Sleep? The First Two Weeks

I can report that I don't have one of those magical babies who seems to sleep soundly all by themselves.  Sleep for these first 3 months has been a journey to say the least, and the more I talk to other parents the more I see that I am not alone in my quest to make sure my sweet baby catches enough zzzzz's.

The first two weeks are those magical sleepy weeks where newborns snooze randomly throughout the day.  However, as with most newborns, mine had her days and nights mixed up.  The first two nights were full of trial and error.  I expected my baby would sleep soundly in her Rock and Play Sleeper next to the bed, but she was just too small to get comfortable in it at just under 6lbs.  We tried bringing her portable swing into the room on vibrate for night #2 and then by the third night knew we needed another sleeping solution.

I liked the idea of co-sleeping, but was just too afraid with my tiny newborn to bring her directly into the bed so we settled on a Snuggle Nest Surround after some quick research and I sent my husband to the store to grab one.  The Snuggle Nest was a lifesaver!  We placed it in the center of our queen size bed and both scooted down just below the nest.  Our heads were close to the baby to check on her breathing, and we were still close enough to hold hands during those precious few moments of sleep.  Not only was having her close ideal, but the Snuggle Nest also has white noise that helped calm her down and a night light which aided me in nursing her in the dark.

So now that she had somewhere to sleep, the question became how to get her to sleep?  We quickly learned that we were changing her diaper too frequently during the night, and that all that action and light was not helping us out.  So we started changing less frequently instead of every time that she woke and things began to get easier.  She was waking every 2 hours to eat around the clock during these first two weeks, and it was taking about 45 minutes to settle her back to sleep during the night for these first two weeks, but things would get start to get easier in the coming weeks.

Besides the Snuggle Nest there were two other products I was glad we had on hand to get through these early days.  The first is a swaddle blanket.  My baby seems to sleep best in the warm fuzzy variety, the tighter the better.  For the first two weeks I liked Summer Infant fleece swaddle blankets.  Although I had some aden and anais muslin blankets that I loved, they were just too tricky to fold around the baby tightly enough during the early days so having the Summer Infant blankets on hand was fantastic.  I had 1 in my stash and quickly went out to get 3 more so I would always have a clean one for bed time.

It is scary to venture out, but if you are lucky your baby might sleep through the entire trip.  My baby did not like the car so getting anywhere during this time period was heartbreaking for my husband and I, and we kept it to a minimum.  Forget about the stroller with this baby!  She just fussed.  I had a few baby carriers in my stash, but she didn't fit in any because of her small size so I ended up getting a Maya Sling which was fantastic for a small baby.  I was able to take a few walks during week #2 with the sling and use it to nap the baby around the house which I was really grateful for.  I was all about taking it easy to heal, but a little bit of sunshine does a body good!  The sling was also an easy way to calm her down when she was feeling a little bit fussy.

So in a nutshell that was what sleep was like for the first two weeks.  As soon as I find some time I will write the next post in this series about sleep for weeks 2-6.

* This post contains affiliate links, but I was not paid by the manufacturer to review this product - I just like it! I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC's 16 CFR, Part 255. Images courtesy of Amazon.