Must-have Sleep Gear on your Newborn Baby Checklist
Author Name: Heidi Holvoet, PhD
Prepare for the most sleep for your baby and yourself with this dedicated newborn baby checklist. It has the basic must-haves and must-reads plus ideas for optional comfort items, all reviewed by myself and other experienced parents.
Newborn baby checklist must-haves
The 3 items that I wouldn't start without:
1. A good night light
As a newborn, most babies
don't really care about being in the dark or
not. So having a dim little light near her is not so
much for baby's comfort or reassurance during the night. A
night light
has a very
different
function right now, and it's just as much for you as it is for your
little one.
With a good constant dim light, you can tend to your baby for night
feeds, diapering and soothing without
switching on any extra light.
That is crucial to get both you and baby back to sleep after the
awakening.
Because if you have to switch on extra light our body receives wake up
cues ...
Light tells our body it is time to wake up, the brain starts
to
function to get ready for the day, ... which makes it simply more
difficult to get into sleep mode again.
A dim light that is on constantly avoids that. It helps you both
to stay in a dim dozing state. And that supports better settling in the
middle of the night.
2. A wearable blanket or sleeping bag
A
sleeping bag
is the safe and
convenient option to
keep
your baby at a constant temperature all night long. Over-heating is a
key risk for newborn babies.
But being cold from getting uncovered is a
typical wake up cause too. A well-adapted sleeping bag helps avoid
either issue.
It also takes away the risk of
suffocating under sliding covers.
And
it
can help keep a young baby on her back, equally important
as per the SIDS prevention guidelines.
Most crucial when buying is to get the right size for your newborn baby
so it
fits well and gives enough leg-moving space.
Halo Innovations has affordable prime quality. I love their
Halo
Innovations Sleepsack Swaddle
where you can
choose to use the swaddle feature or not.
3. A safe crib or a safe co-sleeping arrangement
Safety is crucial to
protect baby from injuries and from the risk of
cot death (SIDS).
A
safe crib has a firm mattress and no pillow or any toys at all lying in
it. It is
recommended to have baby in your room in the first 4-6 months.
This can be
a cute moses basket
at
first or a standalone
regular
baby bed
, or a handy
sidecar
crib
or cosleeper,
as in the
picture to the right.
Such a cosleeper gives you what we call the
golden mean
between co-sleeping and
baby safely sleeping in her own space, that's why I recommend it so
often.
Make sure to get a convertible one, like the
Arm's
Reach 3-in-1 Co-Sleeper
, because at any time when you decide
to
detach
baby from your own
bedside, it converts into a good standalone crib.
Review the crib
safety and
SIDS
guidelines
and the crib
mattress guide to
help you make the best choices.
Must-reads on your newborn baby checklist
1. Newborn Sleep Book
Helping your baby sleep well from Day 1 is important. Now is also when
you set the stage for good sleep in the
months and even years to come.
That's why I wrote
The Complete Newborn Sleep Guide
for you, and offer it free to all new parents. It gives you the facts you need to understand your baby's
sleep and
the techniques to get your baby in the right habits from the start.
Key tasks to apply from the first day, no complicated "tricks", no
"methods" that involve leaving your little one to cry. Just the
no-nonsense techniques to get into those good sleeping habits from the
very start.
You
also learn how to prevent and deal with the most common newborn sleep
issues such as waking all too often due to short sleep cycles,
difficulty settling, colic, gas, common
colds, acid reflux and sleep apnea.
2. Breastfeeding Book
If you breastfeed,
Dr.
Jack Newman's Guide to Breastfeeding
is the book
to have: Dr. Newman and Teresa Pitman (former executive director of La
Leche League Canada) explain the things you simply need to know about
breastfeeding.
It all starts on the first day with your newborn. How to latch
well, how to deal with typical problems like too much or too little
milk, sore nipples, colicky baby, jaundice, ... and goes all the way to
how to wean from breastfeeding when you are ready to stop.
All of this is discussed in very clear, caring and
understandable words. A breastfeeder's best friend!

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