Dr Harvey Karp

Dr Harvey Karp

I used to tell my patients that babies are born three months too soon. I know what you’re thinking: What?! Too soon?! For many mums, the third trimester feels never-ending.

But remember, your baby’s brain grew so big that you had to “evict” them after 9 months, even though they were still really immature. As a result, they aren’t quite ready for the wide outside world. While you were eager to hold your bub in your arms, your baby would have liked to extend their stay for a few extra months inside.

So, for the frst 3 months—aka the fourth trimester—think of your baby as a fetus that’s living outside the womb. And the best birthday gift you can give your lovebug is a fourth trimester of cuddling. Though you may think your quiet nursery is ideal for Baby, from your little one’s perspective, your home is simultaneously over and under stimulating!

In fact, gifted baby calmers all have one skill in common: they’re really good at impersonating a baby’s life in the womb. To mimic your baby’s womb life, you need to know: “What’s it like inside a womb?”

In utero, fetuses are surrounded by rhythmic sensations: the hug of the womb’s walls, lots of motion, and loud whooshing from blood pulsing through the uterine arteries. To give your little one the fourth trimester care they really need, I recommend using the the 5 S’s. They will make your bub feel back at home and trigger the calming refex. Happiest Baby’s SNOO Smart Sleeper helps parents out by using womb-like sound and motion to calm crying and boost sleep for both babies and parents!

Here’s how to do the 5 S’s:

  1. Swaddle: Snug wrapping mimics the cozy confines of the womb and decreases startling.
  2. Side/Stomach Position: Hold your baby in the side/stomach position while you soothe them (but please remember that the back is the ONLY safe sleeping position for babies—babies should NOT sleep on their sides/stomachs)
  3. Shush: In the womb, the sound of the blood flow is louder than a vacuum cleaner! The best way to re-create this magic sound is with low, rumbly white noise (SNOObear plays my specially designed white noise to help babies and toddlers sleep.)
  4. Swing: Life in the womb is quite jiggly! Babies love being swayed or rocked.
  5. Suck: A pacifier helps many babies sleep…this S is kind of like the frosting on the baby-soothing cake.

Learning the 5 S’s doesn’t just make the fourth trimester better for babies, it also helps parents feel more confident and get more rest during this time of so much change (about 50% of new parents get less than 6 hours of broken sleep a night—a level of fatigue that causes the same mental impairment as being drunk!). Plus, the 5 S’s help prevent sleep deprivation and persistent crying, which are known triggers of postpartum depression and anxiety.

Every baby is different, so it will probably take some practice before you find the just-right mix and intensity of the 5 S’s for your little one, but once you get the hang of them, you can enjoy the very important 6th S of the fourth trimester…SLEEP!