Does a mums sleep pattern before birth determine the babies pattern once born?

[chickywiggle]

hi,

 

interesting his - i was talking to a collegue at work who said her friend used to work night shifts while pregnant - now she has a really hard job getting her baby to sleep at night. another person stayed in bed for almost the whole of her pregnancy (sleeping) and her baby has slept through the night virtually since birth.

 

Would love to find out if their is actually a pattern here. Has anyone else experienced this? were u a bad sleeper at nights and now so is your baby? did u have early nights and late mornings and now have a nice sleepy baby?

 

Please let me know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

P.S. This isn't official reasearch (not gonna be used for a disertation or anything), just thought it'd be interesting!

[scoop]

I have a theory that babies born at night or in the early hours will find it difficult to sleep at night (like mine).

Having said that I also worked nightshifts when I was pregnant so your theory could also follow!

[Zebra]

I'm a bit of a raging insomniac and I wondered the same thing, based on when my babies were active inside me.

Well, for the first few weeks they were same as any other baby and 24 hours was a bit of a free for all time wise. Some babies are lseeping longer periods by then, not ours. And we were exhausted.

At 10 weeks we started with strict bedtimes and a diurnal routine, adhering to the normal stuff people do during daylight and maximising sunlight etc during the day to help establish routine.

It worked pretty well, they soon got into a solid bedtime routine and sleep quite thoroughly, unlike me though, they like to be up early and I'm still an insomniac. One of them does do a bit of a song and dance routine around midnight at the moment but I can attribute that to a self developed routine whilst she was ill just after the last jabs but she'll get over it - back to the sleep training thing again.

So, I think it's entirely possible that it does affect them, after all, if you have adrenlin coursing through you at 3am due to work - that's going to affect your baby. Plus there are certain hormones in your body released at certain times of day - hence people having weight and depression issues who work nights.

[alirosdan]

When I was pregnant with my eldest, I worked nights. When he was born, he was awake more during the night than the day for the first 3 months.

 

When I was pregnant with my second, I no longer woked nights and had a 'normal' sleep pattern (ie 6-8 hours from 11 pmish). I could guarantee that as soon as I went to bed, he would start jumping around. When he was born, we became nocturnal for almost 6 months - it drove me nuts!

 

They were born at 5.20pm and 11.10am respectively so I don't think the time of their birth had any bearing on their sleep pattern.

 

If I had still worked nights I would have been convinced that your theory was correct, but I think (certainly with my youngest) that their own sleep pattern continues when they are born.

[chickywiggle]

.

 

If I had still worked nights I would have been convinced that your theory was correct, but I think (certainly with my youngest) that their sleep pattern continues when they are born.

 

that definatly seems the case. anyone else with a tale to tell???????????

[roslynrosie]

i have 4, so plenty of experiance, i myself have a bit of insomnia so dont sleep that much (ic comes and goes for days ,weeks sometimes months) and all 3 (4 is just 9 weeks) have been great sleepers, it really is a matter of routine, and personal baby preferance, if he is tyred he will sleep, but if he is irratated in any way he wont. stressing out about it will not help as they pick up on it and stress you out more.

[clareyfairy]

The baby sleep while the mother is moving around. So if the mother was working the nightshift the baby will have been asleep in the night.

[roslynrosie]

good point, they sleep better to movement than they do being still inside and outside.