I’ve been often described as the Baby Whisperer. I seem to have endless patience with newborns and am able to lull them to sleep in order to photograph them more easily. I can’t take all the credit; many of the tricks I use are from The Happiest Baby On The Block by Dr. Harvey Karp. He developed the 5 S’s Technique that I often use during newborn sessions (and with my own baby).

The 5 S’s are all equally important and something each new parent should consider as their bible when it comes to soothing their children.

The first s: swaddling

 

A warm, wrapped up baby is the first step to a calming method. Swaddling is great to decrease fussing and increase sleep for a newborn. It helps make them feel secure like they were in the womb. It also cuts down on their Moro (startle) reflex.

 

 

The second s: side lying

This method is not for a sleeping baby (always put your baby to sleep on their backs in their crib or other safe sleeping area), but for a baby that just needs to mellow out. Holding a baby on its side, stomach or even over your shoulder can help calm the baby to slowly relax.

 

 

The third s: shushing

This S is hands down my favorite for my own newborn: white noise. It is the best way to reenact what the baby might have heard in the womb. It works almost every time! We love the apps “white noise” (a blue icon with a white noise meter across it) or “white noise baby” (the icon is a baby doing tummy time with a white background) from the iPhone App Store. If you’d like a physical White Noise Machine, my favorite is The Hatch Rest!

 

 

The fourth s: swinging

The swing method is great to create small movements to soothe the baby like bouncing up and down or moving side to side (imagine how it would have felt to be inside your womb, swaying and moving with the mother’s motion).

 

 

The fifth s: sucking

Think pacifier! Sucking is a very strong instinct in babies and soothes them, even when they aren’t hungry and needing to nurse. A pacifier or even your finger can be used to help calm your baby. My daughter would never take a pacifier (I tried every kind available. You should see the graveyard of pacifiers at my house haha). But she would suck on my husband’s finger and that seemed to help settle her in between feedings when she was fussy!

 

 

You can read more information and find a link to Dr. Karp’s book on his website: https://www.happiestbaby.com/blogs/blog/the-5-s-s-for-soothing-babies. Here are the results from this newborn photo session: