Getting newborn to sleep in her cot

[Ketryne]

Hello, I'm hoping one of you might have a pearl of wisdom or two that's worth giving a go...

What were the little tricks, tips and best pieces of advice for getting a brand new newborn to sleep in their cot?

My baby is only 3 days old, and much like her older brother before her, wakes and kicks up a fuss whenever she's transferred asleep into the cot. This means me and DH are currently sleeping in shifts while the other holds her.

I remember this phase being bad last time too, and had a whole range of techniques (or more likely superstitions!) we developed that I thought had helped last time - white noise, hot water bottle in the cot while out being fed, blanket tucked in rather than sleeping bag or swaddle - but none have been a magic bullet just yet.

Would love a few more to try!

Oh OP yes these are the hard days! I found with my second I just tried a lot more, the first you have the luxury of being able to hold them all the time but the second gets used to being put down a lot more because you have no choice! By popping baby down a lot more they did get used to it a lot quicker

Sounds like you know all the tricks though - Moses basked instead of cot so it doesn't feel so big to them? Swaddle (I always use the love to dream ones) putting them down awake so they don't startle (this did help) white noise, putting them on side then patting bum then turning, t shirt that smells of you wrapped tight over base sheet...

Also it went soo quick with the second, even quicker than the first and before I knew it they were 6 weeks old and knew the difference between night and day (didn't mean they slept through but they did 'go to bed' at night which helped everything feel more normal)

Congratulations on baby!

I always slept next to my babies so the cot etc was next to my side so they could hear and smell me. Wasn't perfect of course but newborns are learning how to be a little person. Swaddling really helps too (I couldn't do this myself ... midwives were awesome but mine always kicked themselves out of it )

My DC3 is one month old now so we're back in the trenches again, hence why I'm up now!

I will say though that all my kids have slept in their cots overnight for the most part. Just persistence on our part I think. Yes they did/do often wake upon putting them down. If that did/does happen we would pick them back up if needed and resettle and do it again. Eventually babies do need to sleep in some slightly longer stretches so they will do eventually even if it takes a few false starts at a time. This was always worth it to us to establish the habit.

I do think being put down already wrapped up in a blanket or already in a sleeping bag helps because otherwise the temperature change from a warm person to a cold sheet is jarring. Especially now it's winter. Also I read I think on MN actually to put them down and keep your hand on their belly as you do so for a minute so they can still feel you. Then once they are still in the bed I slowly remove it and run off

Dummy helps too, but so far we can't get DC3 to take one which I'm gutted about! I'm going to keep trying.

Thanks guys, lots more things to try. Swaddle vs blankets is a tricky one, my worry with a sleeping bag is that the difference in temp between being on me to feed in the bag then in the open bed will be too big, even if the bag itself is consistent. With my first we settled in the first few weeks on a blanket tucked in, but a hot water bottle in the bed while he was out feeding. But he was a summer baby so temp was less critical.

Need to try putting her down awake... I know this is the long term goal but right now sleep always seems to happen on feeds, then transfers inevitably fail!

DS would only settle when swaddled traditionally with a blanket! so we'd feed and burp and then try and get as drowsy as possible and then swaddle without waking too much and then continue to settle till asleep and transfer. We'd always settle holding him so he was laying flat already in our hands/arms so when he was transferred there wasn't a big positional change he would pick up on.

Hello, to those who suggested swaddling, THANK YOU! My older son hated it, but this baby loves it! Using an arms-in swaddle sleeping bag and I've gone from 2 hours sleep a night to 6. It's revolutionary!