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Alabama Babies
Does anyone have a tummy sleeper?
I occasionally let Eli nap on his tummy next to me so that I can watch him, and he sleeps so well. He doesn't sleep soundly on his back and does not like to be swaddled anymore. So he sleeps in his bouncer or on our chests at night. At what age is it safe to allow your LO to sleep on his/her tummy? I'm terrified to let him do it overnight when I can't watch him and make sure he's fine.
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Re: Does anyone have a tummy sleeper?
Payton occasionally rolls over onto her tummy to sleep -- the pedi said unless we can watch her, it's not safe until she can roll over onto her tummy and back herself.
She was much more comfortable on her tummy from Day 1 as well, so she slept in her swing for a LONG time. Now that she can roll, she sometimes sleeps on her side now and sometimes her tummy.
Baby 411 doesn't address an age in particular but it says that "babies who sleep on their sides may accidentally roll onto their tummies. And babies who are not used to being tummy sleepers have an 18 fold increased risk of SIDS if they end up sleeping that way"...it also says that "once babies are good at clearing their nose and mouth by turning their heads, the risk of SIDS is lower." HTH.
DS does this very well, which is also why I'm fine with him napping on his tummy. Now when I put him on his side to sleep, he rolls over on his back. Well, I don't plan on letting him sleep on his tummy overnight anytime soon at all.
Thanks ladies!
Aubrey always hated sleeping on her back...so for the first month of her life she slept in her bouncer. My pedi then suggested a sleep positioner and because she had such good neck control she okayed us putting her in it on her side which is naturally how she would turn herself.
When she started rolling we had to take the positioner away. We always put her down in her crib on her back but she immediately rolls to her tummy. Because she does this on her own, and she is a good roller I leave her be. My pedi is okay with this.
Mitchell took all naps on his tummy pretty early on, from about 2 weeks. Everytime we put him down on his back he'd wake up within 2 minutes crying. The first day I tried the tummy nap he slept for 2 hours and I was amazed. I didn't get any rest of course because I was hovering over him the whole time. We still put him down at night on his back, but swaddled and slightly elevated (seemed to do a little better that way). But at about 1.5 months he hated the swaddle, so we let him belly sleep in the pack n play next to our bed until about 3 months when he moved to the crib. I felt horrible about it but honestly, I just had to pray and give it over to God.
Talked to pedi about it at the 2 month visit and he said that while he'd prefer a back sleeper, he'd be more concerned if we had other risk factors that contributed to SIDs or had had any relatives that suffered from SIDs. So of course, this isn't me recommending anything, just giving you my experience. And DS did have very good head control very early on....like day 6.
This sounds exactly like us. He can sleep for hours on his tummy. I have to wake him up to eat and change his diaper. I too hover over him. Our pnp is in our room too. He also wakes while on his back after a few min and the bouncer doesn't always help him sleep. Hence the best sleep he gets and what we're most comfy with is on our chests. This of course causes a lot of back pain and frustration for me. I don't know how we'll deal when I go back to work...
Yep, that's exactly how we started out every night, on one of our chests. It was primarily DH's because my back couldn't handle it either. If you're not comfortable w/ tummy sleeping in the pack n play at night, maybe try a sleep positioner to put him on his side, that will help him stay there and not roll over onto his tummy. We stopped the chest sleeping b/c we were getting a lot of flack from both our moms saying he would never sleep again w/o hearing a heartbeat and we'd be stuck like that forever.
ETA: Of course I knew it wouldn't be forever, but I was scared enough to think it'd be longer than I'd be happy with.
I didn't add in my original reply that I would also let Aubrey nap on her tummy during the day...I used to let her nap in the living room (we have one of those oversized chairs that has an ottoman). I'd put her on there and then scoot the ottoman against it and line it with pillows along the edge just in case she took the notion to roll. But I could watch her and make sure she was okay there.
I eventually had to stop that because I realized that if I kept it going I'd never get her to nap in her crib which was what I ultimately wanted. So when she went to her crib for naps I just did like I did at night and used the positioner. It kept her from rolling over to her belly, or her back either one. She too would scream and wake up if she was on her back.
Interesting thought...I told my OBGYN at my 6 week PP checkup about how she hated sleeping on her back and he told me it might be because she was sunny side up inside me. Another friend of mine said she can agree with that because her daughter was breech and she too hated sleeping on her back.
FF please!
Yes. From birth. {Shhhhh}
And what's *worse* is we even co-slept! (quasi-AP parent here) When he was a newborn, we kangaroo-ed all night. M slept on my chest and then I did side-lying for nursing...this was a lifesaver for my sleeping sanity!
From 1mo-6mos, we co-slept. For daytime naps he got the best (deepest) sleep on his tummy, but the nanny was in his room watching him in his crib. At nighttimes, he'd generally sleep on his side or back with me (he started each night off in the bassinet but co-sleeping made the most sense for us & nursing.)
After 6 mos, I transistioned him to his crib. But by this time he had been rolling since he was 2.5 mos so even the few times I did put him on his back, he'd roll on his side or tummy on his own. I typically put him down for naps/bedtime on his side. He hated the sleep positioner; I wasted $40 on that silly thing!
Mason's pretty much always slept on his tummy. Bedtime at 15-mos is: read him two books while in the rocker, turn off the lamp, rock him to settle him down (but he's still fully awake), put him face-down in his crib (still awake) and then he goes to sleep on his own. For Mason, putting him on his tummy signifies "go to sleep."
HOWEVER, that's just what we did that worked and I'm fully aware of the SIDS research and the "Back to Sleep" rhetoric. Tummy was what worked for us...
The Baby Blog.