What finally helped our babies sleep: 6 mum-approved tips and miracle products
Sleepless nights, endless rocking, and tears (yours and theirs)—these real mum tips are the small miracles that finally made a difference.
Until you’ve been through the fog of newborn sleep deprivation you can’t quite imagine how much it’ll affect you or comprehend that it will become the focus of your every waking minute (of which there are many!).
You’ll find yourself talking about your baby’s sleep to everyone and anyone that’ll listen and you’ll make new mum friends solely based on shared experiences of being up all night.
And, while the broken nights should be short-lived, when you’re in the thick of it, it feels like it’ll last forever, and you’ll do anything to get just a little more sleep. To help you survive the sleepless nights and show you that you’re certainly not alone, we asked real mums from our MadeForMums Club, who have been there and come out the other side, for their top tips, tricks and products that helped them get through the fog, one night at a time.
1. Swaddle from the start
Swaddling your newborn was the number one top tip for encouraging better sleep from the mums in our Top Testers Club.
Many of the mums saw a huge difference in the quality and length of their baby’s sleep when swaddled. And many of them recommended one particular product that was a real lifesaver:
“The Love to Dream swaddle has been amazing for my third,” says Bex Croxford and, “I liked the Love to Dream arm-up swaddle for my second child,” says Chloe Downes. “I swear by the Love to Dream swaddles from newborn,” says Charlotte Grant.
Mum Mel Corbo rates this swaddle bag so much she gifts it to all her new mum friends: “It's my go-to present for first-time mums,” she says. “Although our little girl loved them so much, we struggled to wean her out of one at nighttime. She was six months old before she slept in a normal sleeping bag!”
Katie Dawson, mum of four, agrees that swaddling can make a real difference: “My second daughter is the only one that slept, and she loved being swaddled. It worked so well for her as she always seemed worried about her arms being loose.”
Vicky Yup is a big fan of swaddling too: “We swaddled for the first few weeks then moved them to a sleeping bag – it worked so well.”
2. Have white noise in the bedroom
Despite what people might say about being quiet around sleeping babies, it turns out a bit of the right kind of noise can help babies sleep a lot better than silence.
Many parents in our Top Testers Club said white noise (a noise that contains all frequencies across the spectrum of audible sound in equal measure) really helped their baby to get to sleep and self-soothe in the night.
You can buy baby products that emit white noise, or play washing machine and fan sounds, which also work well.
“The myHummy Bear helped my daughter sleep,” says Joanne Hellowell. “I loved how you could use a phone app to control it and have it on all night if needed thanks to the cry sensor and the battery life being so good.”
“A Wooshh was a lifesaver for us!” says Lauren Sparkes, and “Ewan the Sheep from birth was a game-changer,” says Vicky Yup.
White noise isn’t only a powerful sleep aid for newborns who have just emerged from the womb, it can help toddlers and older children too:
“White noise has made a big difference for our little boy,” says Sophie Hayes. “He was a fantastic sleeper up until four months. Now at 18 months, he wakes during the night and comes into our bed. We find white noise helps him settle and stay in his cot a little longer.”
“We use brown noise (a deeper frequency than white noise) every night and now even I can't sleep without it”, says mum Shereen Amy Wels.
3. Make sure they’ve had plenty of milk
No one likes to go to bed feeling hungry and it’s the same for newborns – if they feel full and satisfied, they’ll fall asleep much easier and will stay asleep for much longer. Many mums swear by a fully-packed schedule of feeding during the day to ensure a much easier night.
“Milk, milk, milk and more milk,” says Shannen Kingsley-Smith. “Plenty of milk in the day meant he didn’t wake up for as many night feeds.”
Ever heard of dream feeds or twilight feeds? Lots of mums have found a late-night feed can have a very positive effect on the rest of the night.
“I definitely found that a twilight feed around 10 p.m. made a big difference to sleeping longer in the night,” says Hannah Bentley.
4. Get into a routine early on
Babies love a routine, after all they can’t talk so their little bodies instead respond to routines and sensations that they can recognise and repeat over and over. It’s never too early to start introducing a bedtime routine for babies, as many of our parents found.
“Sleep associations and a routine are key,” says Chloe Downes “Make a routine early on and keep with it!”
“My first was a terrible sleeper, my second sleeps like a dream,” said Jen Dooris. “We found that structure made such a difference.”
And, while it might seem boring to be so dedicated to a routine day in and day out – your future self will thank you for it when you have a toddler who goes to bed like a dream: “We got into a routine early on with bath, story, then bed, which still works,” says Vicky Yup.
It’s important not to rush the routine either, even if you’re desperate for some sleep yourself or an evening with a cooked meal and TV time on the sofa.
“My first was an awful sleeper,” says Shereen Amy Wels. “I think a lot of the problem was that I was rushing everything and didn't give him a chance to settle. With my second and third, I'd feed them and then put them in their bed, and if they woke up or fussed, I'd sit with them and stroke their face, sing a song, etc. They are much better sleepers and will settle themselves a lot of the time.”
5. Follow a step-by-step sleep programme
Sometimes in the midst of sleep deprivation you need some external help to find the light at the end of the tunnel, and following an expert-approved sleep programme or working with a sleep consultant on an individual basis can make all the difference.
“I followed the ‘Little Ones’ baby sleep program from four months with both my babies, and I swear by it for naps and as a nighttime sleep guide,” says Catherine Worker. “Both children sleep brilliantly – one is 10 months and the other is two-and-a-half years.”
“I really rate the Fox and the Moon sleep advice,” says Emmeline Parker Boreham.
6. Rule out reflux
Newborns wake in the night for a number of reasons – hunger, wet nappies, short sleep cycles and no understanding of day and night. Typically they wake every two to three hours for these reasons, however if they are waking up a lot more than that it could be due to the discomfort of stomach acid and wind.
“Investigate whether they may have reflux,” says Tanya Griffiths. “My first was a terrible sleeper – she'd wake up every 20 minutes and was diagnosed with reflux. This lasted a year, until she was mainly on solids. My second baby was very similar, but when he was prescribed Omaprozol he went from never sleeping when on his back, to only waking three times a night from about three months old.”
There might not be a magic formula to make babies sleep through the night, but follow the advice of these mums who have seen a fair few 3 a.m.s in their time and you may just bank yourself some extra minutes or hours of shut-eye. And that’s the best present any new mum or dad can hope for!