Sleep training all over again?

[mrs_kat]

Since my 4.5 month old daughter is on the verge of rolling over, my pediatrician gave the ok to start trying naps on her tummy so that she can get used to sleeping that way if she rolls over in the middle of the night.  Easier said than done.

I tried it for one nap, and I don't think Kenzie understood that it was naptime and not just tummy time in a new place.  She kicked her feet around, looked all over the place, did the swimming thing with her arms, etc.  I tried to help her see that it was time to sleep by shhing and patting, giving the paci, darkening the room, saying, "it's time for nap, we're doing it a little differently but mommy will stay to help you" but after 20 minutes she just started crying and looking at me with those "help me" eyes.

For those who've gone through this, did you pretty much start from scratch with sleep training?  Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Kat

[KellyC]

Ooh, I don't think I would go there!  My DS can only go to sleep on his side so that is how I put him to sleep, I'm grateful that he can do it at all!  I wonder if anybody else on here has had the same advice and tried this?  I'd guess that if you LO can roll and they get on their tummies at night and it bothers them then they'll roll back.

Kelly x

[Deb_in_oz]

i've never heard of pre-empting this developmental change but i can tell you that when olivia finally rolled to her tummy in hercot at 7 mo i had to spend 2 weeks sleep training again to get her used to sleeping on her tummy. (we also had to do it again at 8 mo with crawling and at 9 mo with standing) each time i have reverted to shh/pat with great success. sometimes i have had to hold her down in one place or she would spend ages rolling/crawling/standing and agitate herself (she woudl cry sometimes and look at me in a tired pained way as if to say "why is this happening - make it stop" like she could not help herself from moving in the cot  :cry: )

after the 2 weeks she was fine on her own and settled herself in the new position (until the next developmental milestone)

you can wait until she actually does roll over and see what happens - she might not actually start doing it in her cot for ages (like liv who had no interest in rolling in bed until 7 mo) so you may be creating more work for yourself than needed.  if she is a poor sleeper now then maybe you want to switch to tummy sleeping as some people have commented that their lo sleep better that way.  but "if it ain't broke don't fix it" if she was sleeping fine until ped commented on this just leave her be.   HTH