

The two tips mentioned above helped our baby from waking up so often throughout the night, but nothing helped us like getting Jack out of our room. The very first night we tried to put him in his crib (suggested by his Doctor) Jack slept the best he ever had and so did we. Getting the baby into their own space where they can't smell you at all will most likely work wonders. Sure, it was hard for us to have him a room away but hey, that's what baby monitors and Owlets were made for 😉

How to keep your newborn from waking up

If our sleep story and tips help you even get an extra 15 min of sleep I will consider this post a success. Happy sleeping everyone and please share what worked for your family in the comments!