Cara Dumaplin, founder of Taking Cara Babies, talks to Diane Macedo on Good Morning America about helping babies sleep better. She explains wake windows and sleepy cues, and shows parents specific techniques to use with their infants.
Tackling a question so many new parents struggle with. How do you get the baby to sleep? Diane Macedo met with a baby sleep expert to find out how to help little ones settle down and get their parents some shut eye, too.
For most new moms and dads, peaceful nights are hard to come by. And that's where Cara du Maplin comes in.
Please bring more sleep, right?
Sleep expert and founder of Taking Cara Babies. Her online class and Instagram tips have helped more than half a million parents. One of Kara's biggest lessons is recognizing when to put your baby to sleep.
Babies have wake windows. It's simply a fancy term to say, how long is your baby awake before they're ready for their next nap? So, for example, a newborn in those first 12 weeks of life, a wake window is about 60 to 90 minutes.
That's a lot shorter than I would have expected.
Yes, but your baby is actually going to talk to you and tell you, I'm tired, I need a nap. The problem is they don't speak our language right. We have to learn to speak their language. What is their language? Sleepy cues.
She says when babies are staring off into space or their eyebrows turn red, it's a sign they're tired. Soon, fussiness, yawning, and eye rubbing kicks in. And if they don't get sleep, make way for that dreaded frantic screaming.
Parents will look down at this baby and say, oh, no, my baby has colic. That's what it looks like, right? Well, when you learn these sleepy cues and you learn wake windows, you go, oh, maybe he's just over tired.
So how do you get them to sleep? Kara's sharing some of her tips with these New Jersey moms, like recreating the cozy environment the baby spent nine months in with a snug swaddle and a sound machine.
When mom was up walking around when she was pregnant, he bounced around just ever so gently, just like this. And you can tell he's listening to the sound machine. He says, I know that sounds. The sound the baby hears when they're in the womb. What they hear is blood rushing through the placenta. And it's loud. It sounds like this sh. So if we can replicate that sound, we're taking them back to that womb. Think about how nice and secure a womb is. It's snug in there.
I did a lot of this stuff, but kind of by accident. I had no idea why it was working. Kara's number one tip. Start early. Teaching your baby to fall asleep on their own in a safe sleep space. These babies did just that, including four week old Patrick who until now could only fall asleep in his parents arms.
We just used a few techniques. Mom could actually run and take a shower right now if she wanted to brush your teeth. Wouldn't that be great? What Para is teaching us is actually working. The sleepy cues have been really important. The second he yawns, I try to put him down for a nap.
I can't tell you how many parents told me that you saved them. That you changed their lives. All the sleeping babies and parents out there are thanking you.
Yes. Sleep is so precious now. If only I could sleep with my toddler.
Guys, Coastal.
