tummy sleeping…don't know what to do

[Anonymous]

Hello again. My 11 week old will only sleep well on her tummy, and as I’m sure some of you have struggled with, I don’t know whether to let her do this. I’ve tried every other sleeping arrangement I can think of, and, because of her tummy issues this is the only position that works. she wakes up and fights her swaddle, so I’ve tried not swaddling and you can tell she doesn’t feel secure. I was desperate one day so I let her sleep on her tummy, right next to me, and she slept for almost 4 hours. I go back to work next week and she will be in the hands of daycare, so I don’t know whether to allow them to put her on her tummy. Also, I am alone with my 2 kids at night because my husband works nights, so if I don’t get any sleep and have to work all day, I am going to burn out in a few days. I talked to the nurse at my peds office and she just said “you can’t.”

I know nobody can approve of doing this for fear of SIDS, but at what point do you become desperate and weigh the risks of SIDS vs. getting my poor daughter some sleep? She picks her head up easily and the mattress is very firm/tight crib sheet, so I really don’t think there is any way she will get stuck face down, but i don’t know if I can take that risk.

Just looking for some advice or comments, or experience. If I buy a special monitor, will it drive me crazy listening for the alarm every second?

[Anonymous]

I have been having the same dilemma with my dd (who doesn’t have reflux but likes to sleep on her tummy). My dd is 5 months old and as soon as you put her down in her crib she rolls to her tummy, face down in the mattress of all positions. Since she is rolling I can’t do anything to stop her, so I just keep a close watch on her when she is sleeping. I usually get up every 2-4 hrs at night to check on her and during the day I peek at her about every 30 min or so. You may want to look into one of the video monitors and then you could at least “see” her without having to be in the room with her and then you would know if she is okay. We had one of the Angel care monitors with DS and it gave us a false alarm 2x and then we stopped using it b/c the alarms scared me so much I didn’t go back to sleep those nights! Tummy sleeping is a hard thing… as soon as she starts rolling over then you can be more comfortable. You can also just make sure there isn’t anything she can suffocate on in the crib (blankets, stuffed animals, bumpers etc) and then you pretty much have done all you can. Good Luck… sleep is such a precious thing!

[Anonymous]

We went through the same thing and finally just invested in a video monitor that had zoom and let him sleep on his tummy. We all finally got some sleep. I was scared to death the first few weeks and was up often checking the screen, but I relaxed over time. Those monitors are so sensative, you will still hear the little “sleep noises.” Also, when I “confessed” to the dr, he said that if/when he rolls himself over, then SIDS risks drop considerably. Not that he “encouraged” tummy sleeping, but just gave me more peace of mind when we got to that point.

Ironically, now when I lay him down on his tummy, he rolls over and sleeps on his back! It seems his mission in life is to keep me on my toes!

Good luck and sweet dreams- hopefully soon!

[Anonymous]

Have you tried putting her on her side? None of my three babies would sleep more than a few minutes on their backs, and I was afraid to put them on their tummies, but side sleeping worked well for all of them. I used to prop them on their sides with a sleep positioner and flip them once or twice during the night so they didn’t get flat heads.

I’m not sure the day care will put her on her tummy, even with your position. I don’t think they are allowed to.

She’s getting close to an age where she’ll flip back and forth and sleep in whatever position she wants, so hang in there!!

[Anonymous]

We had the same issue with our son. The angel care movement monitor has given us peace. It is by far the best product we have ever invested in although it is a little pricey in comparison to other monitors. For us it was worth the price ten times over. Our LO now rolls over and is beginning to crawl and we still use it every night!

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