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Sleep

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Original poster

waking up searching for baby

51 replies

joannew26 · 07/02/2011 21:33

I have just had a baby 3 weeks old and on several ccasions now. I have woken up searching for her in my bed even thou she is save in her moses next to me. Even when my partner tells me she's ok she in her moses basket i still search for 30 secs afterwards. Should i be worried?

OP posts:

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AngryGnome · 08/02/2011 16:31

Yep, me too! It has become a bit of a running joke in our house that I wake up DH nearly every night yelling "Where's BabyGnome??!" Of course, the real annoyance is when this wakes up BabyGnome ......

Zimm · 08/02/2011 21:02

Oo goodie thought it was just us!!! Still do it sometimes..and she is 6m :-)

dollydimples · 08/02/2011 21:22

Yep I did this too. I remember the awful panic. I also used to wake up DH demanding to know where DD was.

MsScarlett · 08/02/2011 21:36

I do this all the time. Often I wake in a panic, ask dp where the baby is, he tells me she's in her moses basket, then I lie back down and go to sleep. Often I can't remember doing it so I think I actually do it in my sleep!

Worryingly though, I have fallen asleep with dd on my chest before, and this time instead of waking up wondering where she is, I have woken up, looked down and only when I've seen her there have thought, "Oh, there's the baby!" She was fine though!

Trillian42 · 08/02/2011 22:07

DD is 8 months now and it only stopped about 2 months ago! I was exactly the same, completely freaked out. I used to push my husband frantically, afraid she was trapped underneath him. It was truly horrible and you have my sympathies as I'll never forget the panic that I had so many times during the nights.

Halfbaked · 08/02/2011 23:56

I do this too! My DD is in a 3 sided cot, so kind of co-sleeping. I wake in a panic thinking she's under the duvet and then see her next to me.
I was completely freaked out last weekend as DH had taken her off for a nappy change when I was asleep. I felt physically sick when she wasn't there and my yelp brought DH with DD rushing back in. He was trying to give me a lie in!!

Elsa123 · 09/02/2011 12:58

Me too...I did exactly the same thing...a lot. One night I went to bed with a cold compress to soothe my 2nd degree tear and oke up in the middle of the night thinking my baby was cold and dead. DD was asleep in her bed next to me .

Honeybee79 · 09/02/2011 14:30

I do it too!
The other night I woke up thinking my hot water bottle was my 4 month old DS, that I had left him in my bed and the duvet had suffocated him. I put my ear to the hot water bottle and screamed when it wasn't breathing!

Whyriskit · 10/02/2011 09:38

All the time - though more so with DS1 than DS2. I remember chucking all the clothes out of the washing basket looking for him.

matana · 10/02/2011 22:30

I've woken up in a right panic when DH is giving me a break, having already told me he's taken DS downstairs for a couple of hours in the early hours of the morning. I've woken up competely disorientated for a minute or two, my heart pounding. I've also woken with a start from a dream that he's fallen out of my bed when he wasn't even in it!!

amyboo · 11/02/2011 11:14

Wow - I never knew other people did this as well! Me and DH both did it a lot when DS was born, especially after we moved him to his own room at about 9 weeks. I remember DH once sitting bolt upright in bed at about 3am in a panic because he couldn't find our DS (who was safely asleep in bed!). It got a lot better once DS started sleeping better at around 3 months.

FluteyBoots · 11/02/2011 11:19

Perfectly normal, I did it for months!

Drove DH potty, me scrabbling round the bed in the middle of the night, every night, saying where's the baby?

I was always sure DS was on his side of the bed, so used to shake him awake or start rooting around under his pillows.

It passes!

breatheslowly · 12/02/2011 11:19

I did the "where are the other babies" thing quite regularly when DD was tiny. I think I was quite relieved to find out that we just had DD.

Newmumlondon · 12/02/2011 18:53

Me too. I got dh hunting for her in the bed too. She was in her cot next to us.. Horrible, horrible feeling.

BeehiveBaby · 12/02/2011 19:08

Me too, also vivid dreams of losing her or her being replaced [shudder].

Sort of the opposite as well though once. DH often has DD3 from 8/9pm until 11pm so I can sleep, then tucks her in with me but I always say to really shake me awake so I'm aware of her. The other day he had to explain who he and DD3 were, so deeply asleep was I

chocolatchaud · 12/02/2011 19:11

It's a relief to know I'm not the only one! I used to rip the covers off and search frantically for DS1 when he was a baby, and be virtually hysterical by the time I found him fast asleep in his moses basket!

Funnily enough, it never happened with subsequent DCs - weird!

ecobatty · 12/02/2011 19:17

I read somewhere that the average mother of a newborn stirs to check on their dc about once every 3 minutes while asleep - and that's even if the baby is sleeping fine!

redandyellowandpinkandgreen · 13/02/2011 16:38

It's horrible, I always think he's under the pillow somehow and have a mad panic until I see him in his crib.

Men do it too. Yesterday I went to the loo and left DS in bed with DH and he said he woke up and thought DS was blue and reached to touch him and then realised he was warm and okay.

ApuskiDusky · 13/02/2011 16:43

Yes, happened every night for a year with ds1, and has never happened with ds2! How odd (very relieved, though, I hated it).

NorbertDentressangle · 13/02/2011 16:45

I used to do this all the time when the DCs were babies -frantically patting the bed down by my feet/legs trying to find them, or lifting the pillow.

In fact DP used to do it too. Did anyone elses DP?

pirateparty · 13/02/2011 16:46

Yes, me too. Really, really horrible though.

Didn't know so many others did it either.

TragicallyHip · 13/02/2011 16:48

Oh yes I used to do this, it would take me a minute to realise he was in the cot!

theresapotatoundermysink · 13/02/2011 16:54

I do this occasionally. Last week I woke up and looked under the bed...she was happily sleeping in her cot a few feet away!

doricpatter · 13/02/2011 17:12

Me too. The most awful panic imaginable. I hated it. Not sure about the every 3 minutes thing though. When DD was a few weeks old and I'd gone to bed with her, DP heard her crying and crying so he came upstairs thinking I was struggling to settle her. Nope, I was sound asleep next to her , so much so that I don't remember him even waking me, I just have to trust him that it happened! In my defence I hadn't had a full night's sleep for over 3 years by that point and having a newborn pretty much finished me off.

systemsaddict · 13/02/2011 17:15

I woke up one night not long after we'd moved ds upstairs, and found myself trying to feed the baby monitor... well, it was where the crying was coming from!

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