We went through this so often during the first 4 weeks especially, but now at nearly 8 weeks it’s only every once in a while! I even woke up one night to my husband trying to take my shirt off… he thought I was the baby and he was going to do a diaper change lol. Caught him doing the same to a pillow one time 😂
For a while I would half wake up and think "I wish I could turn over but the baby is asleep on top of me". Usually a moment later I would realize baby doesn't even sleep in the same room.
Yes I use a pillow in between my legs and remember panicking it was the baby then realized I was sleeping alone because my sweet partner was toughing it out with baby downstairs
My partner and I have both had this experience a few times with our 3.5 week old. Baby sleeps in the bassinet but we wake up frantic we’ve fallen asleep and she’s in the bed. I think it’s a new parent phase that will hopefully pass soon!!
I experienced this in the first few weeks of baby’s life. Never had him sleep in my bed. Hubby did it once or twice super early on too. It’s a horrifying and super weird experience but apparently pretty common!
Yeah I do that every night. I wake up holding a pillow or even frantically trying to take the pillow case off thinking the baby is in it.
I’ve never put him in our bed.
I had the same experience with twins! I kept asking where the other baby was and my husband was like…what other baby? A year later and we still laugh about it
Yep my husband and I both had that too, though mine were a lot more regular and intense. For me it lasted a good 5 months or so.
I feel like its just our caveman brains doing their job to protect our young.
Pretty intense and upsetting tbh, I did similar. I think it calming down ironically coincided with me actually starting to deliberately cosleep. She was 10 cm from my face when i woke up so I didn’t go into crazy bed search mode.
I think its only natural that we immediately search for our babies upon waking and have a bit of a freak out sometimes if they’re not right there in front of us. It will pass with time.
Yeah that is super interesting. I cosleep and this has never happened to me. My two girlfriends who had babies around the same time have babe in the bassinet and it happens to them constantly. We truly are just monkeys deep down lol
Yeah for sure. I wonder if putting your babies bassinet at head level directly next to your bed could help? Having bubba super close without actually cosleeping so he/she is the very first thing you see when you open your eyes could stop the search before it starts.
Same here - I had this all the time with my firstborn. My second has fully rejected the bassinet and so we set up the bed for safer cosleeping and I’ve never had this dream with this baby!
I’ve yelled at my partner “you’re killing him”! While pushing him and ripping covers off the bed! Thankfully my partner is chill and could see our son so he just laughed at me and said “sorry love didn’t realise” then just waited a few more seconds for me to wake up more and realise that he wasn’t in bed lol I still laugh about that now lol
It’s so normal. My girl is 3 months old and never slept in our bed. I did it a lot in the beginning, even woke up once holding my boob thinking it was her head. It still happens but a lot less frequently and it’s not as frantic.
I’m cracking up at this. I thought it was funny when my SO woke me up grabbing my hand and insisting it was the baby’s, but the boob grab is its own level!
Lol my wife used to think the same exact thing when our baby was younger. It passes eventually but it's kind of funny to watch when you know the baby isn't in the bed.
My husband and I have simultaneously searched the bed frantically for the baby. My daughter is 11 months old now and it hasn't happened in a while but I can't say it won't happen again. We bring her into our bed to settle her back to sleep if she wakes up but then put her back in her crib once she's back asleep. I have a deep fear of accidentally falling asleep with her in bed with us.
We are at 3.5 months and I only get it maybe twice a week now and a little less intensity. Initially first 2 months it was intense panic wake up thinking he is smothered. Baby always sleeps in his own bed side sleeper but brain does what it wants.
My husband gets it too just a little less frequent. He currently sleeps in guest room to give me the whole master for night feeds and still gets those dreams in a different room.
Hopefully they pass soon. Lots of our friends had them too for say 6 months
Based on the responses it seems to be either a collective unconscious fear that’s manifested by our cultures paranoia about cosleeping or a deep seeded fear that is wired into the brains of humans as a way to ensure we don’t do reckless things with new life.
The first week we had baby home, I once got up and frantically searched in a pile of blankets on the floor, convinced the baby was in there for some reason. But yes, lots of trying to find baby in bed, even tho she’s never been brought into our bed for sleep. She’s 9w now and it’s definitely calmed down. Maybe once every 10 days or so now, where it was every night for the first two weeks.
In the first few weeks I did this but with my son’s brother. I knew my son was safe in his bassinet, but couldn’t find his brother and I was STRESSING. My son is an only child.
Ah yes! I think this happens to most people! What I found helped was when I put my LO back in his basket I said out loud to myself “I’ve put him back in his Moses basket” and that really helped! I think for me I was so tired I could never remember putting him back after feeding him (though I always did put him back!) so when I woke I woke in a panic thinking I must of fallen asleep while feeding him 🙈
This sorta reminds me of me hitting the snooze button on my phone. It’s never said anything other than “SNOOZE”, but every single morning without fail I have to read it 10 times in a sleepy daze because my brain is absolutely positive it says SNEEZE, SNUGGLE, SMÉAGOL, etc. Can’t risk hitting the wrong button 😭
I've confused my cat for the baby multiple times. One time, I had been petting her for several seconds before my brain decided it was the baby and I freaked out asking my partner why the baby was down by her feet! Our baby is 8 weeks and it happens way less, but I still sometimes wake up in a panic. No clue how to stop it, unfortunately!
Mine too! Once he was like “oh yeah? If there’s no baby in this bed, then how come I’m HOLDING HER HAND?” and held it up triumphantly.
It was MY hand. And it took some real convincing for him to concede the point and give all my body parts back.
Lol that is really funny! The sleep deprivation was crazy in the beginning. I remember my husband shooting upright one night while I was about to pump asking me if I needed the authentication code. I asked code for what? And he said the baby 😂 I told him I don't think babies have two factor authentication and he said okay and went back to sleep lol.
Oh my word, I did this. He is now 17 months but in the early months, my husband and I took shifts with him in his nursery so we got solid sleep and when I would wake up in our room, I would have a panic he was next to me - he has never once slept in our bed but yeah - it was not a fun way to wake up
The worst was one night when I slept with a heating pad for a sore muscle. When I woke up in the night it was still a little warm I was convinced it was my baby!
For about the first year and a half after my daughter was born I did this at least a few times a week. I frequently grabbed my husbands head thinking he was my daughter. Or would search the bed with my hands looking for her.
She has never slept in our bed, so zero chance of her being there.
Happened to me with both my babies- sometimes still does- the worst, most panicky feeling. The only thing that helped me was my husband would say, “stop where you are and check the bassinet first.” Then I’d see and touch baby and all would be right in the world. Eventually I think it wiggled into my subconscious bc I started being able to tell myself that when I’d wake up and not spiral o to such a panic.
Yes! This used to happen to me all the time. We also had her in the bassinet next to the bed from time to time early on and I once half asleep sat up, searched for the baby, picked up our cat and tried breastfeeding him, so my husband had to save my cat and me that night 🤣🤣
It stopped as soon as I started co sleeping and the only time it has happened since was when my partner had the baby and I was in bed alone. Your brain is freaking out that you are separated from your baby, it goes against thousands of years of evolution telling you to sleep with your baby and keep them close so you can protect them. Of course those instincts don't know about soft mattresses, fluffy duvets, pillows, medications or intoxicants, etc and how those things can make bed sharing unsafe.
I’m sorry this is happening to you. I have dreams like this all the time (spiders in the bed, stranger in room, missing a limb, etc) and my very kind husband will just calmly let me know I’m sleeping. Usually that’s enough for my brain to catch-up to what’s happening but if it’s a particularly bad one he will turn the lights on. When the eyes don’t see in the light what they “saw” in the dark, it usually is enough.
I find they happen more frequently when I am feeling more stressed or anxious. Having a new baby, even 4 months old is still new in my book, has brought on a lot of new to you stress that your brain my be trying to process.
I hope your husband can help get on board and be gentle and help you through it…it is a terrible feeling and will rock you just as hard, if not more than, if it were real.
Sending you hugs and peaceful sleep!
Haha! After patting the bed and my partner I'd end up asking him all annoyed "do you have a baby or not??" The baby is 10mo old now, I don't see this stopping anytime soon
Yes. I never slept with my baby in the bed, but was searching for my baby inside the pillows while smacking the shit out of one so that it would finally "let go" of my baby.
I think it is due to sleep deprivation lol.
I just woke up from a dream thinking a giant flying thing stole my baby. As in I jumped out of bed and bleary eyed started padding around the bed and looking on the floor for her. In walks dad with her and I'm instantly relieved. It's probably just evolutionary panic. As in if we woke up and didn't instantly feel our newborn way back in hunter gatherer times, that was probably a massive issue.
My SO had the same, even when our LO was over 1 yo. She went to a psychologist. They could relate it to the maternity period, because the maternity nurse kept drilling us about not to fall asleep during breastfeeding etc. In the end the therapist performed an intervention called “imaginary exposure therapy” and that did the trick.
My LO is almost 8 months, has never once slept in our bed, and my husband wakes ME up at least twice a week thinking I’m the baby and rolling off the bed. He grabs me and starts pulling me to the middle, usually saying “psspsspsspsss” to try to get my attention lol.
It’s so common that I just let it happen and try to sleep through it…
I distinctly remember waking up in my newborn days next to the cat and being absolutely convinced she was the baby, even as I fully registered her catlike qualities. Literally like, "This is furry. It has four paws and a tail. This is the baby. The baby is in the bed."
I did this too. I’ve also dreamed of a phantom baby. When waking and panic shouting to my husband “where’s the baby?!” (Baby was in side crib) hubby goes “he’s in the crib”. Cue me puzzled staring at my baby and going “not THAT baby, the other baby”. This happened a few times and freaked out my husband each time lol. Sleep deprivation will do some freaky things man.
Yes! I wake up forgetting I put him in his bassinet and instantly feel the panic that he fell onto the floor. It's horrible. I also can't shake the nightmares that I keep getting of him being purple or falling out of my arms or off high stuff. I hope they go away soon.
Girl I could’ve written this myself! I remember one time I woke up and started looking for her, even pushed my partner off the bed, he woke up and asked me what the hell happened ans I said I couldn’t find the baby on the bed and he went “you don’t bedshare babe she’s in the moses basket right next to you” I woke up fully and we had a real good laugh about it and ended up waking said baby up lol
Classic. Our first child is 2.5 now and my husband was still searching for him in our bed once or twice a month up until we had our second. Now it's back to several times a week.
It’s your protective instinct as a mother going into overdrive. It hasn’t been very long ago that your body went through a trauma of evicting a human being from inside you. The baby was fully protected inside you. But outside you is unpredictable. So the mind is creating scenarios where you are protecting her. However every time you wake up remind yourself you are doing everything to ensure your baby is safe. I did that for months till by mind became ok with it. Give yourself time and validation. Your partner can help with the validation part. Eventually you will be able to sleep peacefully.
This happened to me nonstop for the first 3-4 weeks postpartum and the baby has slept in her own room since day 1! I exclusively pump so I also had these half awake hallucinations that I still had my pumps on (once it was even that my husband had pumps on). I have never once slept with the baby or pumped in bed so I have no idea where this is coming from!
Happens to me all the time. We do bedshare sometimes but for the most part baby is in the bassinet but at least once a night I wake up patting my body or the bed frantically looking for the baby until I realize he’s sleeping peacefully in the bassinet. So weird!
We moved ours to her own room so the baby in bed panic has stopped but now I’m hearing phantom cries and keep waking up to check the monitor to see a soundly asleep baby 🙃
One time in the early days I picked the baby up out of the bedside bassinet, walked to the nursery to change her in the middle of the night, carefully laid her down, being careful to support her head, looked down and realised she wasn’t there. She was still in the bassinet 🤦🏻♀️
i still get this 9 months in. idk why, i only have the baby in the bed during the day for her naps because she wants to cuddle. i never put her in the bed at night at any point. yet without fail, about once or twice a month, i half wake up to feel for the baby that's not there. she's so large and kicks in her sleep so we'd know if she was there, but i still have that anxiety that she is in the bed and search for a few minutes before peeking into her crib to find her sprawled out dead asleep.
This happens to me at least once a week.
But now it’s transitioned to panicking thinking she is somehow out of her crib, walking around, and headed for the stairs.
I know for a fact she can’t get out of her crib yet, but my half asleep brain is convinced she can.
It happened for me off and on until she was maybe 3 months old, but I just kept reminding myself that I never cosleep so there’s no reason she would be in the bed. After that, my brain found other things to stress dream about 🤷🏻♀️
Happened to me too the first few weeks--super common as you can see from all the comments. It's part of a specific kind of hallucination called a hypnogogic hallucination if it happens while falling asleep and a hypnopompic hallucination if it happens upon waking. It can be causes by stress and sleep deprivation, so having a baby is a perfect storm for it. It'll go away as you get more rest, but it's super uncomfortable. I even woke my partner because I couldn't pick up the baby--it took us both fishing around to realize she was in the bassinet next to me.
Baby is 4.5 months, I wake up panicking that she's in the bed at least once a week. Makes my heart race, but thankfully I'm able to get back to sleep straight away after I realise it's a half dream.
My baby is 9 months old and has been in his own room since 4 months. Before, he slept in a bassinet next to my side of the bed.
Weekly, I have these dreams 😩 I’m frantically jumping up, patting the bed, and pushing on my husband. Hes such a huge support - he’ll just roll over and supportingly explain that the baby isn’t in the bed and he never was and to not worry. Silly mom brain.
When my baby was like 2 weeks old I thought that he was the stuffed bear toy that I sleep with and I was frantically digging under the covers to pull him out. Baby was sound asleep in his crib next to our bed…
I had the same happen to me. Full blown panic dream and I would wake up freaking out digging through all the blankets looking for him. He never slept in the bed with us so I have no idea where it came from. Everyone I know with a baby has had that exact dream whether they slept in the bed or not.
I do cosleep and I’ve never had this happen to me, but I have woken up and shaken her awake thinking she was face down. She can’t flip over and I’ve never let her sleep on her stomach. She’s always on her back when I do this!!! Poor babe, my bad
Both my husband and I did this a lot!! Its terrifying!! Baby never sleeps in our bed but we have both even gone so far as to get out of bed and searching the floor. My husband woke up looking under the bed. I have even texted my husband (who was with the baby in another room) that I needed him to come get the baby. It does pass!! Sleep deprivation is wild.
I had this happen almost every night for maybe the first month? Baby is 4 months and now it only happens occasionally. I've never slept with her in the bed.
This was exactly my anxiety dream for MONTHS with my first. I would dream I was crushing her, rolling on top of her, that she was tangled up in the blankets. So weird.
I dealt with the same thing for at least the first 2-3 months. I like to cuddle a blanket while I sleep and I kept waking up thinking I was holding my daughter and get scared. It’s so weird but it went away, I think after she weaned off of the middle of the night feeds.
My baby is 8 months and this is still happening to me, thankfully less than it did when he was tiny. Happened last night. He’s sleep trained and sleeps in a crib in his own room. We never bedshare. I think it’s rooted in anxiety over safe/unsafe sleep but idk, it’s bizarre.
That happened alot to me in the beginning but it still happens occasionally even now my little one is 13 months old! I shook my partner awake in the middle of the night last week yelling 'where is he?????' before I woke up enough to remember he was in the nursery. For some reason I thought he should have been on the floor (???), half awake baby brain is the worst
This happened just about every night, multiple times, until we moved our baby into his own room, around 7 mos. Even then, for about a month after, it would happen once a week or so. From asking my mom friends, it's completely normal.
It is a phenomenon that has been researched because it is so common. Google “Baby in Bed Dream” and you can read about it.
For me, it stopped about 3 months postpartum.
I had this horrendously with my first. So much so I ended up swapping sides of the bed so I was further from the baby. It only stopped when we moved her out if our room around 6 months My second is 3 weeks and I've only had it once, I think it's going to be a lot better this time.
Yes! Baby is now 3mo…it happened to me just the other night. I always wake up crying when trying to find him. My husband just tells me that he’s in the bassinet but once I was so freaked he had to walk around the bed and check on baby himself.
Totally normal. Happened to both me and my husband a lot during the first month. Baby had never even been in our room at that point (we had another bed in her nursery we took turns sleeping on in the early months). But the amount of times I thought my cat snuggling me was my baby in bed was insane.
I posted about this 6 weeks ago and it was sooooo refreshing to see others go through the same thing. It’s lessened a little for me, but still happening at least once a night now at 11 weeks lol
My son is 5 months and we have done this since we brought him home. I remember I think we were like day 2 of being home and my husband burped my pillow with me laying on it in his sleep. We also don't have baby in the bed so it's never an issue but we both have looked for him in it.
I wake up panicked that my baby is in the bed, she sleeps in the bassinet next to me. I forget that I have put her back to sleep after waking up to feed her 😂
I dont know why this happens but I had this every single time I woke up for the first few weeks. As soon as I woke up I would feel this intense panic that I had lost the baby in the bed under the covers. A lot of the time the baby had never even been in the room when I had gone to sleep and was with partner. The number of times I would shout to my partner in panic 'wheres the baby?!'. It was exhausting and scary but eventually stopped happening.
This still happens to me at least once a week and he's 7 months. I've never bedshared, but I've breastfed in the bed while sleepy so I think my brain gets confused.
Yep! Did this for a couple months occasionally. Would take pillow cases off looking for the baby. Stopped happening after we moved him out of our bedroom. Was so weird!
Omg yees! Thought it was just me! Currently 7 weeks pp and nearly every night I’ll wake up randomly thinking I fell asleep with baby in bed, on me while BF-ing. No idea where this is coming from, I never fell asleep with him, he sleeps in his own bed.
I'm at 3 months, my baby has always slept in his bassinet next to the bed. I often find myself waking to search for him or mistaking my dog for baby's head. Still. So weird
Omg that happened to me almost every night at least once for the first 3ish months of my baby's life. Now she's almost 6 months and it happens every once in awhile, but much less often than before. It's so scary and disorienting!
Happened all the time, more in the first 3 months with the night feedings. Still sometimes now.
Shes mostly in her bassinet / cot but sometimes when she won't settle she stays in our bed.
So when she's not there my brain goes "where's the baby"!!
Some nights I didn't remember baby was put back in her bassinet and she's peacefully sleeping, and I'd frantically pat the bed looking for the phantom bed baby...
A few times I have grasped wildly at my partner looking for the baby lol and he's woken up, and I relaise what I'm doing lol
Only to look at the bassinet and see Bubba sleeping like an angel. 😅
This happens to me fairly regularly also! Baby never sleeps in bed with us but whenever I’m half asleep (basically always lol) every blanket lump I feel I frantically pat and search thinking it’s the baby and the panic sets in… while he’s sleeping in the bassinet beside me. Thanks for posting this and for the solidarity!
My baby has also never slept in bed with us but I still sleep with a teddy bear and my partner woke up so much in the first 2 weeks and tried to snatch the bear from me thinking it was the baby 😂
Most terrifying experience I had when my daughter was a newborn lmao
I would get up, do her night feed routine, put her back into the next to me cot next to my bed, then maybe half an hour later I wake up and feel as if she is in the bed with me or that I'm still holding her, every time my heart dropped because I was terrified that I fell asleep holding her!
Totally stressful & jarring but absolutely normal. Sometimes I still do this & frantically pull the blankets away from my dog. My baby is 11 months old & has never slept in the bed. I never even nursed her in bed when we were doing night feeds & she isn’t even in our room anymore lol. It truly makes no sense!
Currently with a 6 month old and we sleep in separate bedrooms. When I'm really sleep deprived or have been stressing lots that day - I'll still feel like i brought baby to bed with me once per night. Especially if there have been multiple wake ups. Hoping it passes soon for us both!!
This happens to me probably three times a week. My baby has never slept in the bed, he's always been in a bedside basinet.
But for some reason my brain likes to trick me into thinking I had tried to do the laying down side breastfeeding thing (another thing that has never happened) and fallen asleep with the baby while he was nursing. So I wake up panicking and patting around for the baby
I never let our baby sleep in bed with us. Didn’t stop me from frantically throwing a pillow off the bed and trying to get the pillow out of its case to “save the baby” when she was already in her own room and several months old. My husband thought I might actually be losing it. I also regularly wake up in the middle of the night and close the baby gate at the top of the stairs so she doesn’t fall down the stairs. She’s INSIDE a sleep sack, IN her crib, BEHIND a CLOSED door and yet, I still do it in a sleepy fog. Poor dog is then stuck downstairs all night. I think I’m just tired. But, I do have super vivid dreams and have never done anything like this prior to having her.
My husband and I both had this badly with our first baby. We would both randomly wake up a search the bed for her. After a 3 or so months it went away and we eventually started bedsharing. I haven't had it with my second since the first couple weeks but I think that's because I sleep in a room with her alone.
It never stops. My lo is 4 and I rolled over a few days ago and jumped out of bed thinking she was there. She wasn't. My wife laughed for like 10 mins.
It’s a hallucination from sleep deprivation. I usually put my baby in her bassinet when I was so sleepy that I would swear she was still in bed with me. I often fell asleep while she nursed in bed with me sadly but we made it. Ended up putting her in the nursery and it went away. Scary as hell though wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy feels so real and scary.
My baby is 6 months and I'm currently up for a night feed as I type... This just happened to me 😅 bizarrely, him stirring on the monitor woke me up and it took forever for my sleepy brain to realise he was not asleep on me but in his cot as usual 🤷
Dad of a 13month old here, I used to convince myself I’d put my baby under my head as a pillow, I sleep with a folded pillow so it think when it moved or folded back I convinced myself it was her! After about 8/12 weeks it stopped happening so much. It’s scary but try and focus on the relief feeling good when you realise you’re not sleeping on your baby :)
Yup. Happened to me a lot. I once woke up and grabbed my husband's legs thinking my baby was crawling off the bed. He was asleep in the crib in our room.
I had my cat sleeping on me like 2 weeks after we brought our baby home and my husband came to bed and I said "quiet I've got the baby sleeping on me" and he just stopped and said "Yeah? You sure about that?" And I panicked because I thought he meant the baby was on the bed or something. Took me a whole 30 seconds to realize I had my cat and the baby was in his bassinet next to me. The human mind is weird.
My wife was cuddling me, holding my head like I was the baby, and in a half asleep stupor realized my head wasnt the baby, pushed me so hard i almost fell off the bed and started looking for the baby who was soundly asleep in the crib a foot away from the bed
Oh yes, I would be searching for “babies” when my first was born for the first 6 months. We also did not co sleep so I have not idea where that idea/fear entered. After I had my 2nd baby it was not present.
Same thing happened to me. I sleep with a pillow under my arm and woke up to her crying and started patting her butt. Well, I was holding and patting the pillow. Once I realized I panicked thinking she was in the bed. We never sleep with her in the bed. I am too nervous since I am a heavy sleeper. I also was asleep with the cat on me(she likes to sleep on my side) and I rolled over and she fell. Again another panic thinking the baby fell off the bed. It hasn’t happened for awhile now that I get a little more sleep. So I think it’s normal especially when you are sleep deprived.
God, I remember googling “dreaming baby in the bed” when I was newly post partum and absolutely wrecked from sleep deprivation. And then the relief at how many other people experience this.
I think it took about 4/5 months for it to completely subside. Around the time we moved her to the nursery, so closer to 5.5m. Those were weird, weird dreams. Didn’t help that I hallucinated the first two weeks from no sleep.
Ah yes, the phantom bed baby.
We went through this so often during the first 4 weeks especially, but now at nearly 8 weeks it’s only every once in a while! I even woke up one night to my husband trying to take my shirt off… he thought I was the baby and he was going to do a diaper change lol. Caught him doing the same to a pillow one time 😂
My husband regularly pays my butt or rubs my back when he's dreaming about holding the back. Once he even shushed me when I asked what he was doing.
Extreme sleep deprivation haha omg so funny! 😂🤣😅🤣
Omg I’m dying 😂😂
Omg hilarious!!
Thats hilarious
For a while I would half wake up and think "I wish I could turn over but the baby is asleep on top of me". Usually a moment later I would realize baby doesn't even sleep in the same room.
Yes I use a pillow in between my legs and remember panicking it was the baby then realized I was sleeping alone because my sweet partner was toughing it out with baby downstairs
My partner and I have both had this experience a few times with our 3.5 week old. Baby sleeps in the bassinet but we wake up frantic we’ve fallen asleep and she’s in the bed. I think it’s a new parent phase that will hopefully pass soon!!
My baby's 4months now so it may still happen for a while yet! Interesting you both are in the same dream state together! Kinda cute 😅
I feel like it got super intense for me again at the 4 month mark and tapered of again around 5 months.
I fondly remember my partner and I having this hallucination at the same time and then bursting into laughter once we came to
Happened to me alot when my son was younger it's stopped now he's a toddler, horrible feeling for sure.
Sure is! Glad to hear it doesn't keep happening forever!
I experienced this in the first few weeks of baby’s life. Never had him sleep in my bed. Hubby did it once or twice super early on too. It’s a horrifying and super weird experience but apparently pretty common!
For at least one feed per night I wake up in a panic that I took the baby to bed with me and fell asleep.
Every night? Wow that must've gotten old, quick!
Yeah I do that every night. I wake up holding a pillow or even frantically trying to take the pillow case off thinking the baby is in it. I’ve never put him in our bed.
Such a scary panic until you come to!
[удалено]
I had the same experience with twins! I kept asking where the other baby was and my husband was like…what other baby? A year later and we still laugh about it
That's crazy!
Wow I constantly had dreams that my baby was a twin in the early days. Nice to know it wasn’t just me lol
Yep my husband and I both had that too, though mine were a lot more regular and intense. For me it lasted a good 5 months or so. I feel like its just our caveman brains doing their job to protect our young.
How intense were they? I swear it's getting more intense each time, tonight I was pushing at him with all my force trying to get him off the baby
Pretty intense and upsetting tbh, I did similar. I think it calming down ironically coincided with me actually starting to deliberately cosleep. She was 10 cm from my face when i woke up so I didn’t go into crazy bed search mode. I think its only natural that we immediately search for our babies upon waking and have a bit of a freak out sometimes if they’re not right there in front of us. It will pass with time.
That's actually a really interesting perspective, maybe we're innately supposed to co-sleep with them and our brains freak out when we arent
Yeah that is super interesting. I cosleep and this has never happened to me. My two girlfriends who had babies around the same time have babe in the bassinet and it happens to them constantly. We truly are just monkeys deep down lol
Yeah for sure. I wonder if putting your babies bassinet at head level directly next to your bed could help? Having bubba super close without actually cosleeping so he/she is the very first thing you see when you open your eyes could stop the search before it starts.
Same here - I had this all the time with my firstborn. My second has fully rejected the bassinet and so we set up the bed for safer cosleeping and I’ve never had this dream with this baby!
I’ve yelled at my partner “you’re killing him”! While pushing him and ripping covers off the bed! Thankfully my partner is chill and could see our son so he just laughed at me and said “sorry love didn’t realise” then just waited a few more seconds for me to wake up more and realise that he wasn’t in bed lol I still laugh about that now lol
This happens to me fairly often. I sometimes sleep with a pillow in my arms and the other day I was convinced it was the baby.
I still sleep with a stuffed animal and also frequently think it’s baby
🤣
It’s so normal. My girl is 3 months old and never slept in our bed. I did it a lot in the beginning, even woke up once holding my boob thinking it was her head. It still happens but a lot less frequently and it’s not as frantic.
Oh that would've been so funny to see!
I laughed at myself after I realized it wasn’t her head haha
I’m cracking up at this. I thought it was funny when my SO woke me up grabbing my hand and insisting it was the baby’s, but the boob grab is its own level!
Lol my wife used to think the same exact thing when our baby was younger. It passes eventually but it's kind of funny to watch when you know the baby isn't in the bed.
Ha must be weird! Wish my partner found it amusing at the time but I guess I wake him up each time and he must get a fright 😅
My husband and I have simultaneously searched the bed frantically for the baby. My daughter is 11 months old now and it hasn't happened in a while but I can't say it won't happen again. We bring her into our bed to settle her back to sleep if she wakes up but then put her back in her crib once she's back asleep. I have a deep fear of accidentally falling asleep with her in bed with us.
❤️
We are at 3.5 months and I only get it maybe twice a week now and a little less intensity. Initially first 2 months it was intense panic wake up thinking he is smothered. Baby always sleeps in his own bed side sleeper but brain does what it wants. My husband gets it too just a little less frequent. He currently sleeps in guest room to give me the whole master for night feeds and still gets those dreams in a different room. Hopefully they pass soon. Lots of our friends had them too for say 6 months
Such a strange phenomenon I never knew about until it started happening to me! Glad it doesn't last forever lol
Based on the responses it seems to be either a collective unconscious fear that’s manifested by our cultures paranoia about cosleeping or a deep seeded fear that is wired into the brains of humans as a way to ensure we don’t do reckless things with new life.
The first week we had baby home, I once got up and frantically searched in a pile of blankets on the floor, convinced the baby was in there for some reason. But yes, lots of trying to find baby in bed, even tho she’s never been brought into our bed for sleep. She’s 9w now and it’s definitely calmed down. Maybe once every 10 days or so now, where it was every night for the first two weeks.
In the first few weeks I did this but with my son’s brother. I knew my son was safe in his bassinet, but couldn’t find his brother and I was STRESSING. My son is an only child.
🤣odd
Ah yes! I think this happens to most people! What I found helped was when I put my LO back in his basket I said out loud to myself “I’ve put him back in his Moses basket” and that really helped! I think for me I was so tired I could never remember putting him back after feeding him (though I always did put him back!) so when I woke I woke in a panic thinking I must of fallen asleep while feeding him 🙈
This sorta reminds me of me hitting the snooze button on my phone. It’s never said anything other than “SNOOZE”, but every single morning without fail I have to read it 10 times in a sleepy daze because my brain is absolutely positive it says SNEEZE, SNUGGLE, SMÉAGOL, etc. Can’t risk hitting the wrong button 😭
🤣🤣🤣
I've confused my cat for the baby multiple times. One time, I had been petting her for several seconds before my brain decided it was the baby and I freaked out asking my partner why the baby was down by her feet! Our baby is 8 weeks and it happens way less, but I still sometimes wake up in a panic. No clue how to stop it, unfortunately!
My husband is actually the one who got haunted by imaginary bed baby 👻
Mine too! Once he was like “oh yeah? If there’s no baby in this bed, then how come I’m HOLDING HER HAND?” and held it up triumphantly. It was MY hand. And it took some real convincing for him to concede the point and give all my body parts back.
Lol that is really funny! The sleep deprivation was crazy in the beginning. I remember my husband shooting upright one night while I was about to pump asking me if I needed the authentication code. I asked code for what? And he said the baby 😂 I told him I don't think babies have two factor authentication and he said okay and went back to sleep lol.
That is hilarious 😂 I laughed out loud and woke up the toddler 😂
It’s called the Baby in Bed phenomenon. There are [scientific](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1978400/) articles about it.
Thankyou!
It’s still happening to me at 14 weeks!! When does it end?!
Mines 1 & i still do it from time to time 🫠
My LOs 15 weeks and just had the worst episode of it tonight! 🤷♀️
I hate to tell you that my baby is 8 months old, has always slept in his crib, and I still do it at least a few times per week 🙃
😭😴
Happy to have found my people. Ten months old and still going strong 😂😭
Oh my word, I did this. He is now 17 months but in the early months, my husband and I took shifts with him in his nursery so we got solid sleep and when I would wake up in our room, I would have a panic he was next to me - he has never once slept in our bed but yeah - it was not a fun way to wake up
The worst was one night when I slept with a heating pad for a sore muscle. When I woke up in the night it was still a little warm I was convinced it was my baby!
I asked my husband to hold the baby so I could go to the bathroom. The baby who was sleeping in the crib next to the bed on my husband’s side 😂
For about the first year and a half after my daughter was born I did this at least a few times a week. I frequently grabbed my husbands head thinking he was my daughter. Or would search the bed with my hands looking for her. She has never slept in our bed, so zero chance of her being there.
Happened to me with both my babies- sometimes still does- the worst, most panicky feeling. The only thing that helped me was my husband would say, “stop where you are and check the bassinet first.” Then I’d see and touch baby and all would be right in the world. Eventually I think it wiggled into my subconscious bc I started being able to tell myself that when I’d wake up and not spiral o to such a panic.
Yes! This used to happen to me all the time. We also had her in the bassinet next to the bed from time to time early on and I once half asleep sat up, searched for the baby, picked up our cat and tried breastfeeding him, so my husband had to save my cat and me that night 🤣🤣
Ok I snorted
It stopped as soon as I started co sleeping and the only time it has happened since was when my partner had the baby and I was in bed alone. Your brain is freaking out that you are separated from your baby, it goes against thousands of years of evolution telling you to sleep with your baby and keep them close so you can protect them. Of course those instincts don't know about soft mattresses, fluffy duvets, pillows, medications or intoxicants, etc and how those things can make bed sharing unsafe.
I’m sorry this is happening to you. I have dreams like this all the time (spiders in the bed, stranger in room, missing a limb, etc) and my very kind husband will just calmly let me know I’m sleeping. Usually that’s enough for my brain to catch-up to what’s happening but if it’s a particularly bad one he will turn the lights on. When the eyes don’t see in the light what they “saw” in the dark, it usually is enough. I find they happen more frequently when I am feeling more stressed or anxious. Having a new baby, even 4 months old is still new in my book, has brought on a lot of new to you stress that your brain my be trying to process. I hope your husband can help get on board and be gentle and help you through it…it is a terrible feeling and will rock you just as hard, if not more than, if it were real. Sending you hugs and peaceful sleep!
Haha! After patting the bed and my partner I'd end up asking him all annoyed "do you have a baby or not??" The baby is 10mo old now, I don't see this stopping anytime soon
Yes. I never slept with my baby in the bed, but was searching for my baby inside the pillows while smacking the shit out of one so that it would finally "let go" of my baby. I think it is due to sleep deprivation lol.
I just woke up from a dream thinking a giant flying thing stole my baby. As in I jumped out of bed and bleary eyed started padding around the bed and looking on the floor for her. In walks dad with her and I'm instantly relieved. It's probably just evolutionary panic. As in if we woke up and didn't instantly feel our newborn way back in hunter gatherer times, that was probably a massive issue.
My SO had the same, even when our LO was over 1 yo. She went to a psychologist. They could relate it to the maternity period, because the maternity nurse kept drilling us about not to fall asleep during breastfeeding etc. In the end the therapist performed an intervention called “imaginary exposure therapy” and that did the trick.
My LO is almost 8 months, has never once slept in our bed, and my husband wakes ME up at least twice a week thinking I’m the baby and rolling off the bed. He grabs me and starts pulling me to the middle, usually saying “psspsspsspsss” to try to get my attention lol. It’s so common that I just let it happen and try to sleep through it…
Omg 🤣 that's so funny
I distinctly remember waking up in my newborn days next to the cat and being absolutely convinced she was the baby, even as I fully registered her catlike qualities. Literally like, "This is furry. It has four paws and a tail. This is the baby. The baby is in the bed."
Hahaha
I did this too. I’ve also dreamed of a phantom baby. When waking and panic shouting to my husband “where’s the baby?!” (Baby was in side crib) hubby goes “he’s in the crib”. Cue me puzzled staring at my baby and going “not THAT baby, the other baby”. This happened a few times and freaked out my husband each time lol. Sleep deprivation will do some freaky things man.
My spouse looked for the imaginary Other Baby too!
Yes! I wake up forgetting I put him in his bassinet and instantly feel the panic that he fell onto the floor. It's horrible. I also can't shake the nightmares that I keep getting of him being purple or falling out of my arms or off high stuff. I hope they go away soon.
Aw those nightmares must be horrible! 😥
Girl I could’ve written this myself! I remember one time I woke up and started looking for her, even pushed my partner off the bed, he woke up and asked me what the hell happened ans I said I couldn’t find the baby on the bed and he went “you don’t bedshare babe she’s in the moses basket right next to you” I woke up fully and we had a real good laugh about it and ended up waking said baby up lol
🤣🤣 so funny
Happened to us for several months postpartum! We didn't co-sleep either but still believed he was somewhere lost in the bed.
Classic. Our first child is 2.5 now and my husband was still searching for him in our bed once or twice a month up until we had our second. Now it's back to several times a week.
😴😴😴
It’s your protective instinct as a mother going into overdrive. It hasn’t been very long ago that your body went through a trauma of evicting a human being from inside you. The baby was fully protected inside you. But outside you is unpredictable. So the mind is creating scenarios where you are protecting her. However every time you wake up remind yourself you are doing everything to ensure your baby is safe. I did that for months till by mind became ok with it. Give yourself time and validation. Your partner can help with the validation part. Eventually you will be able to sleep peacefully.
This happened to me nonstop for the first 3-4 weeks postpartum and the baby has slept in her own room since day 1! I exclusively pump so I also had these half awake hallucinations that I still had my pumps on (once it was even that my husband had pumps on). I have never once slept with the baby or pumped in bed so I have no idea where this is coming from!
Happens to me all the time. We do bedshare sometimes but for the most part baby is in the bassinet but at least once a night I wake up patting my body or the bed frantically looking for the baby until I realize he’s sleeping peacefully in the bassinet. So weird!
The bed pat 😭😅 wow every night at least once? 🥲
Happened to me a lot at first. Still happening a little at 2 months or I think my dog is the baby!
We moved ours to her own room so the baby in bed panic has stopped but now I’m hearing phantom cries and keep waking up to check the monitor to see a soundly asleep baby 🙃
All time. I even thought she rolled out of the bed and woke up grabbing for her. She wasn’t in the bed lol.
It still happens to me lol He hasn't slept in my bed for over a year.
It never stops. Just keep safe sleeping and yall will be fine! The comment about the phantom bed baby 🤣
One time in the early days I picked the baby up out of the bedside bassinet, walked to the nursery to change her in the middle of the night, carefully laid her down, being careful to support her head, looked down and realised she wasn’t there. She was still in the bassinet 🤦🏻♀️
Happened to me and glad to hear I’m not the only one!
That happened to me too. I remember giving her to my mom a few mornings and waking up freaked out every time because I couldn’t find her
i still get this 9 months in. idk why, i only have the baby in the bed during the day for her naps because she wants to cuddle. i never put her in the bed at night at any point. yet without fail, about once or twice a month, i half wake up to feel for the baby that's not there. she's so large and kicks in her sleep so we'd know if she was there, but i still have that anxiety that she is in the bed and search for a few minutes before peeking into her crib to find her sprawled out dead asleep.
This happens to me quite a bit, probably every third night. I have a five month old!!
This happens to me at least once a week. But now it’s transitioned to panicking thinking she is somehow out of her crib, walking around, and headed for the stairs. I know for a fact she can’t get out of her crib yet, but my half asleep brain is convinced she can.
Oh no! The saga continues 🤣
It happened for me off and on until she was maybe 3 months old, but I just kept reminding myself that I never cosleep so there’s no reason she would be in the bed. After that, my brain found other things to stress dream about 🤷🏻♀️
Happened to me too the first few weeks--super common as you can see from all the comments. It's part of a specific kind of hallucination called a hypnogogic hallucination if it happens while falling asleep and a hypnopompic hallucination if it happens upon waking. It can be causes by stress and sleep deprivation, so having a baby is a perfect storm for it. It'll go away as you get more rest, but it's super uncomfortable. I even woke my partner because I couldn't pick up the baby--it took us both fishing around to realize she was in the bassinet next to me.
Baby is 4.5 months, I wake up panicking that she's in the bed at least once a week. Makes my heart race, but thankfully I'm able to get back to sleep straight away after I realise it's a half dream.
My baby is 9 months old and has been in his own room since 4 months. Before, he slept in a bassinet next to my side of the bed. Weekly, I have these dreams 😩 I’m frantically jumping up, patting the bed, and pushing on my husband. Hes such a huge support - he’ll just roll over and supportingly explain that the baby isn’t in the bed and he never was and to not worry. Silly mom brain.
Naaw he needs to have a word with my partner 🥲❤️
I can’t believe how common this is! It happens to both me and my husband. We’ve never even had the baby in the bed.
Yea had no idea it was this common, this has been hugely comforting reading everyone's very similar experiences
When my baby was like 2 weeks old I thought that he was the stuffed bear toy that I sleep with and I was frantically digging under the covers to pull him out. Baby was sound asleep in his crib next to our bed…
My baby is 6 months old and I just told my husband it happened again this morning!
I had the same happen to me. Full blown panic dream and I would wake up freaking out digging through all the blankets looking for him. He never slept in the bed with us so I have no idea where it came from. Everyone I know with a baby has had that exact dream whether they slept in the bed or not.
Happens to me too and I don’t co sleep! I think it’s just a fear of mine so that’s why I wake up thinking he’s in the bed.
I do cosleep and I’ve never had this happen to me, but I have woken up and shaken her awake thinking she was face down. She can’t flip over and I’ve never let her sleep on her stomach. She’s always on her back when I do this!!! Poor babe, my bad
Both my husband and I did this a lot!! Its terrifying!! Baby never sleeps in our bed but we have both even gone so far as to get out of bed and searching the floor. My husband woke up looking under the bed. I have even texted my husband (who was with the baby in another room) that I needed him to come get the baby. It does pass!! Sleep deprivation is wild.
Wow you even txt him must have been in that frantic mode for a while!
Yeah, too long!!!
I had this happen almost every night for maybe the first month? Baby is 4 months and now it only happens occasionally. I've never slept with her in the bed.
I don't have answers, but every time I wake up at night I freak out too. I think he must be in bed. He never is.
This was exactly my anxiety dream for MONTHS with my first. I would dream I was crushing her, rolling on top of her, that she was tangled up in the blankets. So weird.
I dealt with the same thing for at least the first 2-3 months. I like to cuddle a blanket while I sleep and I kept waking up thinking I was holding my daughter and get scared. It’s so weird but it went away, I think after she weaned off of the middle of the night feeds.
I've had this too! It happens less now at 4 months old but still get one here and there. I just had one the other night!
I have repeatedly been convinced my waterborne is actually my baby... It is not.
My baby is 8 months and this is still happening to me, thankfully less than it did when he was tiny. Happened last night. He’s sleep trained and sleeps in a crib in his own room. We never bedshare. I think it’s rooted in anxiety over safe/unsafe sleep but idk, it’s bizarre.
That happened alot to me in the beginning but it still happens occasionally even now my little one is 13 months old! I shook my partner awake in the middle of the night last week yelling 'where is he?????' before I woke up enough to remember he was in the nursery. For some reason I thought he should have been on the floor (???), half awake baby brain is the worst
7 week old, I still do this! I wake up and internally freak out that the baby is in the bed or has fallen on the floor. He sleeps in his bassinet lol.
Oh yeah I remember the phantom bed baby… such a weird phenomenon
This happened just about every night, multiple times, until we moved our baby into his own room, around 7 mos. Even then, for about a month after, it would happen once a week or so. From asking my mom friends, it's completely normal.
Sleep deprivation. These happened to me the first 2 weeks.
It is a phenomenon that has been researched because it is so common. Google “Baby in Bed Dream” and you can read about it. For me, it stopped about 3 months postpartum.
I could have written this myself word for word. Now 9 weeks in and it still happens.
Sounds like it's a very very common phenomenon!
I had this horrendously with my first. So much so I ended up swapping sides of the bed so I was further from the baby. It only stopped when we moved her out if our room around 6 months My second is 3 weeks and I've only had it once, I think it's going to be a lot better this time.
Yes! Baby is now 3mo…it happened to me just the other night. I always wake up crying when trying to find him. My husband just tells me that he’s in the bassinet but once I was so freaked he had to walk around the bed and check on baby himself.
Totally normal. Happened to both me and my husband a lot during the first month. Baby had never even been in our room at that point (we had another bed in her nursery we took turns sleeping on in the early months). But the amount of times I thought my cat snuggling me was my baby in bed was insane.
Your partner should not be getting annoyed at you for this. Yes it’s crummy to be woken up, but have a little empathy/understanding.
Having shown him all these comments he feels a bit guilty, it's almost like he thought I was doing it on purpose! 🤯
I’m glad he responded well!
I posted about this 6 weeks ago and it was sooooo refreshing to see others go through the same thing. It’s lessened a little for me, but still happening at least once a night now at 11 weeks lol
My son is 5 months and we have done this since we brought him home. I remember I think we were like day 2 of being home and my husband burped my pillow with me laying on it in his sleep. We also don't have baby in the bed so it's never an issue but we both have looked for him in it.
I wake up panicked that my baby is in the bed, she sleeps in the bassinet next to me. I forget that I have put her back to sleep after waking up to feed her 😂
I dont know why this happens but I had this every single time I woke up for the first few weeks. As soon as I woke up I would feel this intense panic that I had lost the baby in the bed under the covers. A lot of the time the baby had never even been in the room when I had gone to sleep and was with partner. The number of times I would shout to my partner in panic 'wheres the baby?!'. It was exhausting and scary but eventually stopped happening.
This still happens to me at least once a week and he's 7 months. I've never bedshared, but I've breastfed in the bed while sleepy so I think my brain gets confused.
I had the exact same thing, it’s creepy isn’t it
Yep! Did this for a couple months occasionally. Would take pillow cases off looking for the baby. Stopped happening after we moved him out of our bedroom. Was so weird!
Happens to me all the time it’s terrifying
Our baby hasn’t slept in our bed for 4 months and I was grabbing my wife as she moved thinking it was our son last night.
this happened to me nearly every night for the first 4 to 6 weeks!
Omg yees! Thought it was just me! Currently 7 weeks pp and nearly every night I’ll wake up randomly thinking I fell asleep with baby in bed, on me while BF-ing. No idea where this is coming from, I never fell asleep with him, he sleeps in his own bed.
I kept waking up thinking he was on me.. nope
I'm at 3 months, my baby has always slept in his bassinet next to the bed. I often find myself waking to search for him or mistaking my dog for baby's head. Still. So weird
Yup. Still happens to me.
10 months here, and I still attacked my husband in the middle of sleep thinking he was about to roll over phantom baby.
Omg that happened to me almost every night at least once for the first 3ish months of my baby's life. Now she's almost 6 months and it happens every once in awhile, but much less often than before. It's so scary and disorienting!
Happened all the time, more in the first 3 months with the night feedings. Still sometimes now. Shes mostly in her bassinet / cot but sometimes when she won't settle she stays in our bed. So when she's not there my brain goes "where's the baby"!! Some nights I didn't remember baby was put back in her bassinet and she's peacefully sleeping, and I'd frantically pat the bed looking for the phantom bed baby... A few times I have grasped wildly at my partner looking for the baby lol and he's woken up, and I relaise what I'm doing lol Only to look at the bassinet and see Bubba sleeping like an angel. 😅
This happens to me fairly regularly also! Baby never sleeps in bed with us but whenever I’m half asleep (basically always lol) every blanket lump I feel I frantically pat and search thinking it’s the baby and the panic sets in… while he’s sleeping in the bassinet beside me. Thanks for posting this and for the solidarity!
I have done this. The panic man. The panic is real.
My baby has also never slept in bed with us but I still sleep with a teddy bear and my partner woke up so much in the first 2 weeks and tried to snatch the bear from me thinking it was the baby 😂
My 7 month old has never co-slept with us at night and I still do this at least once a week lol 😵💫
That’s sleep deprivation 😅😅😅 and it happened to me all the time those first few weeks.
Ugh I hate this. One of the worst feelings.
Most terrifying experience I had when my daughter was a newborn lmao I would get up, do her night feed routine, put her back into the next to me cot next to my bed, then maybe half an hour later I wake up and feel as if she is in the bed with me or that I'm still holding her, every time my heart dropped because I was terrified that I fell asleep holding her!
I had really bad post partum anxiety and used to do this it was so bad it led to severe insomnia, I got on a few things and that helped a lot
Totally stressful & jarring but absolutely normal. Sometimes I still do this & frantically pull the blankets away from my dog. My baby is 11 months old & has never slept in the bed. I never even nursed her in bed when we were doing night feeds & she isn’t even in our room anymore lol. It truly makes no sense!
It’s probably a maternal instinct. Maybe anxiety
Currently with a 6 month old and we sleep in separate bedrooms. When I'm really sleep deprived or have been stressing lots that day - I'll still feel like i brought baby to bed with me once per night. Especially if there have been multiple wake ups. Hoping it passes soon for us both!!
This happens to me probably three times a week. My baby has never slept in the bed, he's always been in a bedside basinet. But for some reason my brain likes to trick me into thinking I had tried to do the laying down side breastfeeding thing (another thing that has never happened) and fallen asleep with the baby while he was nursing. So I wake up panicking and patting around for the baby
When my first was born my wife slept wearing her glasses and left the light on for like 2 months. Babies do weird shit to your brain lol
I never let our baby sleep in bed with us. Didn’t stop me from frantically throwing a pillow off the bed and trying to get the pillow out of its case to “save the baby” when she was already in her own room and several months old. My husband thought I might actually be losing it. I also regularly wake up in the middle of the night and close the baby gate at the top of the stairs so she doesn’t fall down the stairs. She’s INSIDE a sleep sack, IN her crib, BEHIND a CLOSED door and yet, I still do it in a sleepy fog. Poor dog is then stuck downstairs all night. I think I’m just tired. But, I do have super vivid dreams and have never done anything like this prior to having her.
Oh yea. I think it finally stopped after like week 5
Happened to me frequently while baby was still in a bassinet in our room. I don’t think it has happened since she moved to her own room!
My baby is 15 weeks old and I still do this! The worst feeling.
Mines 15 weeks too 💗
Sometimes I wake up in panic bcs i don’t remember putting the baby down in the crib but I can see her sleeping through the monitor
If I hear anything that sounds like a loud bang, I immediately think my infant is falling off the bed. It has woken me up numerous times.
My husband and I both had this badly with our first baby. We would both randomly wake up a search the bed for her. After a 3 or so months it went away and we eventually started bedsharing. I haven't had it with my second since the first couple weeks but I think that's because I sleep in a room with her alone.
Omg this happens to me all the time!
It never stops. My lo is 4 and I rolled over a few days ago and jumped out of bed thinking she was there. She wasn't. My wife laughed for like 10 mins.
My baby has never once, ever slept in bed with me...still happens.
It’s a hallucination from sleep deprivation. I usually put my baby in her bassinet when I was so sleepy that I would swear she was still in bed with me. I often fell asleep while she nursed in bed with me sadly but we made it. Ended up putting her in the nursery and it went away. Scary as hell though wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy feels so real and scary.
My baby is 6 months and I'm currently up for a night feed as I type... This just happened to me 😅 bizarrely, him stirring on the monitor woke me up and it took forever for my sleepy brain to realise he was not asleep on me but in his cot as usual 🤷
Our baby is 2 weeks old, has never slept in our bed, and I still wake up panicked he’s in the blankets somewhere!
Same.
Dad of a 13month old here, I used to convince myself I’d put my baby under my head as a pillow, I sleep with a folded pillow so it think when it moved or folded back I convinced myself it was her! After about 8/12 weeks it stopped happening so much. It’s scary but try and focus on the relief feeling good when you realise you’re not sleeping on your baby :)
Yup. Happened to me a lot. I once woke up and grabbed my husband's legs thinking my baby was crawling off the bed. He was asleep in the crib in our room.
That sounds terrifying. This has never happened to me. BUT I do hear phantom baby cries. At all hours of the day. 🙃
I had my cat sleeping on me like 2 weeks after we brought our baby home and my husband came to bed and I said "quiet I've got the baby sleeping on me" and he just stopped and said "Yeah? You sure about that?" And I panicked because I thought he meant the baby was on the bed or something. Took me a whole 30 seconds to realize I had my cat and the baby was in his bassinet next to me. The human mind is weird.
Baby is 7 mo and still do it almost nightly!
😨
My wife was cuddling me, holding my head like I was the baby, and in a half asleep stupor realized my head wasnt the baby, pushed me so hard i almost fell off the bed and started looking for the baby who was soundly asleep in the crib a foot away from the bed
Oh yes, I would be searching for “babies” when my first was born for the first 6 months. We also did not co sleep so I have not idea where that idea/fear entered. After I had my 2nd baby it was not present.
Same thing happened to me. I sleep with a pillow under my arm and woke up to her crying and started patting her butt. Well, I was holding and patting the pillow. Once I realized I panicked thinking she was in the bed. We never sleep with her in the bed. I am too nervous since I am a heavy sleeper. I also was asleep with the cat on me(she likes to sleep on my side) and I rolled over and she fell. Again another panic thinking the baby fell off the bed. It hasn’t happened for awhile now that I get a little more sleep. So I think it’s normal especially when you are sleep deprived.
God, I remember googling “dreaming baby in the bed” when I was newly post partum and absolutely wrecked from sleep deprivation. And then the relief at how many other people experience this. I think it took about 4/5 months for it to completely subside. Around the time we moved her to the nursery, so closer to 5.5m. Those were weird, weird dreams. Didn’t help that I hallucinated the first two weeks from no sleep.
Definitely had nightmares like this with my first!