You know when you have a really young baby...

[FlightAttendant]

...and they laugh in their sleep?

Why is it that they can do that, but not laugh when they're awake?

Same thing before they learn to smile while awake, why can they do it in their sleep from day 1?

the smile in the sleep really is just wind

Involuntary I guess.

Babies smile in the womb so I wouldn't dismiss every early smile as wind.

I'd never come across the laughing in the sleep thing until I had dd2 and it scared the wits out of me!! It was so weird, having a newborn luaghing in the middle of the night.

The smiling, I'm not so sure. I think the smiles they do from three/four weeks look different to the womb/newborn ones. They use their eyes as well, I think.

Oh I remember my LOs doing this. Ahhh happy memories.

Thanks for your thoughts! Yes, the way they sort of 'chortle' when presumably dreaming, is just so sweet and funny...but when he is awake, he seems to have difficulty making that same sound, it is much less natural, more of a sort of snorty grunt, almost like a cough - it surprises him - yet he is very ticklish!

I just can't figure out why it is, that they can do all this while asleep but it takes them weeks or months to do it 'in real life'.

I guess while they are awake they are far too busy taking in the stimulus or whatever it is making them feel that way, to actually let the laugh out!

I don't think early smiling is wind at all I think they are just happy...

Nab, do they really? In the womb? Wow!

Yep, a while ago there were scan pictures in a paper and it clearly showed the baby smiling.

True, there are different smiles. Just as we smile with our mouths only and at other times a proper smile with our eyes, baby does the same.

reading this makes me feel sooooo broody.

I'm glad you posted this. My gran & I heard ds laugh in his sleep at 6 weeks and noone believes us! He didn't do it awake (or in his sleep again that I heard) until a good few weeks later.

My lo def laughed/smiled in her sleep when she was tiny. LadyTophamHatt I agree I feel broody too after reading this which is crazy as I've got a 6month old!