Help - 7mth old rolling in sleep!

[moomoz]

Hi there :) ,
Just hoping someone out there would be able to help me. My 7 month old boy was finally sleeping right through the night (7.30pm to 8am) until recently when he discovered that he could roll over in his cot while asleep :( .

I know that this is a stage that babies go through but my problem is that as soon as he is on his tummy, he wakes up and crys until I go in to comfort him and help him back to sleep, which only seems to last about an hour or 2 before he does it again. This has been going on for about 4 wks now and both my partner and I are exhausted from the lack of sleep :eek: . Sometimes the only way to get him to sleep again is to feed him a bottle, which I am SO reluctant to do as it has taken so long to wean him off these midnight feeds.

I have taken everything out of his cot, incl. blankets/sheet/toys etc and when I do go into him, I move him onto his side or back. At this stage he still has not worked out how to roll over onto his back from his tummy.

Should I try letting him cry it out a little (with of course constant checking and reasurance technique over a period of time) so that he learns that it is ok and that he will learn to fall back to sleep by himself???? How long will this stage last for?? :confused:

Any suggestions or advise would be great...

[Harmony83]

I don't have any advice for you unfortunately as we are going through the exact same thing and are feeling extremely exhausted!!!! We settle him in his cot then he rolls over and starts crying, because of this it is extremely hard to put him down for his daysleeps! But I would love to hear the suggestions you get!

[moomoz]

Hi Harmony,

I can really feel for you, this is driving me nuts and the lack of sleep is starting to take its toll. One thing though, I don't have this problem with my son during the day. He goes down without a fuss and will sleep on his tummy without the crying for up to 2hrs so I don't understand why its happening so much at night..
Anyway, hopefully someone can give us advise which will help.

[jamb]

No advice, same boat though!

Really weird as during the day he rolls himself back over on to his back so why can't he during the night??? Right now he is fast alseep on his tummy. I am thinking that during the night he rolls over, sleeps for awhile on his tummy and then when he stirs he has had enough on his tummy but for the life of him cant get on his back?

We have tried leaving a light on in case he cant navigate which way to roll but nope.

I am also playing lots of roll over games during the day in the hope he gets it quicker!

He sleeps in our bed quite often and that gives us a better sleep as one of us just flicks him back over, but I know co-sleeping isnt for everyone!

I just hope it passes soon as it is sooooo tiring, its like the early days all over :(

[channy]

I wish I could help. My little guy does the exact same thing. The only way we ended up getting him to settle was to start wrapping him again. Then fold a sheet in half and tuck it into one side of the cot and lay it out. Put bubs down on the sheet and fold it back over bubs and tuck it in to the same side. This prevents them rolling. Only a short time solution but it works for now.

[Ky]

Have you thought about having more tummy time during the day to get your little one used to being on his tummy? Maybe then, he will settle happily and not be upset at having rolled onto it.

I know that we are advised to put our babies on thier backs to sleep, but there comes a point where they are going to choose how they sleep and we just have the task of making sure that where they are sleeping has nothing there to obstruct thier breathing ie. blankets, sheets, soft toys, cot bumpers etc.

I know I haven't been much help, but all I can say is that both of my children have ended up being tummy lseepers and there comes a point where we are unable to dictate how they will sleep so we need to relax and do what we can to make them comfortable and safe. Tummy time in the day is almost like training them to feel settled in whatever position they find themselves in.

[moomoz]

Hi,
me again. Yep, my little boy gets plenty of tummy time during the day. He is always on it and trys to push himself along to get to things. I guess I just have to be patient and encourage rolling back onto his back. Not worried about him sleeping on his tummy, just want to find out how I can get him through the wakefulness during the night.
Thanks

[SweetSerenity]

Hi Moomoz,
I had the exact same problem.
All i can say is, he will eventually learn to just roll himself back over and fall back asleep.
My son always did this and i was up every two hours too!
He now rolls in his sleep still, but he rolls himself back over and continues sleeping.
We tried tucking him in to stop him, but he's a strong solid boy and doesn't stay tucked in ever.....so this didn't work for us!
All i can say is HANG IN THERE :)
Take care!
Natalie xx

[superbaby]

I purchased a "sleep wrap" from babies galore a few months ago which may help. It is essentially a piece of fabric that velcros around the mattress with two flaps on top that velcro together to hold the baby in place so that they stay in the one place/side etc. I bought it as my little boy has a flattened head and I thought it might help to keep him on his side. It wasn't a success as he hated it and ended up sleeping with his head to the side anyway, but it may be ok for a baby when they are on their back sleeping to prevent rolling issues.

[JessandKirra]

dd did the same. I just let her grizzle for a little while. Now she can roll back she prefers to sleep on her tummy anyway. It sucks that you actually get woken up and have to lay there and listen to it. But try it out. Sometimes if I was lucky she would go to sleep sometimes not. Now I have the problem that she roams around the cot like its a safari! :p

[JanetF]

If your baby is in your bed, or in a side car cot pressed up against your bed, you won't have to get out of bed at all to comfort him and that will give you much more sleep. My son went through a stage when he was learning to crawl where every time he stirred he'd have to have a little practice LOL. Quite funny really! I'd never have survived it if he didn't sleep with me because he'd get upset about waking himself up. We had about a fortnight of it and then it was over. I just popped him on the boob and he'd go straight back to sleep. No medals for making life harder for yourself so there's no way I'd ever have a young baby in another room and get up to them at night. :)

[Jo-Jo JJ]

Hi,
I'm new to this forum but here goes!
We have a 7 mth old and have been using a "sleep wrap" for 6-8 weeks now - it's FANTASTIC... a friend gave it to me (she had made it) - sounds like the Babies Galore one though - sheet tucks round the mattress and then a band of sheet goes over bubby's tummy and velcro's together to keep them on their back.

She is just starting to be able to wriggle out of it if we don't fasten it properly but 98% of the time it works. She generally sleeps for 10-11 hrs with it - highly recommend it. We also use it for her daytime sleeps too....

Good Luck!

[red crayon]

thanks for starting this thread, moomoz, i was just about to start one myself. i'm having the same problem. looks like i'll have to persevere. :)

[cobysmummy]

oh i remember that stage!
my son started rolling at about 5 months... he first rolled over in his sleep and woke up in shock! Stupid me got all excited saying 'wow bubba rolled over!' and then the cheeky little thing kept rolling over and over... thinking he was smart!
all i can say is the stage passes after they have amused themselves with it for awhile... Hang in there! :)