Audiobooks at night with very new baby

[Alila76]

This is our first baby and I joined Mumsnet to ask this question because I can’t seem to find anything online.
My husband and I have always listened to audiobooks to sleep. I’m due in January and I think we need a different system for when the baby comes. We listen to books I don’t think would be appropriate for a tiny baby (nothing explicit, but Jon Ronson or David Sedaris, where the topics and language are complicated).
I get insomnia and don’t think something specifically for babies would be right for me to sleep to. I think audiobooks are brilliant and totally appreciate them for children but I’m just not sure we should be listening to the same things.
Am I right? Do we need a different system? Or will a baby be too small for it to make a difference? Could use Calm sleep stories, but these don’t always work for me. Maybe I’ll be so exhausted I won’t need them!

If it's a young baby you will just be exposing them to sounds. They will have no understating of the meaning of those sounds for some months.

The only worry I'd have about David Sedaris is my laughter keeping the baby awake. The first time I halest him in R4 I had to pull the car over

Your baby won't understand anything about the words for months. I suppose tone and threat level might get through, so I maybe wouldn't listen to a murder or a very shouty book? But they'll be out of your room before they understand language.

I'm intrigued though, how do you fall asleep listening to an audiobook and know where you got to? What if one of you falls asleep before the other? How on earth do you keep track of what's going on?

I'm the same, have always listened to audiobooks to sleep. When our baby came I put on "classics", which felt like a happy medium. But honestly after a few nights I was totally able to fall asleep instantly without it...newborn tiredness! As a result we now go to sleep in a silent room without any issues. Realistically if you want to listen to them, I think the tone of the narrator's voice is more important than the content at first.

Keep listening to your books! At the age you're likely to still have them in with you, 0-6 months, they will not have any idea what the words mean, it is just a nice voice which they may well find comforting. The time will come for moderating your language/what you listen to around them but it's more like aged one.

The only exception for me would be that I think babies can react to screams/really angry voices from quite early, so I would avoid anything really scary, but that isn't what you're going to go to sleep to yourselves!

Get earphones. I just use the left one so can hear with the other one

You could look into wireless headphones, so you can listen to anything without disturbing the baby.

I'd also recommend Just William audio books as ideal for both children and adults, if you want something when baby is a little older!

My inability to sleep was totally fixed by having a baby. Since my first 12 years ago I can close my eyes anywhere and fall asleep! I used to struggle, read for hours, get stressed and countdown to morning.
However, a baby won't care what you listen to and all my kids have slept better with background noise. As a newborn, eldest would fall asleep downstairs where we were watching TV and stay asleep as we carried up. He'd be fine while we sat in bed with a cuppa and chatted then as soon as the house went quiet he'd be awake! Even now that the kids are a lot older they like to fall asleep whilst we're still up and moving about and my kids all listen to audiobooks in bed too for background.
I wouldn't worry at all about what you're listening to for the first year pretty much so keep doing what works for you.
My kids have a Yoto audio player which we use in their room. Since your baby is likely to also be dependent on background noise you may want to look at one for their nursery, or start using in your room....it has kids radio stations and sleep radio too but you can also make your own audio and buy tons of audiobooks from baby age up. We wouldn't be without ours for the bedtime routine.

Thank you so much everyone, I really appreciate the time and care you’ve taken over your answers. This is so helpful and reassuring, thanks ☺️

Thank you, and it’s a good question!
I can usually remember roughly where I was and try new find that place again and my husband doesn’t see to care too much, I think the sound is more important for him than the content.
but that’s why the mini essay style books work really well too.

Just be wary of getting your baby used to always having sounds on while they sleep in case they can't get to sleep without it.

I wouldn’t worry about that - it’s always much easier to make noise for a baby than it is to make every thing silent for a baby that can’t sleep with any noise.

The baby might pick up on scary noises/sound effects like shouting, gum noises and banging. Talking would be fine.

It's very noisy in the womb with your heart beating and digestive system gurgling plus noise from the world that comes through. It's soothing along with the rocking motion of walking, which is why babies in the womb often wake up and start doing star jumps when you like down to sleep.

I've never heard of a new parent having insomnia, I suspect that won't be a problem with the horrible sleep deprivation! I found hypnobirthing tracks good for pregnancy insomnia.

You might want some headphones so one of you can audiobook while sorting baby, one sleeps.

You can usually set the timer to the end of a chapter, or end after specific lengths of time. Even when we do this we often have to go back to the middle of a chapter if we've dozed off early.

OP, you could use headphones so baby doesn't have to listen.

It's fine, it will just be background noise for them (you never know, maybe it'll help them stay asleep too!). The main thing I would be wary of is shouting (audiobook rather than dramatisation is probably fine for that though) and when they get a bit older, swearing.