3 month old rolling over at night - scared!

[Jennay123]

So for the past 3 nights DS (who's 3 months old) has been rolling onto his tummy in the middle of the night...and then waking up screaming and really upset. This is happening almost every 2 hours and before he would go 6-7 hour stretches. Sometimes he's on his belly and resting on his cheek, but other times he's resting on his forehead...either way he's uncomfortable. It makes me nervous that he would roll over and be on his forehead/chin - it looks like he could suffocate! He can't get himself back on his back which is why I think he's so upset. How in the world do you deal with this? We co-slept for awhile and finally transitioned him into the crib but I finally put him in bed with us last night since it was making me so nervous. As a side note, we don't use bumpers on the crib.

Thanks for any help - this is so scary to me!

[P.J.]

I know I keep mentioning this in related posts and queries, I bet people think I'm secretly pushing them for a company or something, which I'm not...but I use sleep positioners and I think they are great! These are similar to the ones I have, with air vents, and I place them pretty low down by his torso so there's no chance he'd smush his face into them and obstruct breathing. He started rolling early too, around 8 weeks, and it scared me one day when I went in to get him from a nap and he had rolled and was face-down, and swaddled! With the sleep bumpers, he can still sleep alone for naps in our bed and stay on his back, and swaddled. Without them I guess he'd have to be in a crib and unswaddled, which probably wouldn't work as well so yeah, they've pretty much saved DS's naps!!!

[maptome]

I don't think you have anything to worry about if he wakes himself up. As he's learning new tricks, he'll practice them in his sleep. I would just keep giving him lots of opportunities during the day to practice rolling onto his back.

[tzs]

i would doubt that he's especially uncomfortable.
i know we went through a very long phase of rolling to tummy at night and then screaming until i flipped her over. apparently at night they forget they know how to get back. it seemed to go on forever but i could see how you would pay more attention to it b/c your babe is younger than mine was at the time.
i would bet alot of us had the same stuff going on.
the official word on safe tummy sleeping is that if they can roll to tummy then they are ok.....they have the strength to get there so they have the strength to keep their head safe.....even if they are not so happy about it.

[jecombs]

My DS is doing the same thing (he's also 3 mo.). He just started rolling over a few days ago and we've not been getting a lot of sleep since then. He actually can roll both ways (front-to-back and back-to-front), but I think he forgets in the middle of the night.

No worries about suffocation. Pp is right, if they are strong enough to roll over, then they are strong enough to get their head into a comfortable position.

I hope we both start getting more sleep soon, though!

[2xy]

I have doubts that he's uncomfortable. He's probably just mad that he can't roll himself back yet.

[Jennay123]

Thank you all so much for the replies! I guess it looks (and sounds) scarier than it actually is... We are working on lots of tummy time during the day and tonight our project is converting his crib back into a co-sleeper. Thanks again!

[stephbrownthinks]

I have the exact opposite problem with my 4 month old... I put him to sleep on his tummy (the only way he'll STAY asleep), and in the middle of the night he rolls to his back and freaks out about it

[Plummeting]

Yeah, it's really nothing to worry about. DD started rolling back to front at 2 months and a week or two. She also rolled over and cried about it for a month or so. Then she started preferring to be on her stomach and quit crying about it.

[Quinalla]

Yeah, I wouldn't worry about it, sounds like he is waking up just fine when it happens but I can commiserate with all the extra waking. I would do what you can to help him figure out how to roll from tummy to back and yeah, probably move the crib back closer to you for now to make is easier on you.