5-month rolling over during sleep

[sillypig78]

Hi,
My DS started rolling over last month when he was 4 month old.  We were on the 4 hour EASY and we were doing great.  About two weeks ago, he decided to roll over from back to tummy during his sleep also.  Whenever he end up with his tummy, he would cry.  We stopped swaddling him since he can roll over.  He is no longer on the EASY because he is waking up every hour and I would have to try to soothe him.  I used to do shh/pat but it no longer works.  I tried PU/PD but it's not working.  I don't know what to do now since he is cranky all the time because he is not sleeping.  He is also developing bad habits (wants to rock, nurse, etc to go to sleep).  He wants to be swaddle but he would break out now and I don't feel comfortable that he cannot lift up his head when he is on his tummy.  I don't know how to get back on track.  I am sleep deprived and really sad that he is so cranky.  He was a happy baby when he was on EASY.  Please help!

[Smurfette]

Hi there

Sorry things are going a little wonky for you right now. Try giving him lots of practice rolling both ways during the day so hopefully he can learn to roll back.
In some regards, you just need to ride these things out. Developmental milestones are exciting on one hand, but they can really disrupt sleep, which makes them hard to 'enjoy'.

If he is getting a little OT from lack of restorative sleep, you might want to reduce his A times just a little bit to see if that helps things. What kind of A times is he doing right now?

Until this point, did he go to sleep independently for all naps and nights-no rocking/nursing, etc? If he's waking every hour and its due to not knowing how to self soothe, then once he knows how to roll back, he may still continue to wake at night b/ c it becomes a sleep issue, rather than a milestone issue-if that makes sense. So I'm just wondering that's something he needs to work on too-what do you think?

[sillypig78]

Hi Smurfette,
Thank you for your quick reply.  He was on the 3 hour EASY since he was 8 weeks old.  I didn't have to nurse him or rock him before.  I always put him down sleepy but awake for both naps and night time.  However, whenever he would wake up early for his naps (at 30-45 min mark), I would do shh/pat to extend his naps.  This happened almost everyday for two out of the four naps.  I do think he became fixated on the shh/pat and the swaddling.  At night, he would wake up every 4-5 hours and I would nurse him back to sleep.  Maybe he is also not very good at self-soothe.

His A time is all over the place.  When he is tired, I put him to sleep.  It can be anywhere between 1-3 hour.  I know, this is very bad.

[Smurfette]

I know, this is very bad.

What part are you refering to as being bad? There's nothing wrong with following tired cues! 3 hours might be a little long, especially after a short nap, but other than that, its ok.

I think you're really on the right track. It's great that he was/is an independent sleeper. At this point, you can either spend the time extending naps, or just get him up and move on with your day, but keep the A time short. So what will end up happening is that he takes 4-5 naps in a day.
See if you can start to shh/pat less and less and let him do the work in learning how to fall back to sleep as the point of shh/pat isn't to help them go to sleep at this age, but rather to soothe them so they can relax and put themselves to sleep-does that make sense?

If you're just going to go with the short naps, then I would keep A times closer to 1.5 ish hours-this is just a rough estimate-it might be more or less, but I certainly wouldn't keep him up 3 hours if he has a short nap.

I'm confused regarding how often he's waking at night? Is about twice a night? If so, that's still totally normal at this age, so I wouldn't worry too much about that.
If it's more than that, then reducing A times might help b/c an OT baby will tend to wake more during the evening, especially during the early evening.

[oneplusone]

Rolling over is the worst! I had to flip my DS back several times per night until he learned how to do it himself and he was also happy sleeping on his tummy sometimes. Hope he figures it out soon

[sillypig78]

I'm sorry that I wasn't clear. He used to wake up ever 4-5 hours before he learned how to roll over. Now, he wakes up every hour or two.

Is it ok to have 4-5 naps when he is 5 months?  It seems like a lot. But I guess I have to do what is the best for him. I will try not to use shh/pat to get him to sleep. Thank you for your suggestion, Smurfette.

Thank you for your encouragement, oneplusone. I wish he could sleep on his tummy.

[Smurfette]

Is it ok to have 4-5 naps when he is 5 months?

Is it ok for a mommy to be totally stressed out trying to extend naps all day? LOL.  
Yup, multiple naps are really common at this age until they start to better organize their day sleep which happens around 6/7 months. Usually the first nap is the one that will start to lenghten. 
When I talk about 4-5 naps, I'm assuming they are all around 30-45 mins. If you happen to get a longer one, then you probably won't need as many to get to bedtime.
Trying to extend naps is totally fine too, I did it, but in retrospect, had I known it was normal, I would've gotten out of the house more.
So it's really your choice. It sounds like your LO knows how to put himself to sleep, so that's half the battle so chances are, once he's master the new skill, he'll return to his normal sleep patterns-as long as you don't create/introduce bad habits. So just be careful on the use of shh/pat...but I understand that in the middle of the night you just want to do whatever it takes to get some sleep.

[AriandCole]

I am in the same boat as you and neer thought that shorter naps mean shorter A time. I have been trying to extend eerything and get on som schedue, 3 hr Easy... but have been following cues even if wake time or A has been short ie. 1 or 1.5 hrs. Been getting stressed trying to extend A time but then having cranky baby. Phew guess followin moms instinct and baby cues is ok. Thanks for the post!!