Having a baby is an exciting event in parents lives.  The dream of getting married, buying a house and having a baby is many people’s ultimate dream,  After 9 long months of waiting followed by labor which is often long and full of anticipation, the moment that your baby arrives is an exciting one.

Many parents leave the hospital with expectations of their perfect little bundle of joy sleeping through the night in a blissful deep sleep while they get to enjoy staring at them sweetly from above their cribs.

More often than not, however, reality kicks in the minute that the new parents drive out of the hospital parking lot.  New babies aren’t equipped to sleep long stretches like adults.  Therefore, it can be quite a surprise for the parents when they realize they are going to be cross-eyed tired for the next six months to a year of their lives.

Although there is no way to ensure your baby will sleep longer, there are a few tricks that can certainly help.  Here are some of the best tips for getting your baby to sleep longer so that you can get a better rest as well.

Co-Sleeping

Many babies have a lot of difficulty being able to sleep when they are on their own in their cribs.  The lack of warmth of their parent’s chests makes them feel fussy and out of sorts. Some parents find that by bringing the baby into their bed, they sleep sometimes double the amount of time that they would have in their own bed.

If you are breastfeeding it can be even easy to do night feedings since you can just roll over and offer your baby the breast rather than having to get up and fiddle around in the dark half asleep.

Swaddling

Wrapping babies tightly recreate the sensation of being in the womb and can get them to stay calm and sleep long stretches.

Swaddling can be done with a blanket or with a special velcro swaddle which doesn’t require having to learn how to do the specific fold required to swaddle.

White Noise

One of the biggest misconceptions about babies is that people think they like to be in silence.  However, what they don’t realize is that babies experience a lot of noise inside the womb.  From the rushing of blood to the muffled sounds of outside voices.

Therefore, putting on a gentle white noise in a baby’s room while they sleep can increase the deepness of their slumber and prevent waking up from small noises from the outside world.

Often babies can wake up from the slights creak of a door or a car horn in the distance.  White noise can drown out these noises and keep your baby asleep.