- Babies respond well to movement. If you watch experienced parents, they're always moving, rocking, swaying, because they know that it helps babies to soothe. One of our favorite tricks if you will, is to bounce babies on large exercise balls. It's magic. It works almost every time. - So you can see that this baby is a little upset, and a little fussy, and I need to help him right away. So what we need to know is he doesn't like being on his back, so I'm gonna turn him around a little bit, and I'm gonna get him to sit up, and I'm gonna put a little pressure on his feet, that's called foot bracing, and then I'm gonna move him. Shhhh. Do you notice how I stopped him from flailing, so that's kind of swaddling with your hands, and I was able to get him to come to the center with his hands, and really relax his little body. I also have him in full flexion and look at him relax. Another position he might like I'm tempted not to put you there, Zack, cause I like how you feel right now, I can just put my arm down his body, run him right onto my arm this way, I can still hold those little hands, or I could have him swaddled already, and then just bounce him. Interesting, babies like their head to float, see how that little head is just floating? Or lolling? That's not shaken head syndrome. Shaken head syndrome is a hard swinging of that head back and forth. But now, Zack's all happy because he feels like he's back in that uterus. - Other things that could help are vibrating chairs. Another piece of equipment that might be helpful would be a swing. Now the thing with baby swings is that you can't put a crying baby into a swing. You have to calm them down first and then you can place them into the swing. Just make sure you use the safety strap, and a lot of babies will then actually go to sleep and stay asleep a little bit longer. - The uterus is a very noisy place, so when a baby is born, it comes out saying, where's that sound I'm used to? There's the sound of the heartbeat, and the tummy growling, but most of all, the sound of the placenta. It's a loud, whooshing noise that people actually think sounds as loud to the baby as a locomotive next to his head. So after a baby is born, they find that sound extremely comforting. We call it white noise. You can download it from your computer, you can buy an app, you can buy a white noise machine, or you can just use your mouth to say, Shhhh. But there's a little trick. It has to be loud. You can't just go sh-sh-sh-sh-sh. That just won't work for babies. You will find that if your baby has white noise playing all night, they'll actually sleep longer and deeper, and it's good for parents, too. You won't hear all those tiny little sounds that a baby can make that might keep you wakeful. It's really good for babies, so find your white noise. Another sound that babies might enjoy is music. But it has to be a special kind of music, like something with a rhythmic beat, some of the things that are sold for babies today have a heartbeat sound underneath the music. Classical music can be helpful. Something with a rhythm, like Mozart. If you're pregnant, play that kind of music for the baby every night, at the time of night when you'd like that baby to go to bed. Interestingly, babies are born with their days and nights backwards. How are they in your uterus? They're really not backwards when they come out, because the most active time of day for most babies in utero is evening and night, so they're gonna come out that way, but if you play that music every evening, while you're pregnant, toward the end of your pregnancy, that baby will recognize that music and might find it a very calming thing to do. Babies love the contrast of light and dark, so walking around, they see trees against the blue sky, or trees against the snow. Any time you can just go out for a walk with your baby, it's really helpful to many babies. Having your baby up so they can see will be helpful too. If you've already, always in the stroller, the baby really can't see out. So get that baby up in a baby carrier, walk them around, they really like it.