my baby is two months old and easily wakes up, a very light sleeper what do i do?

Stasia - posted on 02/22/2009

kiddopotamus velcro swaddles are great, but I don't know what I would do without our air purifier!!! it muffles all the sounds and now she associated white noise with going to sleep!!! If you dont want to get a purifier or have a fan on they have this great "sleep sheep" which we use when we are out of the house and it makes rain, ocean, heart and whale noises.

Colleen - posted on 02/21/2009

Music is a good idea. Turning on a fan can help too. You can also find the sound therapy machines on Ebay.

Good luck with swaddling. One book I read explained that babies neural pathways are still developing so their arms and legs tend to twitch a lot without their control. Swaddling keeps their arms and legs from randomly jerking and waking them up. It's also supposed to be comforting to young babies because it's warm, cozy and confined like being back in their mom's tummy or being held firmly in mom's arms. Since your daughter's not used to it she will probably complain initially but should get to like it pretty quickly. I hope it works as well for you as it did for us.

Raquel - posted on 02/21/2009

thanks i'll try that. but i'm from the philippines and i don't know where to buy the sound machine. we usually just turn on our cd player and play some oldies songs. i havent tried swaddling her. maybe tonight i'll do that. thanks so much.

Sharon - posted on 02/21/2009

You crack me up Colleen ;)  I'm almost positive I have the same sound machine you have. And with my oldest (22 months) it's turned all the way up to the sound of rain so you can only imagine how loud his room is. And my baby (3 months) co sleeps with us swaddled and I have the sound machine on for him too. Between the monitor and the sound machine on in my room, you can imagine I'm all "rained out!" LOL The runny joke is I'll be 60 years old and needing a sound machine to sleep...haha!

Colleen - posted on 02/21/2009

lol Sharon, our advice was even in the same order but clearly you're a faster typer than me :)

Colleen - posted on 02/21/2009

Have you tried swaddling her? That made a huge difference with my first son. He was a very restless sleeping and kept waking himself up. She may fight it at first but give it a chance and you could see a huge change in her sleeping. They sell swaddling blankets at Walmart, Zellars, Babys R Us etc. Or you can us a large receiving blanket.

Another thing you could try is an ambiance/sound therapy machine. They are roughly the size of an alarm clock and they create a background noise like ocean wave, a heart beat, rain, etc. They are very soothing and she won't be as effected by other noises outside her room. They're also great for trips because you can make any room sound familiar to her so she won't have as much trouble sleeping in an unfamiliar place. You can find them at many stores but we purchased our most recent one at Walmart in the spa section (near the pharmacy). Both my boys use them.

Sharon - posted on 02/21/2009

Do you swaddle your baby at night? I think at times they wake themselves up with the slightest movement even if they make it. Also both my kids sleep with a sound machine and it helps filter out some noise. My oldest is so used to it that if I turn it off, he wakes up! But with it on they sleep so well...hope that helps. Good luck!