Freshstartsleep

The dream feed is when you wake your baby, not completely, to feed them before you go to sleep for the night. This feed gives your baby those extra calories so they are less likely to wake hungry in the middle of the night. 👍🏻

Normally your babies bedtime will be between 6 and 7, without the helpful dream feed they will most likely be waking up to eat in the middle of the night 🌙 or very early in the morning. ☀️

Starting the dream feed a little before the 4 month regression hits is a great time to introduce it! Before going forward with a dream feed make sure to talk with your doctor about it to see if it's the right decision for you and your baby.👩🏻‍⚕️

Here are some easy steps to follow to properly execute a dream feed:

-Choose a time to wake your baby, make it consistent ⏰
- Don’t wake baby before you pick them up 💤
- Once they are out of their bassinet/crib and in your arms gently rouse them awake and latch them onto the bottle/chest 🤱🏾
- Don’t interact much with your baby during this time and keep the environment quiet and dimly lit. 💡

This feed is going to be shorter than a normal feed and you can expect your baby to only get in about half as much as they do during a typical feeding.

The goal for the dream feed is for you and your baby to get some more nighttime sleep while ensuring baby is still getting all the nutrients that they need! 😊

Have you used the dream feed with your little ones?

The transition from swaddle to sleep sac is not as scary as it sounds, and it doesnt need to cause you sleepless nights! If you follow your little ones cues they will show you when the time is right! ⏰

Some of the signs that they are ready for the sleep sac:

1️⃣ No more startle reflex
2️⃣ Starting to roll over
3️⃣ Fighting the swaddle being put on before naps and night sleep
4️⃣ Wanting both arms out
5️⃣ Being able to remove the swaddle themselves
6️⃣ Taking one or both arms out mid sleep

If some or all of these seem to be the case with your little one here are some next steps to start the transition into a sleep sac:

• Start swaddling them with their arms out. You can try one arm first and then if they do well with that you can try both arms. (You can try this during nap times if you are fearful it will disrupt night sleep at first.) You can try this for a few days to see how they take to the change.
• If you find that your baby is not getting a good night's rest or is not taking restful naps with their arm(s) out then they may be too young or just not ready for the sleep sac just yet, that's okay! Keep them swaddled for a few more weeks and then try again!
• If they are sleeping well with their arms out in the swaddle and they aren't staying awake long periods during their naps or during night sleep then they are ready to transition! 👍🏻

One of our favorite sleep sacs are the Nested Bean Zen Sack, this one has a little light weight bean bag on the front that mimics someone's hand placed on their chest. ✋🏻

We also love the Burts Bees Beekeeper Organic Baby Wearable Blanket. It's very lightweight and breathable to prevent overheating. 🔥

All of our babies are different and will all move through this transition when they are ready, remember to be consistent and patient! You are the best parent/caregiver for your baby, trust yourself! You’ve got this! 😊

Do you have a toddler who challenges you every night at bedtime? 🛌

Our LOs who are no longer in a crib (transitioning to a bed at around 3 is the best time) & who don’t want to stay in their new “big bed” can really give us a hard time at bedtime!

The best thing you can do to calm down your nights & get your little one staying in bed all night (yes it CAN happen!) is your new best friend, the family meeting!

Here are some steps to have the most productive family meeting:

1.Have your whole family gather together & tell them you are having a family meeting so everyone in the house can be great sleepers👩‍👩‍👧‍👦

2.Get a poster board & put their bedtime routine on it. Have them decorate it so they feel like they are a big part of these new rules. When our children feel like they are a part of something they are more apt to listen and go along with it🖍

3.Once you have your poster with the routine you can talk to them about the sleep rules & what is expected of them. For example “You make sure that your body stays inside of your room all night until the light turns green. When you are in bed it is your job to let your body sleep.”
- Getting an “okay to wake” clock is a really great idea so that they have a clock that will be red when we have to stay in our room & turn green when it's time to get up (or whatever colors they choose). Children are very visual & this can be a very helpful tool⏰

4.Go over exactly what is going to happen at night. Give them a run down of the routine. For example “We will have a bath & put on our lotion and pjs. Then we'll snuggle up together on the bed and read 2 books. After that I will give you 4 kisses & 5 hugs, say goodnight, & I will see you in the morning. I can’t wait to see how much you will have grown once you wake up!”😴

5.Explain to them that you will be in your room doing your job to sleep and rest your body to use it the next day. Share that everyone in the home needs to get rest every night so that you all have tons of energy to jump, play, work, & have fun during the daytime☀️

6.End the meeting on a positive note. It can be something really easy and small like watch a family movie, talk a walk together, or bake cookies🍪

The biggest benefit to using a pacifier is that it is a phenomenal soothing tool for when a baby is fussy and also if a baby is suffering with colic or reflux. It also helps reduce the risk of SIDS.

If your baby hasn’t shown much interest in them but you’d like to try to move forward with trying here are some tips:

✔️They come in a variety of sizes so make sure the pacifier you’re trying out on your baby is the right size for them

✔️Your little one may prefer one shape or material over another one so buy a few different brands and try them out and see which works best for your baby

✔️You can try out different timing. Try giving it to them right after a feed, because they are in the sucking mindset. Try giving it to them when they’re sleepy, sometimes sucking can help them doze off

✔️Pacifiers don’t cause ni**le confusion once your baby is about a month old so if you’re a breastfeeding parent and you’re worried about this you don’t have to be and you can try out some pacifiers too!

✔️Once your baby finds a pacifier that they love buy them in bulk so you always have one on hand

Using a pacifier for an extended amount of time can lead to orthodontic issues so plan to wean off of them around 2.5/3 years of age! 🦷

If your baby just doesn’t like them even after you’ve tried everything, that’s okay! We have worked with clients whose babies refuse to take the pacifier. There are plenty of other ways to soothe your baby and those ways are what will work best for your baby!

Let’s talk about flat spots!

Babies are born with soft skulls. If we are consistently placing our little ones in the same position on their backs then a flat spot can develop.

Here are some great tips to help reduce flat spots:

🔴Alternate sides when feeding your baby. For one feed place them on your left side and then for the next place them on your right side. Switch these positions consistently through-out the day.

🟠Offer your baby tummy time during the day. Tummy time is not only good for preventing flat spots but it is also great for helping your little one build up strength in their muscles and encourages them to learn and discover what's around them.

🟡Try baby wearing your baby or using a baby carrier. You can wear them when you are getting things done around the house or if you have some errands to run. If you don’t like baby wearing then you can just hold your little one and go for a little walk with them around the house or outside if the weather is nice.

🟢Keep the amount of time your baby sits in strollers, swings, and seats to a minimum. When they are laying in there their heads are staying in the same position the entire time. If your baby falls asleep in the car seat make sure to take them out of it when you get home and don’t leave them in it. It’s not a safe place for them to sleep and it will also reduce flat spots.

🔵Switch where you put your baby's head every night. If you put their head on the left side of the crib on Monday then you should put their head on the right side of the crib on Tuesday and so on. This will take the pressure off the spot on the head that would be constantly flat every single night if you didn’t switch off.

🟣Some babies use physical therapy and a home exercise program to treat their flat spots. If you are concerned about a flat spot your little one has please reach out to their doctor and talk over a treatment plan with them.

If your baby does have a flat spot already, that's okay! It will improve with time and growth. As our little ones grow bigger they are more able to move around in different positions for night sleep so the head won’t be staying in one spot all night long. The same goes for more movement during the day! 👍🏻

What a wonderful review for Paige Chasse of Freshstartsleep. Paige is passionate about sleep and committed to supporting her clients in reaching their sleep goals!

Our newborns don’t stay up for long in between sleep. Their little brains are developing at a rapid rate and they need all the rest they are getting so they can continue to grow and develop! 👶🏽

It is always helpful to keep the average awake times in mind. Swipe to the left to see a chart of average wake times and the ages that go along with them 👍🏻

As always these times are just an average and every baby is different and these times can vary a little bit for everyone!

Tag a new parent/caregiver who would find this information helpful! 😊

How can we tell it’s time to drop a nap?

Sometimes things are changing with your little one and the perfect routine and schedule you had in place and you can’t figure out why 😩 It may be time to drop a nap!

Some signs that your little one may be ready to drop a nap:

•The early morning wakings are becoming a part of your everyday
-These early wakings can be caused by too much sleep during the day so their nighttime sleep is being cut short because they got that sleep that they needed during the day.

•Short naps
-If your little one normally takes long naps and their naps become short then this could mean that they need more time awake during the day so they can get sleepier and the nap(s) they take are solid and restorative.
•Their last nap of the day is turning bedtime into “badtime”
-If your little one isn’t going down easy for bedtime anymore they may need to drop that third nap and make the wake window before bedtime longer. We want them to be tired before bed instead of fighting sleep because they just don’t need that extra nap anymore!

Something really important to look at when trying to figure out if it’s time for your little one to drop a nap is the typical age range for naps to drop off.

4 naps ➡️ 3 naps —- 4 to 5 months
3 naps ➡️ 2 naps —- 6 to 8 months
2 naps ➡️ I nap —- 14 to 17 months

As we all know every child is different and these are just typical windows to use as a guide. Some babies transition sooner and some later! 👍🏻

If you are seeing any of these signs from above and your little one is around the age of those windows then you want to watch your kiddo and see if they are showing these signs consistently.

If they are happening 4 to 5 times a week for about 2 weeks then they are probably needing to drop a nap.

We want to watch to make sure of this because we don’t want to drop a nap if the disruption in sleep is just them working through a development milestone!

If you need some support through your transition of dropping naps we have really helpful sleep support calls we offer to give you that extra helping hand a boost of confidence moving forward!

Check the link in our bio to head to our website and book a call 😊

There are so many amazing benefits to skin-to-skin time with our babies. It is the closest they can get to that security and warmth of the womb again! 👶🏽

The parent who gave birth to the baby is not the only one who can do skin to skin with them. This can be done by moms, dads, caregivers, or whoever is caring for the newborn.

There are such phenomenal short term and long term benefits of skin-to-skin while you’re in the hospital, after birth, and beyond!

Swipe through and check some of them out below 👍🏻

Let's talk about swaddling!

Swaddling is so important in the first few months of your baby's life 👶🏽

There is something called the Moro Reflex sometimes known as the startle reflex. The definition of it is “a reflex reaction of infants upon being startled (as by a loud noise or bright light) that is characterized by extension of the arms and legs away from the body and to the side and then by drawing them together as if in an embrace.”

When they wear a swaddle this helps keep them asleep during the moro reflex. If their arms were free, the reflex would consistently wake them up 🥱

When swaddling our little ones we want to keep these things in mind:

• Make sure the swaddle is not too tight across the chest
• The arms stay down by their side
• Their elbows are straight
• The swaddle is snug across their elbows
• Legs are able to kick and move about freely

Our favorite swaddle blankets are the Aden and Anais Cotton Muslin Swaddles if you want to swaddle your baby your own way. The SwaddleMe Pod Zip-Up Compression Swaddle is another favorite if you are looking for something more user friendly, as this one just has an easy zipper up the front of it 👍🏻

There is no right or wrong kind of swaddle. As long as your baby is safely swaddled and swaddled properly. All babies are different and what may work for one baby may not work for another so try out a few different ones and see what feels best for you and your baby! 😊

Happy baby burrito-ing 🌯

Our number one tip when it comes to night nursing twins is when you feed one, feed the other too! 🍼🍼

They will always try to divide and conquer, one will cry and the other won’t until an hour later but don’t let them fool you.

Having twins on opposite feeding schedules is not fun for anyone and it means much less down time for mom, dad, and/or caregiver if you are basically feeding every hour with separate schedules! ⏰

If one baby is wanting to eat earlier than the other, just try to hold them off for a bit. Sometimes you will have to feed them separately and that’s okay! You can usually get them back on the same schedule in a couple of feedings while slowly moving them back on the same track. 📅

Sometimes feeding at the same time doesn’t work for parents/caregivers and that’s okay! There may not be as much help or you may have come home with medical needs for one or both twins that makes the feeding schedules trickier.

At the end of the day they are YOUR babies and the choices you make that work best for you and your family are always the right ones! 👍🏻

We love you parents and caregivers of multiples! Hang in there 🤍

Why is having a consistent bedtime routine so important?

When you sit down and think about the routine of your own bedtime you will probably see some type of pattern there. You may shower once your kids are in bed, do your skincare routine, and then watch a half-hour of tv or do a half-hour of reading. Once you are on the last step you feel yourself getting tired and in that drowsy state for sleep. This is because your body is used to the routine you consistently follow before you go to sleep.
The same goes for our little ones! 👶🏽

That bedtime routine they have every single night sets the tone for sleep. It gives their mind and their body the cues that it is time to rest, relax, and settle down for a good night’s sleep! 😴

If your baby doesn’t have a consistent bedtime routine that’s okay! It is never too late to start! 👍🏻

Here is an example of an easy bedtime routine:

- A nice bath
- Some lotion and PJs
- Reading a couple of books (letting them choose the stories you read)
- Give them a big hug and kiss
- Turn on their white noise
- Turn off the lights
- Tell them “Sweet dreams, I love you. Goodnight.”

Keep in mind that 30 minutes is the sweet spot for how long the bedtime routine should be. If it’s too long they may get restless and if it’s too short their mind and body may not get the cues to sleep or have the time to properly wind down. ⏰

What does your bedtime routine look like? 💤