Creating good sleepers... the million dollar Q!!

[ChicaMomma]

Here's a Q...

is there ANYTHING we can do while pregnant to 'create' good sleepers??
my first was a bit of a nightmare so i'd do ANYTHING to get a sleeper this time!!

the only thing Google is throwing back at me is that taking Omega 3 supps during pregnancy can help.. anyone else got anything?? Am i deluded? lol

While pregnant? Nope.

After they're out, I think the golden rule is 'put them down sleepy but awake, and give them a minute or two to self settle if they seem to wake up'

My little guy is six weeks and you can see him going into a lighter phase of sleep, stretching, making noises etc ... Most of the time he'll put himself back to sleep and of course if he doesn't I pick him up.

Early days... Hope he's a good sleeper :)

Nope, it's all just luck.

Skiptonlass I've also been told not to rock them entirely to sleep. My friend swears by it!

Luck i reckon. My first was an awful sleeper. I fed her to sleep, rocked her to sleep, let her sleep on me rather than putting her down. Serves me right, some might say.
My second is 4 months. I've used no 'sleep props'. Tried putting her down drowsy but awake from the beginning. Tried putting her down for all sleeps. Didn't go straight to her when she started to whinge. Awful sleeper. At 4 months has never slept longer than 3 hours in a row. At the moment wakes every single hour.

I'm not sure there's much you can do when pregnant, and it's probably down to luck but I had a really good sleeper - I put him to bed at 7pm every single night, never fed or cuddled to sleep, and let him self settle - and he was in his own room. I know that is against all the rules and I'm glad I don't have a young baby now . He woke once for a very quick night feed until he was 8 months and always slept 7pm - 7am (with two long naps each day as well ).

Whilst pregnant? No.
My first was awful but as she was my first I guess I pandered to her a bit. I tried very much to let her follow her own routine - and learnt my mistake the hard way!
So with number 2 (and consequently number 3) it was a strict routine the day they came home. Awake or tired - 6pm bath, 6.30pm feed, 7pm in bed. Dc2 wasn't the best sleeper but I think that's down to personality more then anything else

I didn't mean that if you do X as above it'll all be perfect ., :)

As with most things there's a lot of variation in kids. You can certainly encourage good sleep habits but there's going to be a wide spectrum of normal...

I heard this (probably rubbish) thing whilst pregnant with DS1 that baby in womb will get the relax vibes from you when you are relaxed and that if say you sit down to relax with the soaps at 7 your baby (in womb) will develop a pattern for being relaxed then.

Now im going to tell you what worked for me and what i would do if i had another baby.

Warm bath every evening after 6, snuggled up with bottle/breastfeed and then put down in cot whether awake or asleep for 7. To go in cot i always swaddled, turned lights out and no fussing. Ds1 slept from 7-7 from about 8/9 weeks. He has always been a brilliant sleeper.

For reasons yet unknown to me i did none of that with DS2 and he didnt sleep through until 16 months old, and is still in my bed every night at 6 years old, waking most nights at some point.

As i said, if i was to have another i would do the routine as with DS1. No idea about the baby in womb relax thing though

Meh... i think it's all down to luck even once they're out..

DS1 slept beautifully from the start- would sleep in 4 hour stretches as a breastfed newborn and self settle. I didn't do anything to encourage this... I just remember thinking.. hmm this baby lark is rather easy.. don't know why people make such a fuss..

Karma bit me in the arse with ds2... who didn't sleep through until 31/2, was in my bed till 2 1/2. As a newborn screamed blue murder if he wasn't held constantly, and for the first two weeks or so would only sleep on my chest... Given the chance, aged 6, i think he's still rather sleep in our bed...

As difficult as it sounds I really would just go with the flow and try not to get too stressed about patterns etc. At least with a first baby you don't need to get up early to get older dc to school- the only time ds was happily asleep was bloody 830 when i needed to do the school run- ugh!

I believe it is 100% down to your baby's personality. Mine was the only one in the post natal wars that didn't sleep for hours after birth (even though I'd had pethidine). He was literally feed/snoozing from birth to c. 3 months when he started to sleep for more than 10mins at a time. Bar some fairly hardcore sleep training (which isn't for me) I don't believe there is anything I could have done. He is still a fairly bad sleeper at 17mo. I'm pg with #2 and am completely prepared for round 2. I see it as these are the babies that would have survived in cave man days, they would never be too sleepy or too far away from mums cave-woman to be eaten by a bear. Anything that makes you feel ok about the prospect of never sleeping again!

I am hoping it will be third time lucky. DD and DS were/are terrible sleepers. Surely we will get a mythical 7-7 sleeper this time!

is there ANYTHING we can do while pregnant to 'create' good sleepers??

Buy:

• Dummies
• a Fisher Price bouncy chair

To Do:

• Rip a cot sheet in half along the short edge to make two long, thin perfect sized swaddle blankets for newborn.
• Remove one side off you cot using an allen key and butt it up to your bed, right from when first born.

DS was the boy who never slept. During pregnancy I did the whole sing, play music to my belly thing, yoga, meditation, you name it. He was usually very active at night. Difficult birth. When he was born his sleep patterns stayed the same as when he was on the inside. It took AGES for him to sleep a full night, would never settle if you left him to cry it out, loved to be rocked to sleep.

DD had none of this fancy music to the belly lark and I didn't have much time for yoga and whatnot. Think I was far more active just in day to day stuff 2nd preg. She was v wriggly on the inside but hardly ever at night. Easy birth. Same sleep patterns when born - great sleeper from early on, happy to get herself to sleep (prefers it to being rocked), naps during day. Marvellous!

TBH I'm not sure there's anything you can do to 'encourage' a certain sleep behaviour during pregnancy ... Maybe the in utero noise level or ease of birth made a difference? Is it because you're more anxious first time round? Both their sleep / wake patterns stayed the same inside / outside so maybe it just means that if you're lucky to have a baby who found themselves in a sleep / wake pattern that is relatively synchronised with yours then it'll be easier to manage than if you have to cajole a night-owl non sleeper into a different routine? Hmm

Good luck!!

Interesting WoweeZowee- funnily enough my sister said the very same as you- she did all the 'right' stuff on fit seems and also me, so far, i just dont have the time, DS1 is keeping me too busy) and lo and behold her DD2 was a champion sleeper.. so maybe i'll forget about pressurising myself into going to Yoga this time lol

I'm going to keep taking the Omega3s all the same though!