Babies make a variety of strange Baby Sounds, whether asleep or awake, and this is quite normal. Most of these are due to the immaturity of her respiratory system and will soon disappear.

Snoring Your baby may make some grunting noises when she’s asleep. This is not a true snore, and is probably caused by vibrations on the soft palate at the back of her mouth as she breathes.

Snuffling Your baby may snuffle so loudly with each breath that you think she has a cold or that she has mucus at the back of her throat. In most babies, these snuffling noises are harmless and are caused because the bridge of the nose is low and air is trying to get through very short, narrow nasal passages. As your baby grows older, the bridge of her nose will get higher and the snuffling sound will gradually disappear.

Sneezing You may also think your baby has a cold because she sneezes a lot. In fact, sneezing is common in newborn babies, particularly if they open their eyes and are exposed to bright light. This sneezing can actually be beneficial – it helps clear out your baby’s nasal passages.

Hiccups Newborn babies hiccup a lot, particularly after a feeding. This leads some mothers to fear that their baby has indigestion, but this is rarely the case. Hiccups are due to imperfect control of the diaphragm – the sheet of muscle that separates the chest from the abdomen- and they will disappear as your baby’s nervous system control of the diaphragm matures.

Once you bring your newborn home, you’ll have some sleepless nights unless you are very lucky. Although most newborns usually sleep when they are not feeding – typically spending at least 60 percent of their time asleep – some will remain active and alert for surprisingly long periods during the day and night.

One young mother was shocked to find that her new baby never dozed for longer than one or two hours at a time until she was four months old. This is a very long time for any parent to survive without a full night’s sleep, especially when your body may be in need of rest after an exhausting pregnancy and birth. If you have a very wakeful baby, be consoled by the fact that as long as she isn’t left bored on her own, every minute that she’s awake she’s learning something new – and in the long run you will be rewarded with an eager, bright child.

All babies are different, and their sleep requirements depend on individual physiology. For this reason it’s nonsensical to lay down rigid sleeping times that correspond to the average baby. As I’ve said before, the average baby doesn’t exist.

Most newborns fall asleep soon after feeding. At first, a baby’s wakefulness is likely to depend on how much feeding she needs, which in turn dependson her weight.

Assume that your baby will try cry a lot and you might be pleasantly surprised if she doesn’t. If you think she won’t cry and then she does, you may find yourself overwhelmed and disorientated.

Remember that there are really only three states your newborn baby can be in: asleep, awake and quiet, and awake and crying. If causes are tiredness, hunger, loneliness, and discomfort – she is too hot or too cold, is in an uncomfortable position, or needs changing. You must accept sometimes, though, that a baby will cry for no discernible reason. This type of crying can be the most stressful for a parent.

Responding to crying Leaving a child to cry on her own is never  a good idea, even though you will hear this advice often. If a baby is denied attention and friendship in her early weeks and months, she may grow up to be introverted, shy, and withdrawn. Research on newborns shows that if parents are slow to respond to their baby’s crying, the result may be a baby who cries more rather than less. A recent study found that babies whose crying was ignored in their first few weeks tended to cry more frequently and persistently as they grew older.