Getting baby to sleep with settling
With baby now 3 weeks old we had trouble getting baby to sleep, so we attended a settling class. Luckily for us we were the only ones there so we had the attention of the nurse for the full lesson. The beauty about it is you get to see first hand how it is done and best of all, how it is done on your own baby. Our baby was a bit grumpy as she had not slept for three hours so it took more time to settle her as she was over tired.
So after a feed, baby can play a little and when baby starts to show the tired signs, you need to settle baby. Wrap baby and hold to comfort for a little while, then put baby into cot while still awake. This will teach baby to fall asleep by herself. If you are always holding baby when she falls asleep it will become routine and always expect to be held in order to fall asleep. If baby is crying while in the cot you can put hour hand on baby for comfort. If crying persists for more than a few minutes you can pick baby up, otherwise baby will get more unsettled and it will be harder to get baby to sleep.
We were told that the routine for a baby during the day is to feed, play then sleep. At night it should be feed and sleep. Also babies have sleep cycles of 40 to 60 minutes. REM sleep, deep sleep and waking. This explains why our baby always seems to wake up and complain alot, then we want to pick her up and comfort her. What we should actually do is leave her to see if she goes back to sleep by herself, otherwise try resettling.
I highly recommend attending a settling class if you need help getting baby to sleep.