It's another "am I developing a habit for my newborn" question, sorry!

[dottytablecloth]

Dd is 2 and a bit weeks, dreadful sleeper at night (I've posted before about her!!)

Anyway we've tried everything we can think of to get dd to sleep upstairs, cot, crib, cocoonababy in crib, cocoonababy between us bed and once (never to be repeated) accidentally fell asleep with her in our bed.

How does she even know whether she is upstairs or down?

It does seen that she sleeps slightly better in her pram in the kitchen or living room where we are most of the time during the day.

Is it really bad to just let her sleep in her pram downstairs? I'll be on sofa beside her so obviously not left alone!

I'm planning that it'll be short term until around 6/7 weeks or so.

Should I just persevere with putting her down in her crib upstairs and not putting her in pram straight away?

Just wondered if she gets used to being downstairs, she'll never sleep anywhere else!

DD slept down stairs until we went to bed until she was 16/18 weeks, the constant noise/activity seemed to sooth her. One night I put her in her moses basket at 8pm as I went to the loo and came back and she was sleeping so we carried on putting her down at that time up stairs then.

No spoiling at this age at all.

Im pretty sure 2 1/2 weeks is far too early to be creating bad habits. Have you googled 'the fourth trimester'? In the early days we did anything that would help us all to get some sleep. Everything changes so much and so quickly at the beginning that you might find that in a week your baby will hate sleeping downstairs and want to be upstairs in the crib! As long as whatever she is sleeping in is approved for night time sleeping I can't see that there's a problem.

Aww congrats on your new baby. She won't know whether she is upstairs or downstairs at the moment. Go with the flow and do what seems best for your baby. As long as you are caring for her, it doesn't matter where she sleeps.

Go with anything (safe) that works. As Pp said, things change v quickly at this age. Periodically try all those things you mentioned again as they might start working. My DS ignored the White noise app at first but at about a month old absolutely loved it and it helped him sleep every time for the next 4-5 months. Now he can take or leave it.

It is very common for babies to hate Moses baskets etc imo. Quite a few of my friends ended up buying sleepyheads (I'm a fanatic of these), cocooonababy etc and using them directly in their cots.

Agree-Google fourth trimester for ideas.

Just go with the flow at 2wks. Let your baby sleep where ever it wants. It's easiest for both of you that way

They've spent the past nine months being part of you so it's really confusing for them when they're brand new.

It all starts to fall into place after a while. Totally normal.

My trouble maker would not sleep anywhere (literally) until i descovered he needed to be physically attached to me in order to sleep.
A soft sling worked wonders , he will doze for hours in my arms. I can manouvre him from sling to cot very well now!
He's coming up to 6 weeks

Arr she's 2 weeks don't worry about it. I did with DD and went round in citculies trying to get her to sleep upstairs in the crib.

DS we said sod that he slept down with us in the travel cot in the living room (sometimes on us in the early weeks) until at least 8 months. He then came up with us and slept in the bedside cot until he was ready to go to bed on his own. He always like company. Hasn't made him a bass sleeper of anything he was slightly better then DD.

So go with what works. Plus in case you hadn't relised the SIDS guidelines for baby sleeping with you in the first six months does include all naps as well. Not just night time sleep. A good sling is also very useful used them for both mine and still sometimes carry DS who's just turned 4 to some people's amazement.

Try putting the TV or radio on in your room. My ds wouldn't sleep upstairs at night because it was too quiet. He was so used to the general hubbub when he slept down stairs in the day, he couldn't settle when it was quite.

Thanks for all the good tips and advice!

butter I did wonder about it being too quiet also! I've a 23 month old ds who needs it to be quiet to sleep but maybe TV on low or radio would help dd to sleep.

Congrats on your new baby ! Don't worry, 2.5 weeks is far to early to be creating habits...she wants to sleep downstairs probably cos she is comforted by the hubbub and being being close to you. I read somewhere that babies can smell their mother from some crazy long distance. Absolutely fine to sleep in pram as long as she is flat-ish. With my DD I picked her up every time she cried, breastfed on demand, let her sleep on my or my DP's chest for day time naps until she was about 3 months old...we had to hold her all the time otherwise, she screamed and woke up after 10 mins ! Every one told us we would spoil her and create a rod for our own backs but I knew she wasn't capable of self-settling yet, and I didn't want to leave her to cry. I just hoped that when she was ready she'd be able to settle to sleep in a cot away from me. At 3 months she started to do this fine for day time naps and at night time, we also implemented a predictable early-ish bedtime routine around this time and we got our evenings back - she was asleep in the cot next to my bed, on her own with a baby monitor, whilst we ate dinner and slept through the night. By 4 months old she was once again waking in the night for more feeds, but for day time naps she was self settling in her cot with only a musical teddy as a prop. By 5 months she was self settling in the early morning if she awoke too early and was sleeping in her own room. She will now totally accept being put down in her cot and falling asleep herself even though we did everything that people try and make you afraid that will be 'spoil' the baby...
We got there in the end, it just took a lot of patience, cuddles and time. And a predictable nap/bedtime routine with similar sleep cues. And more than anything just waiting until she was ready. If it didn't work one nap time, I'd just hold her and then try again next time. I believe that because I always kept her close and held her and responded to her cries when she was a newborn, she grew to feel very secure and self-settled quite early.