How can I tell what mood my newborn's in?

Very often, your baby will mirror the mood you are in. When a baby sense that his/her mother is tired, stressed or anxious, the baby will react and appear anxious and needy. Similarly, the baby will be more relaxed and happy when he/she senses that his/her mother is calm and relax. A baby is able to discern his/her mother’s mood through non-verbal signals such as touch, eye contact, body language, facial expression, space, and distance. Babies also pick up on changes in their parents’ tones and manner of speaking. But in general, you can try to tell what mood your baby from their body language. Your baby’s body language tells you whether she’s wide awake and ready to play, uncomfortable, fussy, hungry or at different stages of sleep. Eventually you’ll learn to recognize their cues and what they tell you about your baby’s feelings. This helps you predict your baby’s patterns. As a guide, there are six different states that a baby’s behavior tends to fall under: - Deep sleep. Baby's eyes will be closed and still. His/her breathing will be regular and may make occasional startle. - Light sleep. This is also known as rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Baby's eyes will be closed, but may open briefly. He/she may move, startle and make the occasional sucking motion. - Drowsy. This is the baby's semi-dozing state. The baby is not fully asleep, but nearly there. His/her eyes open now and then, and movements are smooth. - Alert. Baby's eyes will be open. His/her attention will be focused and the baby will be still. - Active and alert. Baby will be bright-eyed. He/she move around and may make brief, fussy cries and startles. - Crying. Baby will cry hard in this state. He may squirm around and be difficult to soothe. Once you start recognizing these patterns, you will be able to respond to his/her behavior. For example, you may learn that you need to rouse your baby a little before a feed. Or that he needs to be in an alert state before he starts playing happily. For more information to help you decipher your baby’s mood: http://sg.theasianparent.com/your-emotions-affect-your-babys-mood/2/ http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/reading_baby_body_language.html http://www.babycentre.co.uk/a1047903/understanding-your-newborn

Your baby is naturally born with a great sense of communication. You may find that his movements are a bit random, but he knows how to tell you when he likes or dislikes something. But this is a learning process for him as well. You can tell a lot about your baby’s mood by the way he responds to sight, sound and lights around him. For instance, if he is in deep sleep his eyes will be still and closed and his breathing will be regular. If he is a light sleeper, he will have rapid eye movements and may close and open his eyes. If he is drowsy, he may be semi-doxing off. If he is alert, his eyes will be wide open and his attention will be quite focussed. If he is active, he will be a bright-eyed boy and move around, make noises and even play. If he is crying, he is indicating discomfort and wants to be soothed. Understanding such signals can be tough at first, but once you get a hang of it, you’ll be able to make him feel relaxed and safe much faster.

For me, the first few weeks was pretty hard for me to differiente his different moods. He was a lot different from my daughter and I often felt at loss because I wasn't sure what he wanted. Babies are like adult so it took me sometime to get to know my son, and now that he's 6+ months old, I am quite sure I can quite easily the mood he is in.

The 3 main moods are active (when your newborn is playful and socialising), sleepy (might become irritable too), crying (maybe hungry or tired). Over time you will develop an intuition of your baby's moods and what your baby needs.

thanks