Now that Mari is fairly good at rolling over, she almost always rolls onto her side when I put her down on her back, and a few times she's rolled onto her belly. I know the sages say not to let babies sleep on their bellies, but I've let her stay there, since I figure if she's big enough to put herself on her belly she's big enough to survive it. I do make sure there are no obvious suffocation hazards around. No bumper, no soft toys except her lovey, which is quite thin, no pillow, no blankets.
I'm more torn on whether to actively encourage belly sleeping. Mari has been inconsistent in her reactions to belly sleeping. The first time I tried it, Mari had by far her longest sleep stretch EVER -- 7 hours, 15 minutes. I had to go in to check if she was dead. Since then, though, results vary dramatically. Sometimes she has a good solid sleep. Other times she's up within minutes, and seems more upset than usual. I think this is another thing I'll have to keep track of to see if it really does produce an improvement in her sleep, at least most of the time.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Yeah, I've wondered this too. Tummy-sleeping babies *do* sleep deeper, which is why it can be dangerous for the little ones (but for the record, the medical folks say that once your little one can roll themselves over, you do not need to turn them back onto their backs or to use positioning devices to keep them on their backs). The advice as I understand it is to keep putting them down on their backs, however. I think I'm too paranoid to actually put Jake down on his tummy, but oh, the siren song of *anything* that would get us a little more sleep...
ReplyDeleteWe've moved Jake's crib away from the bed, so for the last few nights he's sleeping in his crib a couple feet away from us. Well, for the first part of the night. Gradually, gradually...
I'm glad to hear you and Mari are seeing some progress!
Good luck to you and Jake. How often does he wake up? I kind of wish there was enough room in our bedroom to have the crib in there and move it away, but there's no way -- the room's too small. So it's co-sleeping in our bed or crib sleeping in her room; there's no middle ground.
ReplyDeleteJake wakings: depends on the night. Tonight, freakishly, I have only had to settle him at bedtime (he went to bed a little earlier than normal--7:30); it is now 9:25. Usually he wakes up every 45 minutes to an hour during the before-we-come-to-bed part of the evening, and we're able to resettle him without too much fuss. Then he often wakes around 2, and I feed him again, and then he wakes anywhere from twice to four more times during the rest of the night. He'll often sleep through once I bring him into the bed, so his wakings have something to do with how often we have the energy to resettle him in his crib. Aargh--he just started to cry. Jinxed myself.
ReplyDeleteHmm, sounds a lot like Mari. She does sleep better when I bring her into our bed, but I don't want to do that forever. Hope Jake sleeps well tonight.
ReplyDelete