Question - does a very active baby before birth = non-sleeping baby when born

[Grommit]

Stupid question maybe... I am 38 wks pregant and baby is moving constantly. Whilst this is reassuring in some ways I do wonder if this will continue after birth and I will have a hyper baby? Your thoughts/experience as always would be appreciated!

Nah! - doubt it! My dd was very quiet in the womb, but bloody hyperactuive now she's out of it

I had 2 very active babies (especially active during the night) and they were terrible sleepers once born. I am not sure if this is always true. I hope not for yuor sake! Good luck!!

no don't think it necessarily follows that way at all(mine was very active too and was also bad sleeper but I am convinced that was more to do with very long protacted birth with ventouse delivery that meant he was uncomfortable for long time after birth)

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I'm afraid I have to agree with katierocket et al..... not necessarily but mine was a jumper in the womb and we used to call him Guerilla Commada Charlie and the War Against Sleep when he came out. Sorry.
Second baby like a bit of a kick but not too much and is a pretty good sleeper.
But on the plus side your baby will be lots of fun and soon be able to do that hilarious river-dance style thing during nappy changes.

Oh No! Grommit, I bloody well hope not, I'm 39+6 and this one's like a jumping bean. Dp was born asleep apparently and is still capable of sleeping like a teenager (as am I) so I'm hoping our sleeping genes are strong and your theory is wrong. EEeeeek!

no! my dd and ds2 were constantly wriggling babies in the womb and champion sleepers out of it. dd slept 12 hrs a night from 7 weeks and ds2 has been doing 12 hours a night since 9.5 weeks (now 10.5 weeks).

ds1 was quieter in the womb and a bit less sleepy out of it but still pretty good

No. Dd was v active (as is this bump), but she slept like a....well, a baby. OK admittedly she had her moments, but she slept through the night at 4 months, and is still very easy to put to sleep. Rarely wakes up before 8am even now.

Remember that babies in the womb tend to wake up when you are relaxing - when you are moving around they are usually asleep. This is why so many women feel their baby kick more at night and also why some newborns seem to be awake more at night than n the day (they're following habits formed in the womb). So its a good idea to make sure you get lots of relaxation time during the day to encourage them to wake up then. At least, I read this somewhere and it seemed to work for us!

My DS was a top gymnast in the In Utero Olympics, (commented on at both scans) was born wide awake, was a very alert / active / wakeful newborn, has NOT been a good sleeper and at 2 is like a bucket of frogs, defined by his joie de vivre, determination and energy.

www - I put dd's sleep down to genes too: dp is a monster if he doesn't get 10 hours!

ds1 was very laid-back and could hardly be bothered to kick. As a baby he only slept for 8 hrs per day, including naps. Ds2 was very active but thankfully needs his sleep.

both my daughter and son were really active during my pregnancies and i was quite amazed at the amount of time they both slept once born as it seemed to me that they never slept when i was pregnant. I am now 34weeks along with baby number 3 and she is also very active but im not worried that she will not sleep once she's here. I think it might be the shock of being in a warm, dark, quiet(ish) place and then being squeezed out into a bright, huge, noisey place that makes them sleep alot..plus the fact that they are growing like little weeds. I dont think the early days are bad at all, in fact they're the best ones if you ask me.

Can only to add to the thread that I had a v active one in pregnancy (at every scan they mentioned it and it made me laugh late on) - needless to say at 15 months she is still incredibly active. The upside is she puts all her energies into being awake, then gets tired and sleeps really well (and long).

ditto what guard says - my dd was hugely active in preg, far more than ds and she remains a mover and groover (I'm watching her now, lying around and bicycling her legs like she's doing the tour de France), but mostly she sleeps well as she is tired out by all the aerobics. Possibly she takes a little longer to calm herself down to sleep (and a bath and a snuggle takes care of that), but that's all.

My ds was always particularly active 20m or so after I ate - after breakfast I used to go and lie down again so that I could watch my belly moving! But his movements never kept me awake at night, nor were they painful (except when he was playing fibroid football). Dd on the other hand was so active at night that I used to wake up wondering what on earth was happening, and she was so active in the evenings that I couldn't watch TV sitting down, I had to stretch out to give her room. They have both ended up good sleepers at night, although at 6m we did have to sleep-train dd out of her one night-time waking, and dd isn't as good a sleeper generally as ds. The only correlation I have found between their prebirth movement and postbirth activity, is that for the first couple of months dd was more restless and difficult to settle in the evenings than ds had been.

DS was pretty quiet, a few hours of wriggling and then days of only sporadic momvements. Great sleeper when he was born and still is now at 16 months.

Current bump is much more active (27 weeks) and can make me jolt with the kicks I've been getting. I'm starting to worry the sleeping pattern is not going to be passed down

DD was really really active and slept through at 3 weeks. So don't worry! The baby will be what it will be!

Lottie was active in the womb and slept through the night from day 8!!!! Would have gone sooner if the nurses in hospital hadn't kept waking us both up!!

apologies..im new to all this. can anyone explain what dd and ds and all that stand for plz??? thankyou.

dd = dear daughter
ds = dear son
dp/h = dear partner/husband ...

I was seriously worried when I started reading this thread ... as my baby never ever stops moving ... in fact even at night if I wake up to go to the loo it is jumping around all over the place ... I was even going to ask on MN whether it was possible for unborn babies to have ADHD!!!

But some of you have set my mind at rest ... a bit!!!
I don't remember DS moving around so much and he was a shocking sleeper as a newborn ... but basically I think that nothing could be as bad as he was so if this baby is a teeny bit better then it is a bonus

My ds was ridiculously active in utero,all the traces had to be done for hours when I was in labour because he wouldn't stop moving and have a resting heartrate!
Despite this he sleeps really well,slept through from twelve weeks and now is a tewlve hour a night boy (14mos)
He is very active during the day,never sits down but not anything abnormal.He is also active in his grobag aswell and regularly needs detangling.I wouldn't worry.

ds was really active in the womb, and still is (now 11 months) but he has always drunk milk/ eaten loads and played hard all day and then crashes at night. Slept through from week 5. Has never been very good at daytime naps though, no Gina Ford 2 hour midday sleep for this one, but that is OK when you know you are guaranteed that he will sleep 7pm-7am.

Ds always v quiet in afternoons when in womb. On birth rarely napped at the same time. Now he sleeps 12 hours plus 2 naps in the day (13 months).

i don't recall DD being that active in the womb, however when she was born it was a different story. She still is a very very active child and finds it impossible to get to sleep or even sit still for a couple of minutes. However once asleep she sleeps for hours - obviously worn out with all her exertions. The hardest part was trying to persuade her to sleep in the first place when she was so tired. I think it must be genetic as apparently DH was an active baby too, and had very similar patterns

DS was very wriggly in womb and then slept through at 6 weeks until he was about 1 and then the fun (and sleepless nights) really began!!