How can Moms on Call soothing rounds help your baby to sleep longer at night?
If you’ve been following my updates with Beckham, you know what a big fan I am of Moms on Call.
One of the parts that helped us the most was using the Moms on Call soothing rounds. I actually did something very similar when our twins were babies, so it’s no surprise that I found it incredibly helpful.
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Side note: I highly recommend that you purchase a copy of the Moms on Call book. It is an incredible resource! The main purpose of the book is how to establish a schedule and get your baby to sleep, but it is also a comprehensive resource with everything you need to know about having a newborn baby.
You can click on the photos below to purchase the books.
How to Implement Moms on Call Soothing Rounds
The soothing rounds are a very simple concept, but I will warn you… they do involve a bit of crying. This is my 4th baby, including a set of twins, so while I won’t let an infant scream for an extremely long period of time, I am comfortable with a bit of crying.
Moms on Call suggests starting the soothing rounds as early as 2 weeks old. Here’s how you go about it: (be sure to read to the bottom to see the slight changes that I made from the books recommendations).
1: When baby wakes up and cries, let them cry for five minutes before tending to them. Make sure that they are actually crying, not just whining or making noise in their sleep.
2: After five-minutes, go in and soothe them, but do not feed them. You can shush them, pat their back, or use a pacifier (we used a pacifier). Continue to soothe them until they are calm and have stopped crying.
3: Leave them and if they continue to cry, let them go for another five minutes before going in to soothe them.
4: Do this for a total of three times. So 3 rounds of five minutes and 3 rounds of soothing.
If your baby falls back asleep, great! If not, go ahead and feed them after the third round.
How We Implemented the Moms on Call Soothing Rounds
We did make a few changes to the soothing rounds.
I don’t always agree with 100% of things that parenting books say, but I take what I like and what works for our family and leave the rest.
Crying: As I mentioned above, I have no problem doing cry it out when appropriate, or crying for short periods of time.
However, letting my 2-week old cry for five minutes at a time, three times in a row, is outside of my comfort zone. I personally chose to modify that part.
We did approximately one minute per age: so 2 minutes at 2 weeks, 3 minutes at 3 weeks, and so on.
If he wasn’t crying that hard, I might let him go for a little bit longer, and on the flip side, if he was crying really hard, we would get him a bit earlier.
Also, if he seemed really awake, hungry, and upset by the 2nd round, I would feed him then and not do a 3rd round. This only happened once or twice.
Does your baby’s room have a good sleep environment?–> Find out in this post!
What is the Purpose of Soothing Rounds?
The soothing rounds have one main simple purpose: to extend your babies nighttime sleep. So, if you’re trying to get your baby to sleep longer at night, this is a fantastic method to try.
1. To Help Your Baby Take a Full Feeding
My favorite part of the soothing rounds is that by the time I fed Beckham in the middle of the night, he was wide awake enough to take a full feeding.
There were times with my other babies that I’d feed them as soon as they cried in the middle of the night because I didn’t want them to wake up too much and not be able to fall back asleep.
This usually resulted in them falling asleep while nursing and not really getting a full feeding. Then they would wake up again after not too much time had passed because they didn’t get enough the first time!
Tip: Unswaddle your baby and turn off the white noise before you feed them. Then, when you swaddle them and turn the white noise back on, it will signal to them that it’s time to go back to sleep.
Read –> 5 Tips for a First Time Mom Using Babywise
2. To Extend Your Babies Time Between Nighttime Feedings
As I mentioned above, I used this method with my twin girls before I even know what it was called and after a few nights, they started doing much longer stretches in the middle of the night.
By not feeding your baby right away in the middle of the night, it helps their tummies get used to not filling up in the middle of the night.
Now, young babies definitely need to eat in the middle of the night. I’m not by any means saying that you should try to get your baby to go longer stretches at night when they are a few days old! They need to be ready.
Most (NOT ALL, but MOST) babies can developmentally sleep 10-12 hours overnight by 12 or 14 weeks of age. Of course all babies are different, and if your baby has any sort of digestive issues (such as reflux) or they aren’t gaining weight, this is not a goal you should have.
The Moms on Call soothing rounds helped Beckham start sleeping through the night!
He just turned 3 months old and is sleeping for a solid 11-12 hour chunk at night.
As a result of him being so well rested, he is happy and delightful during the day.
Tip: The soothing rounds are just one part of the process. Here are other helpful posts that will help your baby sleep well:
How to Establish Good Sleep Habits Straight From Birth
3. Self-Soothing
The soothing rounds are a gentle and effective way to teach your baby to self-soothe.
It teaches your baby to self-soothe because you aren’t rushing in as soon as they make a little bit of noise to comfort them.
You give them time to get comfortable and work it out themself. Now, this isn’t something that a 2-week old baby will be able to do, but it IS something that will happen sooner the earlier you start working on it and the more consistent you are with it.
I promise you that if this is something you are consistent with, it will pay off.
I can’t tell you how amazing it is to be able to give your baby some snuggles and a kiss goodnight, put them down in their crib, and leave the room while the peacefully drift off to sleep.
I hope this helps! There is nothing better than a good nights sleep, right mamas?
Please comment or reach out with any questions at all!
P.S. Make sure you’re following me on social media to keep up with our family and all the twin cuteness! I am on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest!
Crystal
Friday 6th of January 2023
Hi! How do you handle soothing rounds if baby is waking up due to gas pain? Still let them cry and be in pain? Or get them out to help them work out the gas? Thank you!
Peighton
Saturday 17th of December 2022
Waiting on my moms on call book, this blog post help me get my first 4.5 hour stretch of sleep on 6 weeks. Thank you!
Saul
Wednesday 26th of October 2022
Very helpful, thanks.
Dahlia Amato
Wednesday 24th of August 2022
Hi there, thank you for this. I want to know how long do you soothe the baby? Is it until the baby sleeping? I have a two months old and not sure how long I should be in there. Thank you!
Mitzi Hunt
Friday 29th of October 2021
Hi! This was so helpful to me. If you don't mind I wanted to reach out w a few questions. My little one is 1 month and I'm implementing Mom's on call as well but wanted to get some clarity on a few things before I fully committ.