One of the most heartbreaking things for a parent to ever deal with is their crying baby. But we are biologically programmed to be able to respond to said crying baby. We want nothing more than to comfort them and make them feel safe. And that takes learning what your baby needs and wants.

You are not going to get it right every single time as a parent. And that's OK. Most parents can't ever come to terms with this, however, because they feel like they should know what to do. But nobody just knows what to do.you could spend your time trying really hard for a baby and preparing for a pregnancy and going out and battling all of the reviews over whether to buy a full size crib vs mini crib. Whether you should pump or formula feed. Whether you should sling the baby against your chest or you should use a pram. There are decisions that you'd never thought you'd have to make as a parent, and yet here you are making all of the big decisions in the best possible way.

There are going to be times when your baby is crying and doesn't seem to want to stop, and that can be very distressing for a new parent, especially if you've never encountered babies before. It doesn't mean that you have to panic. Crying is how babies communicate and whether they are hungry, wet, thirsty, simply want to be held. They're going to cry for your attention until you give it to them. Doesn't make it easy to listen to, but that doesn't mean there's anything to panic about. So with that in mind, let's take a look at the top tips that you need to be able to relax your baby so that you can relax yourself enough to trust your instincts are correct.

• Get to know the swaddle. If you've brought your newborn home and they suddenly start crying a lot, you might wonder why they are so unsettled. If you were wrapped in a cocoon like State for nine months, somewhere warm, comfortable, quiet and with a constant beat of a heart nearby, you'd cry too. Newborns go from enjoying that perfect environment to a colder environment where the temperature is not the same and the lights are bright and there are people making noise and they're being jostled and moved and touched and they have to breathe air and they suddenly feel hungry because they are no longer being fed automatically. That's a lot for a tiny baby. You have to master the swaddle so that you can swaddle your child into feeling comfortable and secure, and allow yourself to have some time to enjoy them as a baby so that you're not panicking about why they're unsettled.
• Create a space that's relaxed. Whether it's in your bedroom or in the nursery, you need a place away from the main hustle and bustle of the house for you and your baby to calm down together. Babies, especially will, will kick up stress levels very quickly. It's important that you keep calm as much as you can when bedtime approaches, especially if your baby's having an unsettled few minutes. Going into a room that has muted lighting with the right temperature and somewhere that you can rock is important. A good glider or rocking chair is really going to help in this space because you get to be comfortable while you try to soothe your child.
• Embrace positive touch. Relaxing your child is important and touch is involved in doing that. Having a hands off approach is not going to help your baby learn to calm down. It's going to help them learn that no one's going to come to soothe them. There is a very big difference between the two things. A positive touch approach means using skin to skin with your baby as much as you can so that they can feel comforted by your temperature and your smell. Positive touch is going to help promote the flow of oxytocin, which is a cuddle hormone, and it helps to relax your baby and make them feel sleepy. Snuggling up with a book or even just some good old fashioned cuddles and rocking backward and forward can really help your child to fall asleep comfortably.
• Use calming sounds.Babies have been in the womb with you. They've heard your heartbeat, they've heard the flow of your blood in your veins, they've heard the washing of the amniotic fluid. So it makes complete sense that they want to listen to white noise and soft sounds.If they are fussing and you can't seem to calm them down, shushing noises and white noise machines will really help. Repetitive, soothing sounds are exactly the way to go.

• Stick to a nap time schedule. Where possible, try to stick to the routine of nap time with your baby. There's a routine called the 90-minute routine where every 90 minutes after they have woken up, that's when they're sleepy. Cues will usually begin. So if they wake up in the morning at 7:00 AM, you can guarantee that by 9:30 in the morning they will be ready to wind back down to go to sleep.If you get your baby to take a nap like this at that time, then keep that cycle going no matter how long we've been napping for. Every 90 minutes, watch for the sleep queues and start their winding down routine. This way, they feel more than relaxed when it comes to finally falling asleep, and they are not overstimulated or overtired when they do actually get there.
• Don't let them cry it out. The Ferber method and other methods may tell you that letting your baby cry is a good idea, but it's not. Your baby cries for one reason and one reason only to get your attention if you're ignoring that. They don't learn to self-settle, they don't learn to self-soothe, and they certainly don't learn to settle themselves. They learn that no one is coming when they cry, so there is no point in crying anymore. That is a very different emotion to start life with compared to feeling comforted and soothed when your needs need to be met. Picture your partner or even yourself sitting crying in a room alone. Imagine how you would feel if somebody opened the door, looked at you crying, and then shut the door again without giving you any kind of comfort. If you can't stand that imagery in your head, don't do it to your child.
• Take your baby outside.The outside world may sound loud, and the temperature may be different, but taking your baby outside can give them something completely different from the inside world. The change in environment and temperature and the movement of the pushchair can distract your baby, and the swaying of the tree branches and the birds' sounds can help them feel settled and more comfortable. The fresh air can even help your little one drift off to sleep, so going for a stroll also gets you out of the house, and getting back to nature is often recommended by a mental health treatment center as a way to shake off stress, which helps your mental health and allows you to relax too.  

Relaxing a baby doesn't have to be difficult and now that you've got these tips that you can put into play, you can get started and make sure that you are all happy and healthy.