Every time, parents have been there, trying endless ways to rock, walk your baby in your hands to make them fall asleep.
But at the very minute you put them down, they scream and wake up. This always drives you nuts. Yes, my baby only wants to sleep on my chest. Why?
This can be a common sleep struggle established from the first day, and the babies get used to it.
This habit makes parents exhausted and stuck, and somehow it is also not safe for your newborn to get drowsy on you.
We are here to help you get unstuck and free from your babies at night when napping. Let your newborn slumber silently and calmly in their bassinet!
My Baby Only Wants To Sleep On My Chest – Why?
Why do babies like sleeping on chest? The main reasons for infants sleeping on your chest is the sound of your heartbeat and your smell.
Your little one is so familiar with these and turns them into his sleep associations, so he will find it hard to sleep without your smell.
When you carry your babies throughout nine months of pregnancy, your little one sleeps with your heartbeat sound all the time.
Letting them off that habit is difficult, so you can use a white noise machine with a heartbeat sound to deceive your babies into sleeping.
The other explanation for these sleep associations is the smell from parents – the baby carriers. Newborns are really smart and understand the world in a very sensory way.
They can tell the difference in smell from parents or others. That explains why my newborn only wants to sleep on my chest all the time, especially when napping.
Should You Let Your Baby Sleep on Your Chest?
My baby likes to sleep on my chest – is it ok? It is researched that the more time you hold and cuddle your babies, the better. Yet, be sure that you are awake, or else it can be dangerous.
When holding your babies, it creates skin-to-skin contact that can enhance the bonding, feelings of safety, and many chances, it can help promote babies’ brain development.
What else could benefit an infant sleeping on my chest? Physical contact can help the newborn to become calmer.
It’s indeed sweet when having your babies napping on your body, but in many cases, it can be risky to do this.
Assuming your little one is on you and you fall asleep, it’s very likely the baby will fall to the floor.
Or, when you co-sleeping on any type of surface, such as a bed, couch, or flat surface, it will put your infants at risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Other risks you must know when you put them in the same bed are suffocation or strangulation.
How Do I Get My Baby to Sleep Without Being Held?
Swaddle Your Baby
After those long months living in the womb, swaddling is a similar way to imitate the snug and comfortable embrace feelings that they crave for.
The throwback also makes your newborn babies have a calming reflex. If you do this properly, the reflex state will keep them from waking up.
Try to have safe swaddling or wrap your baby like a burrito, which is helpful to lure them into sleep.
Try Heartbeat White Noise
As said, the reason a newborn sleeping on chest at night is because of the sound of your heartbeat. Let’s turn on some white noise machine during their bedtime circle and keep it on all the time.
The sound might be low and humbly white noise (more like shushing). You can easily go on the internet and find that sound, as there are countless of them!
There’s a study that declared white noise helps 80% of 40 infants sleep within 5 minutes. Miracle!
Also, using white noise helps reduce the level of crying and screaming and drives them into their sweet dreams more often. So, let’s try it out soon!
Rock Your Baby
You must note that when getting out of your womb, they will seek a calm place to slumber. Rocking is a good idea, and it’s a kind of swinging that will mimic the jiggling your babies have in the womb.
Rocking the bassinet is also acceptable and is reported to decrease the duration of crying and enhance quality sleep.
Yet, you should also consider when the baby is too big for the bassinet, then choose the right size for your babies so that they can feel comfortable with it.
Put Your Infant Down When Awake
You cuddle your newborns many times to shut their eyes, but they wake up immediately when putting them back in the crib. The answer is simple.
An already sleeping baby being transferred to a bassinet will mislead them that bassinets are not for sleeping.
So, next time, try to put them down when they are calm, cozy, and on the brink of actual sleep. They will be getting used to that soon.
Sometimes, they might be heavy-eyed on your chest before placing them in the crib; just awaken them slightly by a gentle tickle.
They will open their eyes, and within minutes, their eyes start to close again and go back to have a nap.
Try Sleep Training
If there is no way you can make your child fall asleep even though they are four months of age or older, it’s time you try some sleep training.
Certainly, your newborn is now supposed to be able to fall asleep on any surface, yet, why don’t they?
To tackle this, you can go to the doctor and ask for advice or get some training for your babies or toddlers.
You can also have some online baby training. We suggest Tinyhood baby 101; it can be very helpful for you.
Conclusion
We all enjoy the feeling of holding our newborns and snuggling, but there are many household chores to do.
How can we spend all day trying to bring them to sleep and even resting with them? It’s impossible.
From an early age, your babies should be trained to have a healthy sleep pattern as it’s good for both of you and avoid unwanted injuries.
Why the baby only wants to sleep on my chest is explained clearly in this article, and we also share with you some tips to get rid of that and help your infant sleep soundless in the bassinet.
Hope that it will help!
