Getting Ewan to sleep

I had no idea how to get him to sleep at first.  When he was a newborn he usually fell asleep nursing.  That was simple.  But after the first week sometimes he would need to sleep but wouldn't fall asleep on his own.  The doula (labor coach) that helped me give birth showed me a book called The Happiest Baby on the Block by Harvey Karp.  It has great advice on getting babies to sleep, and also just calming them down if they are upset.

That book talks about the Five S's: Swaddling, Swinging, Shushing, Laying on the Side, and Sucking.  These are the key, according to Harvey Karp, to getting newborns to be comfortable.

What really worked for Ewan in the first two months was holding him on his side belly-to-belly with me, his head in the crook of my left arm and my right hand under his butt, and bouncing him gently.  I would do this at any time: during the day to get him to nap and at night to get him to go to sleep or go back to sleep after waking up.  At night I always swaddled him.  I used the velcro swaddle wraps by Summer Infant because they are so easy.

Now that he is three months old, during the day, just holding him with his head on my shoulder and swaying back and forth works well, but at night he usually just nurses himself to sleep.  Before I start nursing at night him I put him in a Sleep Sack because he doesn't like to be swaddled anymore.  I continue to hold him after he lets go of the nipple (or I gently pull him off the nipple) and he falls asleep in my arms.  Then, I lay him down in the crib.  Sometimes he will open his eyes when I lay him down and I'll stick a pacifier in his mouth, which usually puts him right back to sleep.  (Don't use a pacifier for babies younger than 6 weeks.)

Also, I recently bought a Sleep Sheep.  It's awesome.  Ewan loves the ocean wave noise.  It helps drown out noises in the house when he goes to sleep at night and we're still up.  Also, it's alot like the shushing noise that I make to calm him down when he is upset.

Babies get used to the sound of the blood rushing through your veins while in the womb.  That's why they love loud white noise like vacuum cleaners and noisy restaurants.

To make the shushing sound, I take a deep breath in and breathe it all out as a loud "SHHHHH" then take another breath and do it again.  It works great when he is in the car and gets upset.  I'll jump into the backseat with him and shush him and rock the car seat a little bit.  Sometimes it will actually put him to sleep.  It can make me a little light headed after a while, though.  On a recent road trip I brought the Sleep Sheep and so I didn't have to make the noise myself.  The noise even worked to calm him after getting his two month round of shots.  He cried for less than 30 seconds when I picked him up, held him tightly, and shushed him.