7 month old keeps getting stuck on her tummy in bed

[MummaLove]

Firstly, my daughter can roll from tummy to back and was doing this at 4 months. She's also sitting up all the time now too. So here I go....

My poor little DD2 who is just 7 months keeps flipping over onto her tummy as soon as I put her down for a sleep and can't flip back over so this results in her crying and screaming. I go in, settle her and flip her over but all she wants to do is get back onto her tummy the cracks it?? What the???!!

It's making it even harder, because I go settle, put her on her back and she loses the plot again because I walk out.

HELP - what should I be doing? It's doing my head in because 4 times/day I'm fighting to get her down to sleep and then sometimes mid sleep she'll flip over again and we're back where we started. So she's not getting any good blocks of sleep. I have been in there and she's asleep on her tummy so she must like it sometimes, but then she wakes after 1 sleep cycle and obviously wants to get off her tummy but can't so the crying and cycle starts all over again and she's impossible to get back to sleep.

[Roxybond]

I can completely sympathise!!!

My DS did this too at approx 6 months and it took me 4 weeks of battling him & forcing him onto his back when he really wanted to sleep on his tummy before I rang a settling lady (who came out to us when he was 4 mths old to help us settle him) and she said he's getting upset because he wants to sleep on his tummy but doesn't know how to settle himself on his tummy, hence would wake after one sleep cycle too. Based on my experience of this, I don't think your bub is upset at being on her tummy, she's upset because she doesn't know how to self settle on her tummy.

She said to do exactly what you do to settle him on his back and persist until he's calm, not asleep then walk away. It's exactly the same settling method as if he was on his back (for us, this is placing one hand in the middle of his back & gently rubbing in slow circles over his bottom until calm - no sshhing, my DS hates it, just loves the touch. This worked immediately for my DS and from then, I put him into bed on his tummy & he self settles. I couldn't understand it but she was right.

Give this a try and see how you go.

[MummaLove]

Roxybond - thank you! I will try this as I've just had to flip her over again twice after putting her to bed and it went up until an hour after I put her down. Just checked on her again and she's on her tummy so am wondering if I'm going to be in there in a little while again when she wakes.

She obviously likes sleeping on her tummy so I feel mean because when I pop her on her back she kicks and kicks and kicks and kicks down at the mattress, it's strange and she can't do that when she's on her tummy so maybe it's more comfy for her. Who knows?

Anyway, THANK YOU so much, I'll just try settling her on her tummy and see how she goes :)

[Roxybond]

Hi MummaLove, I'm so pleased to hear that might help you. I felt awful after the settling lady explained what my DS was trying to do and when seeing how quickly he settled once he knew how, it was amazing.

My DS was exactly the same, he'd roll onto his tummy the second I left the room after turning him onto his back or side & he'd cry & cry & kick and scream & get really upset.

Good luck, I'd love to hear how it goes.

[MummaLove]

Hi Again

Thanks so much for your advice, she's now back to sleeping through the night, she did wake a few times in the night but I just pat her little bottom for a few minutes, she still raises her head every now and then to look around but then she just puts it down and drifts off to sleep.

I feel so bad for flipping her over onto her back all those times as I thought that's what she wanted!!

Thank you so much for replying to my post. Hope you know how much it helped :kiss: :kiss:

[Roxybond]

Hi MummaLove, that's brilliant, I'm so pleased for you!!!

I hear you, I did that too for about 4 weeks and every sleep would be a battle because I thought my DS wanted to sleep on his tummy but I couldn't understand why he wouldn't settle and why he'd fight. Our settling lady saved our life in more ways than one, believe me.

I'm really thrilled for you because I know how hard it is and how reassuring it is to know that little bubs can self settle. It's such a release.

Take care