Rolling Onto Tummy

[Mom to M&M]

Hi everyone. DD (24 weeks tomorrow) has basically slept through w/o DF since 3 months. However, her sleep from 3-5 am has always been restless. Then deeper again until 6:30 or so waking. Which is fine with me. However, lately, she's been SO much more mobile and rolling a ton. The past few nights I've found her sleeping on belly. Now I don't mind since she has amazing head and neck control. She seems really peaceful sleeping this way middle of night - but come 4-5 am when she's more restless and realizes this way she starts crying in sleep/half sleep. Sometimes she will go right back to sleep but other times the crying goes on a bit. After 1-2 minutes I've been going in and rolling her onto side. However, this seems to totally wake her up. Sometimes she'll go back to sleep after up to one hour of talking to self - other times it means we are up for day.

Any ideas?

[teezee]

i have had the same problem on and off recently.  only my lo is swaddled and i can't imagine not swaddling her - she would never get to sleep w/o it!  when i finally roll her onto her back again when she fusses, she's awake for a long time too.  no advice - just want to tell u that u aren't alone!

[Mom to M&M]

Actually, haven't swaddled DD since she was 3 weeks old - she hated it! I would think your LO would be unable to roll back if she's swaddled and can't use her arms to push - no?

It's like she just doesn't realize yet that it's OK to sleep that way (on tummy) and keeps trying to push up and lift head like she would do during tummy time or play/exercise (which she really enjoys) and then gets upset because she wants to be sleeping.

But like you said, Teezee, once I do roll her over, it awakens her more and takes her forever to fall back asleep. Which is a problem when it's relatively close to time to get up for day anyway...

[Mom to M&M]

Cany anyone help?

[Katet]

From my experience it is the start of a number of "developmental" things that "stuff up" sleep. you are best to try & let her work it out on her own as much as possible as that way she will start becoming able to "sleep" through the rolling... hard as it is the more you intervene the more it can become a lng term problem. Certainly help if she gets upset, but while it is sort of just a whinge/moan you are best to leave her...normally in a week or so it "dissapears"... I have just got through my ds#2 having the novelty of pulling himself up & not being able to go back to sleep & it took about a week & now he "plays a bit" & then goes back... not great for dh & my sleep, but I know from ds#1 that intervention made it a LONG TERM problem

[Mom to M&M]

Thanks Kate. Problem is, when she's sleeping peacefully like that it's fine. And if she's moaning I'm happy to leave her. But it usually escalates beyond that - so at that point I should intervene and roll her?

Also, it happened twice today during daytime. While she was trying to fall asleep for morning and afternoon naps she rolled onto tummy and freaked out until I helped her and then she rolled onto side and fell asleep.

I've been trying to help her practice rolling in crib in addition to other areas during A time. Part of the problem may be that she understands how to roll easily from back to belly but she has a harder time going belly to back. She does it often by mistake but I don't think she knows how - KWIM?

Not sure what best to do...

[Katet]

There is no "fixed answer" you kind of have to go with her needs on it...as she gets more mobile, she will move more & often (at least with both my boys) move in to some very funny positions, so you kind of need to help them learn to sleep in that position... I would try to calm Liam when he rolled on his tummy, but when that didn't work , I would roll him  back, after a week or so he learnt to sleep what ever position he got into & like his big brother, there have been some pretty amazing ones

[Mom to M&M]

Thanks - will keep seeing what happens and only rescue if necessary. So if she falls asleep wedged horizontally or with a leg through crib rail let her stay that way?

[Katet]

Yep, I have photos of both boys with legs out the side... even my older asleep sitting up or with his legs in the air... if they fall alseep in all manner of positions it kind of lets them be able to roll into that position & stay asleep IYKWIM

[Beam79]

My baby is 4 mths old and often rolls from side onto tummy in the night, and sometimes grunts as he does so, I have found that going in and gently rolling him back onto his side settles him. I have also invested in a special bolster that I bought from Jo Jo Mamman Bebe that keeps him more on his side. It's fab!

[Mom to M&M]

So she slept really peacefully/well on tummy for much of the night (I believe she rolled on there around 1:30 am) but woke for day unhappy at 5:40 am. Tried to get her to go back to sleep but nothing doing. Had her wait until 6:15 am to get out of bed though since she wasn't too worked up. Since she was up so early, even though still in bed, do I have to adjust all her naps so much earlier? I'm worried if I do her bedtime will be too early tonight and the cycle will feed upon itself! Or do I try to stretch her A times a bit and let her naps be a few minutes longer so we can get back on track (or at least close) by end of day?