Baby won’t sleep! As a Syracuse newborn portrait photographer, a sleepy newborn means a quicker portrait session. Yes, newborns are supposed to do nothing but eat, sleep, and poo, but there are some newborns that love to watch me work and are too curious for a nap.
Fortunately, I have acquired a few tips and tricks that help baby doze off peacefully and allows me to continue the process of posing and photographing the sweet baby and provide a natural ‘sleepy’ newborn gallery for parents to love.
The Shusher!
So many dads have loved the white noise Shusher. I could tell when it was at the top of their grocery list, or already in their amazon cart, when the white noise helped soothe their baby off to sleep. Of course, you don’t need to go purchase an actual battery operated Shusher. Mine was in App form and offered a variety of white noise to soothe baby.
The Nose Swipe
Maybe you saw it played out in Frozen 2, as mama whisked Anna off to dream land with a couple finger swipes down her nose. Let me tell you, I was doing that long before Frozen 2 ever dreamed of it! This is one of my favorite sleepy baby techniques as it encourages baby to close its eyes and leave them closed, hence falling asleep. And yes, it really does work, just not as fast as mama Frozen makes it look!
Warm up the room!
While upping your thermostat may not be agreeable to the entire household when you have given birth to a summer baby, keeping a warm room helps put baby to sleep. While in the studio, (where warmth is temporary, and baby has eyes on it at all times) I keep my studio quite warm. I may be dripping with sweat as I work for the perfected poses, but baby is loving the high temps and doesn’t mind sleeping in its birthday suit. Only plan to use this trick if you will be able to watch baby for signs of overheating!
Burp the Baby
Often after a quick feed, baby may not settle like mom promised but become cranky quite quickly. I prefer to take the extra time and avoid all crankiness that may forming into gas, and just burp baby till they can relax. How can you sleep when you have a tummy ache? So ,give me a minute or two, cause chances are, baby will go for a snooze while I am burping it.
Rock that Baby!
My favorite trick to sleepy baby is the rocker. No, I usually don’t use the rocking chair, but I myself will rock the baby. If you think of how baby was prior to birth, while mom was in motion, so was baby, being rocked back and forth with a constant drum of a heartbeat above it. So, I hold baby closely to my chest, always holding baby’s head firmly, while their ear is to my heart, and I rock back and forth, sitting on the floor. The swaying movement, the sound of my heart, and the firmness of my grasp remind baby of being in mom and soon, there goes baby, off to dreamland.
So, what do you think? Give these tips a try and see if it doesn’t encourage sleepy vibes. If you have some tips you’d like to share with me, please do so down below!
