Thursday, November 13, 2008

Tummy Time

Scenario A
Mallory rolls onto her tummy in her sleep, wakes herself up, and starts crying inconsolably. We rock her back to sleep and put her back into her crib on her back. Sometimes she stays put; sometimes she doesn't which leads us to...

Scenario B
Mallory rolls onto her tummy in her sleep and stays asleep - on her tummy - without me ever knowing it. I'll wake up to check on the girls; Mallory is often sound asleep on her tummy and I have no idea how long she's been there. It scares me to death!

More often than not, when I roll her onto her back she wakes up if she was asleep in the first place and starts crying; if she is awake, she continues crying. In both cases, she rolls right back onto her tummy, and starts crying harder. She doesn't seem to want to be on her tummy, but she can't yet roll onto her back on her own no matter how hard we practice.

It's a vicious cycle and I don't know what to do.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That's a toughy! If she is sleeping on her tummy when you check on her don't roll her over to her back. Are you worried she won't be able to breath. Most things I've read and the docs have said is that once they are able to roll in their sleep they are okay. I know she can't roll to her back but she will be able to turn her head if she gets in trouble. Dylan was taking a cat nap in his crib this evening, when I peeked at him he was face down. He was breathing so I didn't bother him b/c I know he can move that head around and squirm and roll if he needs to. Also, when she rolls onto her tummy at night, is she bumping anything like the mobile or aquarium? I have figured out the times I hear Dylan squirming and whining is when he has rolled and bopped his head on the mobile. He puts himself back to sleep but it's enough to scare him. I wouldn't worry about trying to teach her to roll from tummy to back, that's developmental and it will come, I think the bigger issue is trying to get her to fall back asleep on her own once she does wake up. Connor was a breeze, Dylan on the other hand has been a challenged sleeper, but we have arrived at 11-12 nights and putting himself back to sleep. Just be thankful she isn't waking Anna Claire up with all of this. I have read before about limiting their space in the crib to half the size. Placing some type of bumper in the middle so they only have half the crib to squirm, then you're left with her up against something. Just roll with it. No pun intended. They will have sleep issues their entire lives. Teething, leaking diaper, colds... it won't last forever. But as soon as it stops, something else will pop up. I was just talking to a friend of mine who was a four year old and a one year old. And she said about three days ago that the kids have both been eating and sleeping really good lately, so she knew something was about to happen b/c it isn't good for long. And wouldn't you know the one year old started with a fever, upset tummy, and screaming at night b/c the one year molars are coming through. This will pass but until then get in bed as soon as you can so you can sleep while you can.