5 month tummy sleeper rolling onto back and waking up all night - HELP!

[hope-leigh]

Hi ladies,

My DS has slept on his tummy from about 3 weeks.  He wouldn't sleep any other way.  We have the monitor with the pad  under the mattress and he's always been able to lift his head,etc, so we weren't too concerned.  Anyway, he's now 5 months this week and has started rolling over during the night then I wake up hearing him chatting to himself and banging his legs against the crib (its' really sweet and melts my heart, but I am getting a little sleep deprived ;-).  I've been trying to train him to sleep on his back for a few weeks now in anticipation of the rolling over, but he wakes up immediately.  We can't even get him to sleep in his stroller for longer than 45 mins.  He still has the startle reflex every now and then even though he's so old and is 18lbs so not a little fella.

Any advice would be much appreciated.  It's been a busy week for him - he started sitting on his own, rolling over and has his first tooth coming through, so I'm sure they are all contributing to his restless nights.  He usually only wakes once for a feed in the early hours of the am. 

Thanks,
Leigh

[clazzat]

Not sure if this is what you want to hear, but you might just have to ride this out until he can roll back again when he wants to.  I know that whenever they learn to do something new it can affect their sleep because they want to practise it all the time, and particularly when it is "half" a skill - ie rolling one way but not the other.  I think you can buy sleep positioners which prevent them rolling at all, but I'm not sure what age they go up to - I remember we had to take ours back because dd1 was too old for it (but I can't remember how old that was!).

You can try to encourage him to learn to roll back during the day - if you put him on his back and put something that he wants just out of his reach, he should start to roll towards it.

It does sound like there is a lot going on for the little fella, but don't worry, the restlessness shouldn't last for too long.

Good luck.
Cx

[hope-leigh]

Yes, I suppose I am just going to have to be patient...if there's one thing I've learnt since having him it's patience ;-)

Yesterday I waited 15 mins after putting him down and rolled him onto his back and he lasted about half an hour.  Then this morning he was so tired I managed to keep him on his back until he fell asleep and it's been 45 mins so far, so I'm hoping it won't be so hard to get him to sleep on his back as well as his tummy.