Where should a newborn sleep and in what?!

[moomin35]

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?

But avoid winding and nappy changing at night as much as possible........

I also never put the light on at night.

After about 2 weeks ds never pood at night so we didn't do nappy changes.

Dh doesn't tend to wake up as ds doesn't really cry at night. I just wake up when he does.. Not sure how. I think it's to do with Breastfeeding hormones.

The 6 month thing is to reduce cot death risk. Loads of people ignore it and obviously most babies are fine but I'd do anything to reduce the risk personally (I'm quite paranoid) even though it's tiny.

I don't think I'd sleep without him next to me anyway!

I found that when I slept next to a baby I was so aware that I would wake up just before he or she did, so there wasn't generally much crying during the night.

Curlew im so old I had my first 2 dc in the late 80's!

Wherever they will! Ds slept on dh for the first 10wks, then eventually allowed himself to be put in his very expensive bednest. He'd only sleep on someone for naps for a long time. Dh did every bum change (he pooed at night for a long time) after I'd done the feed :)

I think that is the point actually. Find where the baby will sleep and go with that. It's not where they should but where they will. The fewer "shoulds" in your mind for the first few weeks the better. I suspect most of the exhausted, unhappy new mothers on here are in th place they as mostly because of "shoulds". Be a hippy!

I read somewhere that the reason behind sleeping in the same room as you is so they can hear your regular breathing so they can match it and this is why it prevents cot death. Sure it was on some cot death website I read this!

Very good point a bout thinking in terms of where a baby will sleep instead of where a baby should sleep. Some baby's are easier then others. My dd1 only slept in a sling. Ds3 slept anywhere...he was like a little cat.

The first 3 months sleep becomes so important to me...

You do get used of it. Before this current pregnancy I learnt to manage on 5/6 hours sleep. Im really struggling with that amount of sleep now but hopefully once the baby arrives I will get used of it again.

Best of luck!

Depends on what you feel is right, and what your baby wants.

Ds3 would only sleep next to me at night, and held by me during the day. He now (18 months later) sleeps for 2 hours in the afternoon, and 7-7 at night (in his cot).

Ds1 and ds2 slept in Moses baskets at first, but neither of them liked it, and settled much better in a cot.

It depends if you are Finnish (or if your baby is) in which case it will sleep in a cardboard box

www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22751415

The main thing is that the baby is near you as the sound of your breathing reminds the baby to breathe. or something. For 6 months.

you can put the baby in anything clean, if (s)he doesn't need to sleep on you: any nice basket or box or carry cot or pram or drawer or whatever; or if the baby refuses to be separated from you, a mei tai in the day and safe co-sleeping at night (safe co-sleeping is to do with preventing suffocation, research this so you know what to do in advance instead of passing out without knowing)

Oh my god is that true they really have their babies sleep in a box?! That would be a good cost cutting measure!!!! :-)

I had a fantastic very small futon mattress. We took it everywhere with us, put it down in a corner and voila! Baby sleeping place.

My baby is now 4 months and I wasn't prepared for the fact that she only wanted to sleep near me. She screamed for the first two nights when placed in her Moses basket and seemed to want to feed continuously at night (she wasn't hungry) she wanted me. We co slept and now she is sleeping in her own cot. I also learnt to bf lying down which meant that if I fell asleep I wouldn't crush my own baby.