As a parent, I can say one of the hardest things I went through was putting our daughter to sleep. She is not at all a heavy sleeper and surely not a big fan of sleep, but as we all know sleep is very important for the development of our child. Throughout the months I have read, tried and learnt new techniques on how to actually make your baby to sleep, as it’s all about technique and trust me, practice makes perfect.
Scientists say that babies are meant to stay longer in the womb, obviously, this cant happens as their heads become to large to get out from the womb, as compared to other animals, we are just not ready for birth, but out we go, so what do we have to do? Simulate the feeling of the womb and the best way to do that is Rocking Your Baby.
Rocking a baby helps soothe them, warmth and fall asleep, but let’s face it, it’s not an easy technique, but every parent does it differently. Today I will explain to you the basics on how to rock your baby in a few easy steps:
- Gently hold your baby in your arms
- Start rocking back and forth, either by using your body or a rocking chair
- Count in your head 2 seconds on one side and another 2 seconds on the other side, then just repeat until you get the rocking motion, some babies prefer slow rocking, but some babies prefer a more pacy rocking.
- Keep the baby close to you
- Keep the same rhythm
- Stay in a dark room
- No TV, Laptop or phone which is on as they are more sensitive to light than us
Rocking your baby can happen every time such as when reading her a book, singing to her or just before nap or bedtime, but very importantly never make her sleep in your arms as she might get used to that every time she needs to sleep, you need to rock her to sleep. So my advice to you is make her sleepy and then put her in the crib or bed she will then doze off their and sleep by herself.
Dads, this is mostly a job we should ace, so make sure to practice and don’t worry it will take a few cries until you find the perfect rhythm that your child would like. If by chance your child won’t sleep, here are some methods I used and worked:
- Sing to her a lullaby or nursery rhyme with a soothing voice
- A song always help, preferably a 60 bpm melody (an example)
- Never give up and give your child back to your partner, you can do it as its a very good bonding experience for us with our baby
We will all suck at rocking our baby in the beginning, its a learning curve, but as I mentioned with patience and consistency, we will be baby rockers 🤘
