Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

Where should a newborn sleep and in what?!

39 replies

moomin35 · 18/12/2013 09:49

Hi guys, I need your help and advice please :-) Sorry, Im a first time mum and as you can see I am all new to this and have no clue! I am due end of May and am worried about where baby should sleep. Do I put them in a moses basket that I can carry around the house depending on where I am during the day? Do they then stay in that during the night? And would this be in my bedroom with me? When do they go in their own room and in their own cot?

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

BeansAndCheese · 18/12/2013 10:02

Moses basket or pram carrycot for downstairs. It is helpful to have somewhere safe to put them. Travel cots are handy too, and you can use them as playpens later. As to where (and if) they sleep at night, moses baskets are great or just put their cot in your room. As someone who swore the would never co sleep, I have to admit mine spent many a night sleeping next to me. Whatever gets you through the night!

Souper · 18/12/2013 10:24

Baby should sleep in the same from as you are for the first six months. So that means naps downstairs (if you are there!) and night times in your room.

fluffyraggies · 18/12/2013 10:38

I found a moses basket and the lay down carry cot bit on the pram were perfect. The moses basket can sit next to you on the sofa when you are sitting down during the day/evening with baby in it right next to you. Baby can sleep or look at you and you have him/her right there if he/she starts to cry. I used to take it upstairs with baby in and put it on the floor right by the open bathroom door while i had a shower in those first few days if i was alone in the house with baby. I could peep out of the shower and see that she was still asleep :)

The carry cot pram thing is just the same, made up into a little bed like the moses basket, but you can wheel it into the kitchen/dinning room, or just round the living room to be near you all the time. No need for carrying anything, and baby can stay asleep on the move.

You wont want to be far from your baby so i found i just carried baby upstairs in the moses basket at bed time, or if i wanted a lay down during the day, and put it right by the bed (on two low chairs) for the first few weeks.

Some folk co-sleep, or i believe you can buy small cots with one side out to have right against the bed at night, so you can lift baby to you during the night.

thecakeisalie · 18/12/2013 10:55

Just to warn you some babies refuse to sleep in a separate space. I spent the first 2 weeks with my ds1 trying to get him to sleep in a moses basket. It meant I was awake all night with him for the first couple of weeks. In the end I accepted that he simply did not like being in a moses basket. That's when I discovered co-sleeping and it was a sanity saver.

I co-slept with him until he was about 6 months old then we moved him into a cot in his own room. With ds2 again we tried a moses basket, swinging crib, bassinet style travel cot and he refused all of them. He would barely sleep in a sling right next to me during the day so once again we resorted to co-sleeping. We ended up getting a bedside cot from mothercare and it was the best money we spent.

This time I'll just be going straight to using the bedside cot at night and we'll see what happens during the day. Maybe we'll get a really chilled out baby this time who is happy to sleep in their own space but I won't be holding my breath!

neversleepagain · 18/12/2013 12:27

It all depends on the baby really. My babies slept in cots (I had one downstairs and one upstairs in our bedroom). In the day they slept in the downstairs cot and upstairs with us at night. At 6 weeks I put them both upstairs for day time sleep too. At 7 months they went into their own bedroom.

I wanted them to get used to sleeping in their cot from early on. Plus didn't want to spend money on various different types of baby equipment.

firstimer30s · 18/12/2013 13:08

www.mumsnet.com/reviews/nursery/cots-cribs-cotbeds/9963-arms-reach-universal-co-sleeper-bedside-cot

Hi Op,

I put up a post called "first six weeks, how did you cope" and someone helpfully posted this sleep solution (as well as lots of other solutions!)

Can't work out who to paste the thread link on here or I would, but it's very recent

MortifiedAnyFuckerAdams · 18/12/2013 13:14

I used a moses basket in the bedroom and the carrycot of her pram in the living room.

When she outgrew the.moses basket I used a travel cot for another month or so then she went into her own cot in her own room at about six months.

curlew · 18/12/2013 13:15

In your arms, in your bed, in a sling, in a Moses basket. In varying proportions.

princesscupcakemummyb · 18/12/2013 13:23

moses basket for downstair naps is what i do and have a crib upstairs how ever ds who is now 6 weeks co-sleeps mainly at night daytime tends to be naps in my arms mostly your dc should sleep with you in your bedroom for the first 6 months i have 3 children and each of them have slept in my room untill a year old or later this may not be everyones choice though

VoodooChimp · 18/12/2013 13:29

With DD I had her in a moses basket in my room until she grew out of it at about 3 or 4 months. TBH it was a pain as I ended up having an EMCS and couldn't lift her out of it in the night, so DH had to wake up and help me every time she wanted feeding.

PG with no 2 and this time I've hired a bednest from the NCT because I'm having an elective, and I'm hoping this will help with night feeding without having to get out of bed (maybe I'm being a bit optimistic here ).

Anyway what you pick will depend on many things like how you decide to feed your baby, how you want to go about night feeds, your baby's preferences, your birth (and some of these can be hard to predict).

cogitosum · 18/12/2013 13:34

Depends on the baby but all naps and sleep should be in the same room as you for first 6 months.

My Moses basket was resigned to scrap heap after the first week! Ds had all naps in the sling and at night is in the Nct cosleeper. This is still the case today although he does some naps in the co-sleeper if I'm tired as I'll lie next to him. It's handy as I can just get on with my day whilst he's in the sling. He also naps pretty well.

cogitosum · 18/12/2013 13:35

And voodooChimp the bednest is amazing! If ds wakes in the night and needs feeding I just roll him towards me then back. I can barely remember if he was up the next day!

VoodooChimp · 18/12/2013 13:38

Oh goody, thanks cogito that what I was hoping!

stinkingbishop · 18/12/2013 13:41

A manger?

Shellywelly1973 · 18/12/2013 15:48

Im very old fashioned & advice has charged dramatically in the last few years but my babies always were put to bed to nap.

I really can't imagine having a baby downstairs every evening for 6 months!!

I will wait & see with the new baby.

curlew · 18/12/2013 15:53

Really? My dd will be 18 on Saturday, and the advice I got was to keep her with me for the first 6 months.........

Creamycoolerwithcream · 18/12/2013 15:56

I did Moses basket in my room for the first few weeks. Then put the Moses basket in the cot in the baby's room for a few more weeks and then stopped using the Moses basket and baby slept in the cot. That was for DC1 and DC2. For DC3 I got a swinging crib which was really good. The crib was in my room for 2 weeks and then in baby's room.

TheRaniOfYawn · 18/12/2013 16:01

Cosleeper at night. For daytime naps, sling, arms, pushchair or cosleeper next to me. It's really common for babies to only sleep if someone is holding the four the first few weeks, so it's wise to allow for that in your planning.

springfling · 18/12/2013 16:21

I'm a first timer too and wondering what the reasons are for saying you should have your baby sleep in the same room as you? If at night your baby can sleep in a Moses basket/crib/cot in their own room, is there anything wrong with this? It's what I'd like to do ideally...

Creamycoolerwithcream · 18/12/2013 16:26

I think you will find it easier to share for the first couple of weeks because often the feeds are so close together you are up and down all night. Also you kind of just want to stare at your baby all night and check they are ok. I found once I got to just one feed a night I put them in their own room and used a baby listening device. I never did the co sleeping or heard of the six month thing though. You will just do what works for you.

Original poster

moomin35 · 18/12/2013 16:31

Hi everyone, thank you so much for all your replies :-) If baby were to go in the same room as me at night I'm guessing my partner would wake up too every time I end up feeding or every time baby cries. How did you all get around this?
I certainly plan to give BF a try but not sure how i'll get on, will I regret getting up each time to go to babies room to do a feed?

OP posts:

poorincashrichinlove · 18/12/2013 16:42

Bednest all the way for at night. I loved being able to gaze at my newborn and feel reassured he was so close by I could hear him breathe. Makes bf at night easier too.

stinkingbishop · 18/12/2013 16:44

The twins slept in the same basket (ah) for the first 4 weeks, in our room at night - so I could be paranoid and check them, plus for ease of feeding two, and in the lounge with me during the day.

They then started graduating as the poster mentioned from basket to basket in cot to cot.

Don't worry about your partner; mine had an amazing ability to sleep through not just them crying but me too!!!

MortifiedAnyFuckerAdams · 18/12/2013 16:47

Dont worry about dp. If they do wake they can do the winding or the bum change. Theyll soon «sleep through»

TheRaniOfYawn · 18/12/2013 16:56

The 6 month thing is to reduce the chance of cot deaths. When babies are born they aren't very good at breathing to start off with and stop breathing from time to time in their sleep. If they are near to an adult (or older child, I suppose) they are able to pick up the sound of the adult breaths and regulate their breathing.

Flip

1 2