Settling a baby - Top tricks from a newborn photographer
Since becoming a newborn baby photographer, I have learned lots of tips and tricks to help settle a baby and also help them off into a relaxed sleep. A lot of the families I have worked with joke that I should come back for babysitting services, so I thought, as well as sharing my nuggets of wisdom with them, I would also share them with you!
So here they are, the little things I use on every session to help baby relax in my presence and drift off to the land of nod.
1. Make sure they are warm, but not over hot. Very small babies can't regulate their temperature as well as older ones. If baby is too cold, their skin will look mottled, too hot, they will probably be quite cranky and will let you know!
2. A full tummy and no wind a happy baby make. A good tip I have learned is that when babies have wind, they will sometimes have a blue tinge around their lips. It can be quite obvious, and generally a good burp (from either end!) will see the blue vanish. Gently rocking baby back and forth will help move trapped wind along.
3. Keep calm yourself. Babies are very perscptive and can pick up on emotions. Even if I have a baby thats cries and shouts at me. I keep calm and speak softly to them. A shuuush, shuuush, in their ear is sometimes enough to stop them as it distracts them from whatever was causing them to cry/shout.
4. White noise. I am a great believer in white noise. I have an app on my phone and my go to noise is Ultrasound Doppler. When I’m working with newborns, this noise is familiar to them as it’s what they heard when they were still in-utero. I pop the white noise on by my posing beanbag and it helps relax baby almost instantly.
5. Patting their bottom. This is a brilliant little trick and I find myself doing it all the time. Even if I am holding a toddler! It has become second nature to me. The patting on the bottom mimics when baby was in-utero and the Mother’s heartbeat caused vibrations. This is another familiar thing to baby and settles them.
6. Swaddle. Some babies love the security of a swaddle. Just think, they were all curled up inside Mum and then when they are born, they have all this freedom. Arms and legs have lots of room! Small babies can’t really control their arms and sometimes will slap or even scratch their face by mistake. Gentle pressure from the swaddle will prevent this and as a result, help baby to relax.
7. Touch. Gently stroking baby on the face, down the bridge of their nose, across their eyebrows, down their cheeks. All lovely and relaxing for baby. Sometimes a baby will frown in their sleep and I find if I gently stroke across their eyebrows they relax their face and I can get my shot.
8. Lavendar. I am a walking sleep machine :-) I wear perfume with lavender undertones. Lavender has long been recognised for it’s relaxing and soothing properties. So, I may not smell like Mum, but I smell nice, and I smell like sleepy time!
So there you have it…. my top eight tips to help you settle baby. I hope I have given you a little bit of information that you didn’t already know. If you have any tips you would like to share with me, please pop them in the comments below.
I wish you all a lovely long nights sleep zzzzzzzzz
