DOs and DON'Ts of Tummy Time: Time Time For Babies and Tummy Time Newborns

 DOs and DON'Ts of Tummy Time: Time Time For Babies and Tummy Time Newborns

Do you have a newborn baby,

and you're not sure how to do tummy time or how often you should be doing it?

Or you have a one, two, three month old baby who absolutely hates tummy time?

Well, this video is for you!

Today I'm going to share tips on everything you need to know about tummy

time, including the do's and don'ts of tummy time,

which will ensure that tummy time in itself is a fun activity for your baby.

And most importantly, it is not stressful for you as was parents.ich will make your life as parents significantly easier and ensure your child

gets the best start to life. If that's something you're interested in,

Tummy time is when you lie your baby on their tummy.

And it's really important because it helps develop the muscles in their head,

their neck, their upper body,

which are all muscles that are required when they're learning to roll, sit up,

crawl and walk.

It's important to know that a lot of babies fuss and cry when they're put onto

their tummy. Particularly when you're just starting out, tummy time.

And that's because it's a really, really hard activity for them.

Their muscles are having to work really hard to lift their head.

And they also can't see a lot when they're in this position and they can't use

their hands.

So tummy time is really important for your baby's overall strength and

development. And I know you've been told that a lot.

And I promise as your baby gets stronger in this position,

they're going to be less fussy when they're in tummy time.

But what they need to do is have continual exposure to practicing tummy time,

because that's the only way we get strong.

Our muscles get strong as if we practice that activity quite regularly.

Now I know you're probably thinking I have a newborn baby and they just hate it.

Or I've got a one, two, three month old baby and they hate tummy time.

So today I'm going to share with you my dos and don'ts of tummy time,

which will, I promise, will actually make tummy time,

a lot easier for your baby. So they're going to start to enjoy it.

And then they'll be more willing to practice this activity.

And it will be less stressful for you as parents. So what am I dos and don'ts?

Firstly, do start tummy time straight away.

So you can start tummy time as soon as you get home from the hospital,

if you have a baby who was born full term and they have no medical conditions.

What you're aiming for as a newborn,

is that your baby will only be in the tummy time position or one to two minutes,

and then you'll flip them onto their back.

And you'll do this multiple times throughout the day.

So key word there is 'day'. We don't do tummy time at night.

So you do it multiple times throughout the day.

You would generally do every wake period that your baby goes through.

So they would wake up from their nap. You do one to two minutes of tummy time,

and then they'll go have another nap and then they'll have another wake period.

And you do tummy time again. So by three months of age,

your baby should be able to do an hour total of tummy time in the day.

So again, remember, that's broken up into parts.

I'm not expecting a baby at three months of age to stay in the tummy time

position for an hour.

What you are expecting is that maybe they'll do tummy time six times a day.

So that's for 10 minute blocks throughout the day.

So starting tummy time early makes it so that the baby knows that this is just

part of their routine.

So that they'll go onto their tummy for a short period of time and then you flip

them onto their back and they'll be happy.

Doing it straight away means that it will be routine for your baby,

but also for you. And if you haven't done tummy time from the beginning,

that's fine. You just start now.

Do tummy time when your baby is alert and awake.

So we do tummy time in the day.

We don't do it at night and we make sure that we're always supervising our baby

when you place them on their tummy.

And that's just to ensure that if they get really tired and they can't clear

their head, you're going to be there to roll them quickly onto their back.

So you do it when they're alert and awake.

The other thing is I would generally do it after a breastfeed.

So your baby will wake up, then you'll feed them and change their nappy.

Then they're happy for a short period of time.

So that's when I would recommend doing tummy time.

When your baby is happy and they're not hungry or grizzly. Just a heads up,

usually around two weeks of age,

your baby will start to get a bit fussy and clingy in the afternoons and

evenings.

And at this time they actually won't like being on the ground to do tummy time.

So I would generally do the chest to chest tummy time.

So this leads me into my next do,

which is make sure you do use the different tummy time positions.

So there's actually four different tummy time positions.

The first tummy time position that you can do is that traditional tummy time

where your baby's lying on the floor and their arms are resting under their

body. This is quite a difficult tummy time position.

The second tummy time position is the chest to chest tummy time position.

So that is where you're lying on a surface and then your baby's chest is on top

of your chest and they're able to look up at you during tummy time.

The third position is when your baby is lying across your lap.

And then the fourth position is called the football hold.

So where you're holding your baby in your arms.

So it's where your baby is lying in your arms.

And their head is resting in your elbow cease, near your elbow,

and you provide support at their hips and they will lift their head up.

You can also do this position with your baby facing outwards,

where you provide support under their arm and then your other arm is providing

support along their length of their body. And they will lift their head up.

I find it easier to do it the other way.

And I think the baby's able to lift their head easier,

particularly in the first few months,

when your baby's developing that neck strength. I would generally use the other,

the first football hold position.

The next thing I would recommend is that you do try and make tummy time easier

for your baby. So when your baby's first, during tummy time,

they tend to be top heavy. And by that,

I mean that a lot of their weight is towards their head and their shoulders,

their body. So they aren't actually able to lift their head very easily.

So we can make tummy time, all those four positions that I showed you before,

a lot easier.

And that's by providing support to them and trying to shift the weight to

their hips and their legs so that they can lift their head easier.

So I'm going to explain how you can do that in the four positions.

So in the traditional tummy time position where your baby's lying on the ground

flat,

you can make that significantly easier for your baby by putting your,

um, hand on their hip. And that will shift the weight to their legs.

So they'll be able to find it easier to lift their head.

The other thing you can do is place a rolled up towel under their arms,

and that will prop their body up the front part of their body up, which again,

will make it easier to lift their head because it shifts all the weight to their

legs. In the chest to chest position. So where your baby's lying on your chest,

you can do it a few ways.

So first thing is if obviously if you're lying flat on a bed and your baby's

lying on the chest,

they're having to lift their head up against a significant amount of gravity.

So it's a lot harder than if you were reclined in a chair.

So I would generally do the chest to chest firstly, reclined in a chair.

So your back is propped up so that your baby is already kind of propped up

and it makes it easier for them to lift their head because they're not having to

lift against so much gravity. The other thing you can do in this position,

is that you provide support at their hips.

Again by putting your hand on their hips or their bottom.

And that will help shift the weight to the back of their legs.

And the other thing you can do is provide support at their forearms.

So you hold their forearms in place. And again,

that ensures that they're able to put weight through their arms,

which makes it easier for them to lift their head.

The other position is the football hold.

So you can make that significantly easier for your bub by putting your hand on

their hip or their bottom. So it again,

shifts the weight back to the back of their legs,

so that it's easier for them to lift their head.

The other thing you can do is obviously when your arm is straight like this,

they're having to lift their head against significant amount of gravity.

So if you recline your arm, so tilt your arm a bit, then there's less gravity.

So they're able to lift their head easier.

Now we're not expecting them to prop on their arms in this position,

but we are wanting them to kind of work on lifting their head.

So the last position we talked about was lying your baby across your leg.

You can make this significantly easier for your baby.

So if you can imagine if both your legs are level,

then your baby's having to lift their head against a lot of gravity,

But if you raise the leg, that's underneath their chest.

So that it is higher than the other leg.

Then it means that your baby needs to use less

effort, I guess,

to lift their head because there's not a much as much gravity pushing against

them. So they find it easier in this position. Also,

I would provide more support to your baby by putting your hand on their bottom.

And again, that helps shift the weight to their legs,

which means it's easier to lift their head in this position.

So we know tummy time is a really, really hard activity for our babies.

So what we need to do as parents is try and make it fun for them.

So that instead of focusing on the activity itself has been really hard.

Our Bubs are distracted by watching toys or listening to us, sing to them.

And they're actually thinking, oh maybe yes, it's a bit hard,

but this is funny or this is enjoyable for me.

So there's lots of different ways that we can make tummy time more enjoyable for

our baby.

The first really simple thing is to do when your baby's doing traditional tummy

time, you can lie directly opposite them and sing them a song. Um,

I generally seeing if you're happy to know raise your head. Do it really,

really quickly when your baby's newborn,

because they've only got a short period of time where they're happy in this

position. And then I quickly flipped the one to their back.

And then as they get stronger in this position,

I sing it for a longer period of time and then flip them onto their back.

The other thing you can do is place a non breakable mirror in front of their

face so that when they lift their head, they can see their face.

We know babies really, really like seeing faces.

So this is another fun way to entertain your bub.

The other thing you can do is put a toy in front of them. Now,

remember babies can see in colour.

What they like best at this age is high contrast toys,

and they can see best from eight inches. So it's 20 centimeters. They see best.

So you place the toy 20 centimeters to eight inches away.

So they'll look at it when they raise their head.

The other thing you can do is you could place a colourful book,

or you could read a book to them when they're in this position. Again,

make it a really quick activity initially so that they enjoy it.

And then the last thing you can do to make it more enjoyable is you can try

tummy time in different places in the house.

So instead of doing it in the same place all the time with the same toys,

you can do it so that your baby's doing tummy time, looking out the window,

which is when they can see the trees and the birds and any pets.

So it makes tummy time, a bit more enjoyable for our Bubs.

So I only have two don'ts.

My first one is don't stop tummy time because your baby doesn't like it.

Remember all babies, don't like tummy time.

So they will cry and fuss when they're placed in tummy time,

because it is so hard.

But the only way it gets easier for our bubs is if we do it frequently

throughout the day, and you do it for short burst.

So I would only do it for a really short burst.

If your baby absolutely hates it and then make sure they're happy and then flip

them onto their back. As they get stronger,

you'd increase that length of time that they're in tummy time. Now,

remember those four different positions for tummy time.

Your baby might hate that traditional tummy time,

but there's those three other positions you can do and you can grade them.

So that they're easier.

So remember you could provide support at their bottom to kind of shift the body

weight to their legs. So it's easier to raise their head.

You can use rolled up towels. You could lift your leg.

So you can make tummy time easier for your baby in the beginning.

And as they get stronger,

you can start to fade those additional kind of supports that you're giving away

because they don't need it anymore.

But you just need to persist with tummy time, make it short,

enjoyable bursts, and then your baby will get stronger.

And then they'll be in that position for longer, which is a success.

Lastly, don't stress if you don't get your tummy time quota done that day.

It is totally fine. There are going to be days that are complete ride off,

and that is fine.

Your baby might be clingy and fussy one day and you can't get to tummy time.

Totally fine. Tomorrow is a new day.

Tummy time will get easier if your baby practices frequently and as they get

stronger and they're going to be less fussy in this position and they'll start

to prefer it.

So just remember those four different tummy time positions and tummy time will

get significantly easier for you and your Bub most importantly.

So that is it Moms and Dads, that's my do's and don'ts for tummy time.

I really hope tummy time becomes an easier activity for you and your Bub.

But remember just those four different tummy time positions.

You don't have to do that traditional tummy time.

So remember those four and try them out throughout the day.

You'll find one that your baby prefers,

and you can just keep doing that until your baby gets strength in that position.

And then they give me more tolerant of the other tummy time positions,

which is that traditional tummy time on the floor. If you've liked this video,

make sure you hit that like button and subscribe to my channel.

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you know, what you should be expecting in your baby's first year of life.

Thanks again. And tune in next week. As I share more parenting tips and tricks,

which will make your life as parents easier and give your baby the best start to

life.

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7 sleeps tips for newborns

Today I'm going to share with you seven tips,which will help your newborn baby sleep during the night and the day so that you don't have to hold them all the time.

Which you can print out and refer to it at any stage during your Bub's first

year of life. The other thing is,

if you're interested in getting some parenting tips and tricks to make your life

as parents easier and give your baby the best, start to life,

So you've got a newborn baby who won't fall asleep at night or will only sleep in your arms. So when you're thinking about bedtime for a newborn baby at night, it's around 10, 11, 12 o'clock at night,and it's a long nap at this stage,.But we want them to be out of our arms essentially so that we can all have some sleep.

So these 7 tips are going to make it easy to be a baby when they're put into their cot to stay asleep and to ensure they don't get too tired.

 First , is to make sure your baby is truly awake and not in light sleep. Which can be really, really confusing as a new parent.So basically newborn babies,they enter all sleep by going into light sleep,which looks like they're awake. So they're fussing around a lot.

They're moving their arms. They're making lots of noises,but their eyes are closed.And you'll see that their eyeballs are moving underneath their eyelids. Um,but they look like they're awake at this stage,but they're actually in light sleep.

Newborn babies spend the majority of their time in light sleep.They only go to deep sleep for a short period in each sleep cycle.So deep sleep looks like your baby's truly asleep.So their body's completely resting. They're not moving.And their breath is really, really deep.

So often at this stage you'll creep over and you try and make sure that your baby is still breathing.So you put your hand on their chest to see it's still going up and down.

So when they're in deep sleep, we know they're asleep, but in light sleep,it makes us think that they're actually awake. When babies are in light sleep,they're actually more likely to be accidentally woken up too.. 

And the other thing is newborn babies when they sleep,they go through sleep cycles.So each sleep cycle is around 40 minutes and between sleep cycles your baby will kind of wake up for a short period of time.

So we want to make sure that they're truly awake when we're picking them up.So make sure that they are genuinely crying and they're only going to wake from sleep for three reasons. And that's because they're hungry. So if you know, it's about two to three hours since their last feed,then they are going to be hungry and they will be genuinely awake.

The other reason they might wake the baby is if they've soiled their nappy or they've had an explosion or they're hot/cold,or they've been woken up by a noise.And the last reason they'd wake up is if they're no longer tired.So first thing is really make sure that your baby is awake at this time. 

 Second , is to make sure the room is cool.So babies sleep best in rooms that are around 19 to 22 degrees.They sleep best in that room temperature. If you can't get that,then just make sure you dress them appropriately for the temperature of the room. So a room thermometer is really,really handy because you don't need to guess whether or not baby's too hot or cold, you can just check the temperature.

And then I would refer to the sleeping bags.They often come with a little checklist on the temperature of the room,and then it tells you what the baby should be wearing based on the tog of the sleeping bag and the temperature. So that's really, really handy to refer to.

And it just takes the guessing game out of it because parenting a newborn baby is hard enough. That's something you don't need to guess about.So room thermometer and referring to those sleeping bag,temperature gauges for clothing and sleeping bags is fantastic.

Third ,make sure the room is dark.So it needs to be dark enough that you can't actually read a book.And that's not with anything to do with this circadian rhythms babies at this age don't have that yet. They don't have that.

They're not producing that hormone. So,and that doesn't happen until around three to five months.Why we want the room dark at this age is to ensure that when your baby comes into light wake, so between sleep cycles,they aren't going to be kind of stimulated by what's in the room.

Because if it's dark,they're not going to notice that there's a shiny toy over there or there's a window with lights and trees and birds outside.What they're going to see is a dark room and they'll go back to sleep,if they're not hungry, if they're not uncomfortable and if they're still tired.

 Fourth  is to keep the bedroom quiet, where your baby's sleeping.

Now I cannot tell you how many times I've been told that a baby needs to learn how to sleep in a noisy environment.That is completely false and extremely irritating. And that's because who sleeps in a noisy room? No one,no one ever sleeps in a noisy room. When you think about babies, they're really,really easily stimulated. 

The other thing is they've got a startle reflex.So when there's a loud noise, you'll actually see your baby jump.And that is a reflex, but because they're in light sleep,most of the time when they're sleeping,they're going to be woken up by that reflex.

So we want to keep the noise consistent in their room and not really,really loud.So if you can't do that because you've got a really noisy household,then that's completely fine.I'm not expecting everyone to tip toe around the house while your baby's napping. Cause they're going to be napping all the time.

 Using a white noise machine.So the white noise machine should be continuous when you're using it.So it plays for throughout their whole nap. And when they're older,it's throughout the whole nighttime and that's noise should be continuous and it should be consistent. So it should be like rainfall,not with thunder in it. Just rainfall or radio static or a waterfall. It shouldn't be the like nature with the bird noises or a whale breaching or crashing waves. You want it continuous and consistent,so we don't activate that startle reflex.

Fifth thing that I would think about is swaddling your baby,or using a sleeping bag.The swaddle is fantastic because it actually mimics the womb.Keeps your baby nice and secure and ensures they're warm.But don't make sure we don't overheat because that's associated with, um, SIDS,but it keeps them nice and warm.

I prefer to use a sleeping bag that swaddles the baby with their arms down.And that's purely because it dampens that startle reflex that your babywill have. So often babies at this age, they need our help to fall asleep.So they might fall asleep in our arms and then we'll transfer them into the cot.

When I would use the other,

like the Love to Dream one sleeping bags where their arms or out,you'd put them into the cot and then as soon as you put them into the cot,the movement of putting them down onto the cot would mean that they'd startle.So they'd actually wake up again, which is really irritating.

So you can use the Halo Sleeping Bag where you can wrap with your baby's arms down so that when I'd placed them in the cot, their arms would stay down . And you wouldn't activate that startle reflex and then they'd stay asleep,which will be amazing.  

Just if you are swaddling or using a sleeping bag where their arms are included,just make sure you remember to stop swaddling or using that sleeping bag,so transition with their arms out when they're close to rolling.

Because we don't want them to accidentally roll and then not be able to get out of that position while sleeping.

Sixth tip is to when you're doing,when your baby's waking in the night for a feed,you try and keep the environment really not stimulating for your baby.So keep the lights dim. So I'd only use a nightlight. Um,if you need to, and I'd stay in the room if possible,where your baby's sleeping, cause that white noise machine hopefully is going.And also I know really hard, cause I know that you kind of want to watch TV to keep yourself awake,but just know that if you put the TV on, it's going to stimulate the baby, um,when you're feeding them. So it might be harder to get them to go back to sleep.

So really keep the nighttime routine kind of not fun.So you just feed, you change, you feed and put them down.

Last tip is to avoid an overtired baby.

Now that's going to happen for a number of reasons.Newborn babies need to sleep after about 45 minutes or 120 minutes.

So you just look for your cues that your baby's giving you that they're tired. These includes :

*wiping their eyes or rubbing their eyes.  *yawning.

*Looking away from you,which is a signal that they're too tired. They're tired now. So,or just kind of zone out. Um, so if they're kind of giving you those signals,put them to bed. 

If your baby has had a really long nap,so about three hours,then they're probably going to stay out for that 120 minute mark after waking for that, from that nap. But if they've only had a really short nap,so like 40 minutes, 20 minutes,they'd be wanting to go back to bed after about 45 minutes.

So do put them back to bed after that period of time. Remember 45 minutes,isn't long, it's generally enough time for you to feed your baby,maybe change their nappy and feed them again and then put them down.A bit of playing there. It might depend, it might be too rushed at that point.

The other thing is which I really want to stress is that when you're holding your baby or they're being passed around to multiple people,when they're sleeping, they're not actually sleeping well at all.That's called habituating and it's basically your baby's trying really hard to block out any other kind of noises that are happening around theroom. Also movements. They're trying to filter that out so that they can sleep.

So you'll notice when your baby wakes up from this time when they're being held,throughout the day and people are talking around them,they're actually going to be really fussy and not that happy.

So generally placing them in a room which is quiet and dark,where they're not going to be woken up accidentally by people is a better way for them to have their sleeps.And it means that they'll be happier when they wake up.

Now I'm not saying you need to not let anyone hold your baby when they're sleeping,just be aware that your baby's going to be fussy after that period of time.So maybe the next nap that they have, they should have in a room,in a cot or in a dark quiet room if you're needing to hold them.

Dummies and pacifier or pacifiers might be something you want to consider do remember that they don't really recommend it if you're breastfeeding until about six weeks after breastfeeding or when breastfeeding is fully established.

So the six week mark is just generally,they think it's assume that breastfeeding would have been fully established by then. If you're concerned about introducing the dummy,because you don't want your baby to become reliant on it,that's not necessarily true.

You just need to make sure you remove the dummy at six months or when you're going to start sleep training.And that just ensures that your baby doesn't learn that the dummy's kind of asleep aid,which means that they'll wake up continually throughout the night when they're coming to those sleep cycles when they're older.

Because until about eight months,they're not actually able to put the dummy back into their mouth.But you can totally use a dummy now for your newborn baby.

Sucking is really a calming thing for your baby to do.It's one of the most calming things that they can do. So if they accept it,tIthen I would say, there's no trouble.Like don't be concerned about using the dummy at all.It's probably just a bit of a lifesaver at this point.

So that's it Mums and Dads. Those are the seven tips,which I hope will help your baby learn to sleep in their cot and not in your arms for the whole nap.Do remember to be consistent and keep going with it.

check out the video, which will be in the description box below.

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