I think I have a tummy sleeper...

maryh01

I know "back is best" but LO sleeps so much better on his tummy!  What do I do? He'll sleep for 45 minutes or so on his back and then wake up and sleep another 1.5 hours or so on his tummy!

MrsEmm

D is the same. Once he learned to roll over he began sleeping this way. I didnt feel comfortable lying him down on his tummy but now with him rolling theres not much I can do.

Swaddling helped until he learned to roll. 

mrs.meteowrite

On some nights when Miles just couldn't settle in, we'd let him fall asleep on his tummy and then flip him to his back.   He kept whapping himself in the face when we'd put him on his back, and he was a little Houdini at getting out of a swaddle.  So if you can flip little guy without waking him (this was a DH-only job at our house, my nerves couldn't take it) you have the safety of back sleeping with the ease of falling asleep that tummy sleeping seems to have for some little ones.

maryh01

MrsEmm:

D is the same. Once he learned to roll over he began sleeping this way. I didnt feel comfortable lying him down on his tummy but now with him rolling theres not much I can do.

Swaddling helped until he learned to roll. 

I know...this is how I feel too! I've been letting him sleep on his tummy on my chest, but that's getting old real quick.  I can't be strapped to the recliner for so long anymore. He does get swaddled, but he's starting to fight it...grunting and whining when he's in it. 

m&m818

MrsEmm:

D is the same. Once he learned to roll over he began sleeping this way. I didnt feel comfortable lying him down on his tummy but now with him rolling theres not much I can do.

Swaddling helped until he learned to roll. 

Ditto. We double swaddled for awhile too.

jsugrin

I let Cooper sleep on his tummy when he just wouldn't settle on his back since he really was a good overall sleeper, and quite frankly I learned my lesson the first time that doing "what's right" can get you in a world of trouble long run.  So I had an angelcare monitor, I had fan running to circulate the air near his face, he was right next to the bed and I would check his face slightly excessively when he was on his stomach, he also took a pacifier.  So those are all things you can do to make him more safe if you choose to let him tummy sleep.

MadameD517

Definitely not winning parent of the year award here but my older nephew wouldn't sleep on his back, we put him down on his stomach every night. Of course our logic was that on his back he could spit up and choke on it, so we felt a bit more justified.

maryh01

Thanks ladies...I just put him on his tummy in the crib ...we'll see how it goes. 

amyfelice

Ok, I have to chime in here and say that one should not put a one month old to sleep on his stomach, unless you are going to hold a mirror to his face all night to make sure he is still breathing. 

Yes, they sleep better and that is precisely the problem. They sleep so well that they don't wake up when they get into trouble. And as you probably know SIDS is not a suffocation issue, it's caused by rebreathing the baby's own carbon dioxide.   

Sorry to be the worrywart but this the one thing that we stress more than anything else at preventative visits during these first few months.  

 

maryh01

Thanks Amy...precisely why it worries me. He sleeps just fine at night on his back but won't sleep longer than 45 minutes during the day unless he's on his tummy on my chest. If I try to lay him down on his back he wakes up :-( I guess I'll just have to keep trying...

amyfelice

At his age it's totally  normal to sleep 45 minutes at a stretch during the day. As long as he sleeps more at night, that is wonderful. DD of mine would not really sleep very long at night either!

It takes about four months until the "naps" develop. Maybe you want to read Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child so you know what to expect.  Good luck, I know it's hard but for me, safety always comes first, even when I am exhausted. 

AnyaBella

G also slept really well on my chest. That was the only way I was willing to have him on his tummy because I could feel him breathing. The only solution I could find was to wear him in the Moby so that I wasn't strapped to our recliner all day. The only other way he would sleep during the day was in his swing. At night I pretty much just dealt with the fact that he wouldn't sleep as long on his back. It's hard but it will pass. Good luck!

ETA: he only slept on my chest during the day, not at night! Don't want people thinking I was falling asleep with a baby on my chest. 

Mrs.K&C

amyfelice:

At his age it's totally  normal to sleep 45 minutes at a stretch during the day. As long as he sleeps more at night, that is wonderful. DD of mine would not really sleep very long at night either!

It takes about four months until the "naps" develop. Maybe you want to read Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child so you know what to expect.  Good luck, I know it's hard but for me, safety always comes first, even when I am exhausted. 

Ditto - you might get a longer nap stretch in the swing. My DD was a cat napper no matter what until 4 months when we really enforced her naps, but my DS would sleep in the swing for 2-3 hours for a nap.