# Newborn sleep question



## barefoot mama (Apr 30, 2006)

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this. I looked at the other forums, and this one seems the most appropriate.

I have a 13 day old baby who twitches and jerks in his sleep. It happens when he is in the first stage of sleep. The jerking can be quite strong- he is a strong baby anyway. And it can happen at regular intervals until he is in deep sleep.

He sleeps next to me at night and on me almost always during the day. At night I don't notice it too much and he sleeps really well. He wakes up once or twice and nurses for 30 minutes or so.

I don't know if I'm being paranoid or not. My oldest daughter had a vaccine injury which left her with CP and severe seizures. She died 7 weeks ago tomorrow. So I know that I will be obsessed with this poor baby anyway, but I don't want to overlook anything either. Obviously this baby will not be vaccinated, but I'm worried about seizures.

Is this twitching and jerking normal? I don't think I would rush off to the doctor either way (sorry, I detest them), but I want to either know if this could be seizure activity or have reassurance that he is normal.


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## my_baby_love (Jan 15, 2006)

I don't have a baby yet, so I don't know if this is normal baby behavior, but I wanted to let you know that I do this when I am falling asleep and have done it for as long as I remember. Sometimes the jerks and twitches wake me up when I do it because they're so strong, and other times I wake up to DH laughing at me when I do it







. I've never had any seizures, and I've read that's it's normal to twitch and jerk when you fall asleep because it is a way that your muscles relax. So, like I said, I don't know if it's a normal thing for new babies, but it's a normal thing for me. Maybe other people have some better insight, but I wanted to offer my two cents.


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## rzberrymom (Feb 10, 2005)

Oh mama, I couldn't read this without saying I'm so sorry about your oldest daughter.


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## grisaleen (May 14, 2005)

I have no research, but I do this, my dh does it, and my six week old baby does it. I believe that it's normal and harmless. I'm sure you'll hear from more knowledgable people than myself, but I wanted to help ease your mind until then.


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