baby likes to sleep on tummy

[azhie]

My LO (almost 4 weeks) likes to sleep on her tummy. I used to lay her belly-down on my chest when we nap together, and now it's the only way she'll go to sleep at night. When she's asleep and I lay her back on her back, she wakes up. So what happens is that sometimes we sleep the night with her on my chest (waking up a few times to nurse). She also prefers to sleep on her side (she falls asleep easily). It seems that she just doesn't like being on her back at all. 

I haven't left her on her tummy or her side to sleep without watching her, but I wonder if other mamas have experienced this?

My relatives told me that they put their babies on their tummies to sleep, and that they slept much more soundly like that. Everything I read about babies says to always put babies on their backs to sleep... 

[teraze]

I had a similar experience with my son.  When he was a few days old he started rolling on his side and sleeping that way.  The side position didn't bother me (and we bed share) so I let him be.  The issue with my son is that he used to wake himself up as if he were "falling off a cliff."  His arms would fly hither and thither and he'd jerk himself awake.  Poor dear.  :)  I know that laying him on his stomach would have provided that feeling of comfort and security that babe's crave...but I'm paranoid and have a soft mattress...so I would sleep with my arm laying across his chest and arms.  Not to hold him down, but to give him the sense I was present, although I do think he enjoyed the weight of my arm.

And you're totally right - the convention when I was an infant (I'm 30, now) was that babies slept on their tummies.  The recommendation for back-sleeping today is that babies are better able to rouse from a deep sleep...which is important but leads us full circle back to babies craving that comfy, cozy feeling of stomach sleeping.  

[minkajane]

DD has slept on her tummy from the start. She's almost 3 months now and is a great sleeper. Part of it is just luck I'm sure, but I think part of it has to do with the fact that we let her sleep on her tummy. Once or twice she's conked out on her back, but it never lasts long. When she's in the bed with me instead of in the bassinet, she often sleeps on her side after falling asleep while nursing, but I've never seen her roll onto her back or anything.

I'm not terribly worried about it, to be honest. We breastfeed, nobody smokes, she's either in the bassinet right by my bed or right next to me. Statistically, DD is in the lowest possible risk group for SIDS and every other thing we're doing reduces her risk, so I'm ok with this one thing. Maybe if she had other factors increasing her risk like prematurity I'd reconsider.

[Strong Mama]

One of my twins tummy sleeps. Been so since birth. I am a SIDS instructor too....so I so should not be allowing it, but my oldest tummy slept(hes 18, before the whole SIDS thing came out ) and hes fine. So..LOL whatever. MIne is 5 months old now so I dont worry as much as I used to, but she sleeps 12 h ours solid at night.

[azhie]

Thanks for all your replies, mamas! :) Glad to hear that tummy sleeping isn't as bad as the books make it out to be. Mine is sleeping 3 hours at a stretch so far and I consider myself lucky... also she wakes up too often on her back so it doesn't make sense to me to make her sleep that way (hard for both of us!)