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MNHQ

Tell Fairy Non Bio about your experience of sleep with a new baby - £300 voucher to be won NOW CLOSED

208 replies

JustineBMumsnet · 01/12/2016 13:19

As part of our new partnership with Fairy Non Bio, we’ve produced our first ever Mumsnet Babies Podcast. There are ten episodes in the series and so far we’ve released five. Episode two is about sleep, and you can listen to it here . Fairy Non Bio would like you to listen to the podcast whenever you can, and then discuss your experiences of sleep with a baby.

An unbroken night of slumber is the holy grail of parenthood - but it’s often difficult to actually achieve. Fairy Non Bio would like to hear about your experience of sleep with a new baby. Did your baby miraculously sleep through from 3 months? Or was your experience much more of a struggle? Do you have expert tips on getting your child to sleep for that precious extra half an hour, or perhaps on how to cope through bleary-eyed days when you feel like you didn’t sleep at all?

Whatever your experience, share it with Fairy Non Bio by posting on the thread below.

Everyone who posts on the thread will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 Love2Shop voucher.

If you want to rate the Mumsnet Babies Podcast, please go to the iTunes store and add a review!

Thanks, and good luck with the prize draw!

MNHQ

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Tell Fairy Non Bio about your experience of sleep with a new baby - £300 voucher to be won NOW CLOSED
OP posts:
iut044 · 08/12/2016 13:04

Sleep something that is very nice!

redbook · 08/12/2016 13:27

At 3, my DS still doesn't sleep well. I wish I wasn't so hung up about it when he was tiny and just gone with the flow. Who knows if that would have made a difference, but at least I wouldn't have been stressing about it.

happysouls · 08/12/2016 13:58

Zombie state! But I was very lucky that I had a big happy baby who seemed to progress really quickly and at 3 weeks old was usually sleeping for 6 hours solid! I was still knackered though, I don't know how Mums manage really as I can't cope with anything when I'm tired!

rachelmi · 08/12/2016 14:06

I just remember a few short weeks ( that at the time felt like years ) of having little sleep and feeling very odd in the day. Tried to sleep whenever baby did .

julieef · 08/12/2016 14:20

Very hard and very tirying, I learned after the first one to not spoil them and get them into a routine

cathasach1983 · 08/12/2016 14:42

I make sure that the little sleep I DO get is as deep and restful as possible, so always ensure I've got nice soft, clean bedding on and that I don't use my phone or tablet in there. Asides from that it's just mind over matter and adapting as well as you can!!

phillie1 · 08/12/2016 15:18

Had to just sleep whenever we could. After asking the doctors for sleeping piils for her when she was 6 years old! as we still didnt get any sleep, only advice he could give to us keeping our sanity, was to leave her with someone else and get away for a few nights. Absolute heaven, but the grandparents refused to have her overnight again!

Maclairey · 08/12/2016 15:29

Both of mine have been and still are awful sleepers. There were times, I could barely function I had been up so many times in the night. I breastfed too so they fed frequently in the early days. Many a night was had with me in tears due to tiredness. The only way i could cope was to try and forget about the non essential stuff. Housework went out the window, I cooked easy food and tried to not worry about that stuff.

Even now, my 3.9 year old comes into my bed every single night and my 18 month old wakes twice a night. I look forward to the day when everyone sleeps in their own bed and stays asleep the whole night.

But then we are going to ttc no 3 soon so that wont be for a while!

iwanttoridemybicycle · 08/12/2016 15:33

Don't believe anyone who tells you how their baby is an amazing sleeper!

Dailymaildailyfail · 08/12/2016 15:39

Sleep? What's that? 6 months in with twins and I've had none. Both are exclusively BF so it's been 6 months of cat naps and coffee, and countless tanks of petrol as DH aimlessley does loops of the village to try and get them to sleep! I try and implement a lovely bed time routine with a lovely bath, fluffy towels and nice dim lights. But both still wake up every 3-4 hours for a feed, and even worse not at the same time. Hoping this year for a Christmas I might get some sleep!

sarahbrokenshire · 08/12/2016 16:14

I havent had too much of a 'bad' experience as my husband helps alot with the night feeds and now he sleeps straight through unless he is teething. Teething is no fun lol x

IonaAilidh11 · 08/12/2016 16:32

my three had a good routine, would sleep anywhere not all the time but lucky i guess

LittleMoonbuggy · 08/12/2016 16:36

All babies are so different.

One of mine was a terrible sleeper and barely slept day or night for the first 6 months. The other was a dream, self settled and was sleeping through from about 2 months old.

White noise is useful for getting them to sleep and staying asleep.

sarah861421 · 08/12/2016 16:48

so so hard. Be strong and eventually they settle but dont let them get distressed. They need to be secure that they are safe but not spoilt

jacqui5366 · 08/12/2016 17:36

From my experience no baby is ever the same, my first had a gentle calming down night time, bath, breast, burped and bed. We had lights down low, and kept to a routine, after a few weeks of this he was sleeping through, I did try the leave to cry technique but that did not work, he got so upset that he vomited everywhere. My second was a different kettle of fish, he would not go to bed, and his crying would wake my first child up. We got around this by putting number 1 to bed, letting number 2 fall asleep in the front room, then carrying him up to bed, he always slept with the night light on which comforted him if he woke. You just get through it the best you can, there is nothing quite the same as being so exhausted you feel nauseous, so in my opinion do what works, they will eventually sleep through.

Ikea1234 · 08/12/2016 17:51

Just be kind to yourself; you're a new mum, not superwoman, and remember that sleep deprivation is used as a form of torture.....don't worry if you take an afternoon nap, don't take baby's sleep time as an opportunity to do the washing up, and eat the odd take away if you're too tired to cook!

And so ends the lecture 😀

NickyEds · 08/12/2016 18:06

Apart from a nightmare spell when ds was 7 months old and the very early days when dd was new born, my two have been good sleepers I think. It's a good job as I can't have caffeine any more as it makes me ill since having kids!

DinosaursRoar · 08/12/2016 18:07

DC1 slept through at 8 weeks. I was Mrs Smug McSmugton of Smug town. He got up early, but slept. DC2 is 3.5. She's slept through less than 5 times in her life. I am considerably less smug and far more tired. Not so bad now she can just potter into our room at around midnight and climb in, better than having to drag my arse out of bed to deal with her.

The whole 'sleep when the baby sleeps' thing works fine if you only have the one child. When you have an older one who has to go to pre-school/school, who needs feeding and supervising/entertaining when the baby sleeps, it's a lot harder. DC2 often slept on the walk to/from preschool for DC1.

beckyinman · 08/12/2016 18:47

What is sleep?

cocochips · 08/12/2016 19:26

Very disrupted!

arat · 08/12/2016 19:32

Sleep deprivation was the hardest part of having kids! Until you experience it first-hand, it's difficult to understand quite how much it can affect every aspect of your like. For both DCs it took about 6 months before DH or me got anything like a good nights sleep!

twinklenicci · 08/12/2016 20:02

i have 3 children who were all great sleepers as new borns but each one as they turn about 6 months have been dreadful at sleeping. My youngest is 3 and shes still poor with her sleep.

mave · 08/12/2016 20:02

My daughters were both breastfed and took a while to sleep through!! My first took about 4 months but my second daughter took 12 months!! Having babies is exhausting!

glennamy · 08/12/2016 20:55

I think the best advice I could give is to sleep when the baby does, the other things that need doing are far less important than getting good sleep!

BL0SS0M · 08/12/2016 21:29

Both my babies slept through the night from 4 weeks thankfully as i really need my sleep. The youngest slept on my chest every night for about 3-4weeks as i was worried i couldn't see her in the moses basket. My partner didn't sleep a wink as he was terrified she would fall. But he noticed that when she moved slightly I would automatically move my arms around her even though i was asleep!