Anything that aids sleeping for a baby is going to make life as a parent so much easier. We have had our fair share of sleepless nights, and have learnt a few tricks to calm the nightime routine, so that it is possible to wind your baby down to a good sleep state, and then put them to sleep in the right environment so they are more likely to go to sleep…. The holy grail of parenting is creating a calm nursery and bedtime routine so that you can sneak out and pop downstairs for some important me time.
And perhaps even a cheeky glass of wine with your partner 🍷.
Let us know what works for you – but here are some ideas to help you along the way, including a few specifics that others have found helpful.
1. Establish a good bath time routine
Babies from an early age can have a bath before bed. This can provide an excellent signal to them that bedtime is on its way. It can be hard to get bath time organised, particularly if you have other children, as there is so much to get sorted. However, we managed to bathe both our kids every evening, and it became rather a fun time for both the toddler and our little boy. We would use a bouncer, such as the sheep bouncer from Very. Even from birth, you can pop the baby in while running the bath and sorting out the older child. Plenty to entertain them, and then you can transfer the little one to the bath when you have set your older child reading.
Alternatively, give your kids a bath together – that can be a lot of fun too!
2. Keep the temperature of the bath calming
It is clearly important to make sure that the temperature of the bath before taking them into the nursery is spot on to stop them getting distressed. This is important not only for creating a calming nursery and routine but for the safety of your child.
The easiest way of making sure of this is to use a bath thermometer – and a reliable one. We tried to use a paper based one we got free with a parenting mag at first; and you can imagine how that went?!? A floating one is pretty cool, like the Tommee Tippee thermometer perhaps?
3. Decorate your nursery in more neutral colours
Believe it or not, there are colour psychologists out there, and it isn’t just the latest fad; there are colours that are going to help your baby to be calm in their own room. So why not think about the best colours for the nursery alongside the furniture that you are going to want to add to it.
Good colours for creating a calming nursery are white, greys, pale blues, baby pinks. Those colours that are gentle and don’t over-excite little minds.
4. Think about getting a humidifier
Humidifers, like the Crane elephant humidifier from this baby and toddler range, are designed to help with dry air. Babies struggle with their sinuses, and coughs and colds can have an impact on both their bedtime routine, and their restlessness at night.
Humidifiers will help your baby to breathe more easily in their nursery; and it has been shown that reducing the dry air can also help with baby’s sensitive skin.
5. Consider getting a FAFF-FREE room thermometer
What do we mean by Faff Free we hear you ask?
Picture this – it is 3am and you are yet again entering the bedroom and your little one is crying, and you have tried everything. You fumble for the thermometer and can’t see what it says, or worse, you can’t remember where you put it?
The Gro Egg helps with the early morning chaos. It actually changes colour depending on the temperature in the room. So if it is too hot or too cold, you don’t need to start scrabbling around to find the temperature.
It’s there, right in front of you, and you can adjust your baby’s layers as required.
6. Consider white noise
Imagine you are a newborn; the safety and security from the womb is comforting, and close. Then you are dumped into the big wide world – no wonder that sometimes it is all a bit of a shock to you.
With this in mind, why not help your baby in their new environment with a few ideas to make them feel more at home, such as the Snuz Cloud sleep aid? This gives you various sound options for soothing your baby including a heartbeat, pink noise, a lullaby and a waterfall sound. Sometimes, if you get the toy earlier and “play it” to your little one before they are born, they are used to the noises even more and it can help them to soothe just that little bit more.
We used to sing the same song to both if our children from prengnacy to after they were born – and we used it as part of their bedroom routine until they were fed up of it!
We hope you like these ideas for creating a calming nursery and bedtime routine. If you do what other baby sleep resources, check these out too.
Baby sleep articles
5 sure fire ways to beat baby sleep nightmares
Some ways to help beat nightmares in your little ones.
5 Ways to encourage your child to go to sleep
Ideas to help your kids to get to sleep at night.
Baby Tips
Finally, some ideas for baby sleep for you all.
Thanks as always for coming to visit us – if you want to sign up to our newsletter – take a look.
Thanks as always,
Helen
This is a collaborative post.
Helen
Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine!Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time.KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10.It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania.Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on.Get in touch TODAY!