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

[JustineBMumsnet]

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

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

Every night is a new adventure, some she will sleep for 8 hours, others not at all. Same routine every night. Wish me luck tonight!

Like others, have been blessed with a good sleeper twice. Slept through V early. Loud little snorers though! So loud they wake themselves up. They slept well, me not so much. First couple of weeks, hardly slept, always feeding, gradually changed to why are they not waking me up?! Mums don't get much sleep either way when they have newborns!

Throw out the baby monitor, it will stop you jumping out of bed every time the baby snuffles, squeaks, farts, etc, it is disturbing your sleep. If baby needs you they will make themselves heard, they need to settle themselves after moving around and you are probably disturbing them more by running into their room and checking them.

Maybe I was blessed with good sleepers, but I tell all my minded families the same and they find their babies are generally a lot more settled when they aren't going to every squeak.

We share the night shifts in getting up with the little ones, its tough but getting better

nap when you can.try and be calm when they get scared In the night. when we were frustrated or anxious or got out of bed in tears when she yet again screamed she felt it too. rock with her and try and calm down with her.
don't think your doing it wrong if they conintue to cry.
don't think your wrong if yours only has 1 hour sleep 10 hrs screaming
be kind to yourself. don't compare or try magic cures or think your wrong basically.
this is a human and every single one is different. so find what works for your family and try to get help.
music lulabys helped.
when they've been going for hours its usually partly there distressed at being going for so long! so try to do something different.
and if they suddenly scream out try and wait a few before running in.once you come they wake. sometimes we found she just yelped out then went straight off. like "shit I'm alive out of mummy tummy...oh ok I can breathe" and went back to sleep

With my eldest, I spent 4 miserable months trying to convince her to sleep in a Moses basket. One night she dozed off laying next to me and it was like an epiphany. I asked my HV who told me off, I asked an online mum community (sadly not this one) who explained how to co-sleep safely.

When my second came along she was straight in a side car cot right next to me from day one. She's always slept wonderfully.

I regret not allowing my dd(6) those first 4 months of being close to me, it was all she wanted.

I've found getting into a routine as quickly as possible is best and even though it's hard don't lose hope that things will all eventually calm down. Have patience and it will all be worth the effort in the end.

When he hit 12 weeks, my little lad went through a phase of sleeping brilliantly, 7-10 hours. Then he hit four months and it all went pear shaped! He's gradually getting better again, although last night a few hours of his sleep involved him grunting and kicking me in the head...

No two are the same. My first slept great, the second was a nightmare. SO no plans for a third!

I think you have t snatch sleep whenever you can

My first was awful. Unless she was physically attached to me, she didn't sleep. At all. I had to co-sleep just to manage and I felt like I was doing everything wrong. But some babies are like that and hindsight has taught me that you have to adapt to whatever parenthood throws at you. There are no right or wrong answers and we need to forgive ourselves for the fact that our babies don't fit into the boxes that the baby books say they should.

they are all so different! my 3 all had their own routines and the best thing i did was just go with their flow but i do love the next to me crib for quick access to baby for feeding:)

Not getting much sleep my daughter as times wrong way round she sleeps all day then stays awake until 3am i try to keep her awake through the day but she just gets so upset and tired i let her go to sleep

I remember being so tired you can literally sleep anywhere and in any position, I've been asleep sitting bolt upright in bed only to be awoken by the other half

my babies have all tended to be very good sleepers i always kept them beside my bed in a moses basket so they were near.i also tried to catch a cat nap in the day if the previous night had been a bad one sleep when baby sleeps they say but i always found myself running round doing jobs lol.

change your expectations is my advice....you're not going to sleep much, find ways of coping!
Cook in bulk when you can, sleep whenever you can and know that it does get a little bit better...eventually...maybe..
my DD didn't sleep more than 45 min at a time until 18 months. I am still alive, just...

I found a musical night light was really good to 'train' both my children to sleep a night. Took a while but worth it long term.

My son barely slept at all for the first 2 years! I remember typing my University essays while sat on his nursery floor because he liked to be able to see me. It was only when he slept in his cot bed (without the cot bars!) that he finally slept!

We just didn't get any. By the time he had fed and been changed and finally settled he was awake again for another feed, it was terrible.

I just went with the flow and it worked with me. I did not stress about the sleep of lack of it, the more I was relaxed the baby became more happier

tried to sleep when the baby slept, but never really managed it

Get as much help as you can, and grab any shut eye during the day, especially in the first few months

best advice anyone gave me was to sleep when the baby slept, even if it was in the middle of the day! Especially if your baby doesnt settle or sleep well at night!

I remember the daze of my first night at home, I literally woke in a trance every few hours as husband handed baby to me! It's just a totally different way of like where you need to forget about jobs and house work and just sleep whenever you can!