Having to restrain baby at nap time - please help!

[hana1978]

My DS is 9 months (corrected age 7 months) and is so completely obsessed with rolling over (he cant roll back yet) he does it all night and at nap times.  Hes gone from sleeping 7pm to 4am - fed then back down to 6.30am to waking up every two hours because of rolling over and gets into such a state i cant calm him unless i feed him - he now feeds 2 or 3 times a night but the confusing thing is he takes a full bottle each time???!!!? 
Anyway naps are a complete disaster - i liturally have to pin him to the bed as he will constantly turn over and over and over - but hes so strong its hard and i dont like doing it in the first place.  He wont sleep on his belly so i dont know what to do.   I hold his arm and legs down but he digs his heels in and aches his back and screams until i let go and allow him to turn - then he will cry to be rolled back again - aggggggggggh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please what should i do??  Can i teach him to fall asleep on his belly?  How do i do it?
Thanks.
Hana.x

[Colesmom]

Hi Hana-remember me?  We've been struggling with these naps for so long haven't we?

Just need to ask a few Qs.  What is your A time?  Is he teething right now?  Seems he might be going through more than just rolling over.

Do you work on tummy time during the day?  or trying to roll the other way?

How is your feed schedule?  Have you introduced solids and is he taking to them well?  If he's eating a lot in the night now he may very well need more calories in the day.  If he's becoming more mobile just recently you may need to cut back your A time as he may be more tired kwim?

please post your current schedule and we'll see if we can see something that can be improved.  Hang in there hon, I know you've had a rough go!

[hana1978]

  yeh i do how you been?  Im not sure about teething - hes recently cut two bottom teeth and i was told his top ones wouldnt come in just yet?
He has lots of tummy time, i encourage him to get onto his hands and knees now aswell but rolling back again is difficult to teach because once arm always gets in the way.
Feeding schedule is bottle every four hours from 7am, he also has breakfast, lunch and dinner followed by a yoghurt at 7pm.  Lately hes been waking at 10pm and taking a full bottle more or less which he never used to do - but i guess its coz hes more mobile?  I cant increase his milk more in the day, ive tried but hes not a big eater - and im not comfortable dropping any milk feeds just yet to get more solids in, as ive been adivsed to do, as he was born so early so im just not sure if if should wait a bit more?  Until hes a month or so older?

Schdule is something like this -

6.00am Wake
7.00am Bottle, porridge with fruit
9.30am Nap for 30mins
11.00am Bottle, Chicken with veg
12.30pm Nap for 30mins
3.00pm Bottle
3.30pm Nap for 30mins
7.00pm Bottle, Soup then yoghurt
7.15pm Bath
7.30pm Wind down on bed
7.45pm Bed

His awake time seems to get longer and longer - now its around 2hrs45m - i try to wait until hes very tierd as otherwise its even harder to get him to nap - he fights me when hes not that tierd yet but then fights me when hes too tierd.  Im not sure what to do for the best  :cry:

[cliffrose]

Hana:

I am no expert but it seems clear to me that you lo is very hungry- perhaps adding finger foods- chunkier solids- i am finding with my lo that he will eat more if he can feed himself.

perhaps he would like some other foods more than the ones you are offering? that could help him sleep more at night.....

good luck with the turning over thing---i just waited out my lo's activity and eventually he fell asleep on his own....

elizabeth

[corrina01]

Have you tried him on a hungrier formula?

[Colesmom]

Hana-The first thing I noticed is 3.5 hours activity time before first nap.  This seems quite long.  Did this amount of time work for you in the past?  I'm thinking this could be setting you up for that first short nap (overtired and can't transition) and then resulting in an overtired baby all day?  Many babies like the first A time to be shorter than the others.

Also-if you had to estimate, how many tablespoons of food is he getting? 
I was led to the menu planner at this site which pretty much told me I wasn't giving my DS enough food.  click on the button that says "view suggested menu planner for step 2 infant"
http://www.heinzbaby.com/english/mix/menu_planner.html
Do you let him lead with the amount of food he's given.  In other words, do you feed him until he refuses?  Or do you prepare a certain amount and only give that to him?  Just curious as I was doing the latter because I had in my head an amount that I thought was enough.

HTH