A PhD offers her expertise on baby sleep in Psychology Today.
The way to avoid distressing the baby is to meet the baby’s needs. What are those? Here are two key ones:
1) Rapid responsiveness to needs—which means you have to learn your baby’s signals. A good way to learn to do this is to carry the baby skin to skin regularly. Don’t make your baby cry to get its needs met–move in before then. You will be more likely to foster an agreeable personality.
2) Nearly constant responsive touch and, sometimes, movement. Stay in touch with your baby, literally. Your baby needs your physical energy and signals from your body’s systems to learn to self-regulate. And these are best transferred through physical touch.
