STM: Sleep Pattern

dawnmckinstry · July 2013

I'm a FTM, and I'm curious, did your baby's sleep pattern in utero translate at all to their general pattern after birth? This baby is a great night sleeper, generally only waking up once a night when my bladder is full. Can I expect her to sleep through the night pretty quickly once she's out and gets settled in the world? Or does it change completely?

shelley1002 · July 2013

Nope. DS had day/night confusion. He slept most of the day and was up most of the night. Movement never kept me up at night so it seemed like he slept at night but he didn't. It takes a few weeks for the day/night confusion to go away.

Scientist23 · July 2013

My kid was up every 2 hours no matter what time of the day to eat for 6 months.

SuperTreesa · July 2013

Maybe, but there are some major differences between in utero and outside baby. The major difference is that your baby right now is never hungry. It is being fed nonstop. Outside babies wake up so often because they are hungry. Truthfully, I wouldn't put much stock in the babies inside behavior and how it will translate outside. It's completely different.

SnoopyLuv · July 2013

Yep, DD1 was asleep during the day and partying all night. I dealt with that for 10 weeks. This one is seeming to be the same.

RebC1981 · July 2013

Ha! Don't count on it. You should not let an infant go more than 3 hrs without a feeding anyway. My kid was BF'd and did not STTN till 4 or 5 months.

dawnmckinstry · July 2013

Thanks for the feedback ladies! And yes, I was asking OTHER THAN feedings, obviously. I know she'll need to eat every two hours or so. ;;)

MrsMommyQ · July 2013

There were some things that translated from womb to outside baby but NOT sleep. DD got the hiccups daily inside and then when she was born she got them ALL the time too.

As for sleep--each baby is so different. DD was a really good sleeper right away. At 2 weeks old she'd sleep for 4-5 hours straight during the day and the pedi was making us wake her to feed her. Eventually that 4-5 hour stretch happened at night. She slept through the night at 7 weeks (from 10pm to 6 am).

RedZee · July 2013

I kind of found this whole thing stressful the first time. I heard it so many times that I was trying to keep track of what times I felt kicks. There was some consistency in utero, but even if it meant anything for her as an outside baby it wouldn't have mattered. Everything is different. You need to feed the baby, you have other things that you have to do, the baby is stimulated in so many different ways that it's not just based on his/her internal schedule anymore.

DD was a great sleeper for the first 3 months. She was sleeping for a 6 hour stretch (that's considered STTN for a BFd baby) by about 6 weeks. Life was great. At our 3 month appointment, our ped said "The bad news is all you can do now is mess up." The next week she quit sleeping altogether. If someone mentions sleep around her now she says, "I hate sleeping." She literally slapped herself in the face to keep herself awake by 6 months.

My best advice on sleep is to read Ferber's chapter on infant sleep (any approach to getting a kid to sleep refers to this information) so that you have an idea of what most people believe about infant sleep. Then just realize that nothing works like they books say and that every kid is different and you'll figure out what works for your family.

StayingSecret · July 2013

In my experience, it's random. In the womb, baby has all kinds of sounds and rocking movements. Outside the womb, totally different sounds, different lights and no near-constant rocking.

It's like playing ring toss - never know where you're going to land.

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STM: Sleep Pattern

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