Bonnie is now almost 5 months and is obsessed with rolling and being on her tummy. She can only roll from her back to her front (not from front to back).
Anyway, as soon as she's on the ground she rolls over and starts squirming about desperately trying to crawl. Then she starts to get tired and frustrated and starts crying - I try and leave her for a few minutes to see if she can figure it all out, but the crying gets worse so I turn her onto her back and give her a cuddle and she calms down. But then she rolls right back onto her tummy again and the whole things starts again!
If she spends too much time doing this, then she is extremely tired and cranky until her next nap time. But she obviously wants to be on her tummy despite her frustration.
So my question is, should I be leaving her on her tummy even though she's crying? Or should I try and keep her rolling obsession to a minimum time limit and then divert her attention to other activities? Part of me thinks that she's got to figure it out eventually so to maybe let her be frustrated on her tummy - but then I hate seeing her upset.
Man - this mummy stuff is really hard, what's she going to be like when she's trying to figure out walking?!
Jovie hates rolling onto her tummy and will tolerate it for a few minutes and then spits it. But she can roll back & forth now & STILL complains LOL.
I often will roll her back & give her a toy & if it happens a few times I put her in the rocker strapped in for 10 minutes so I can get something else done. Or I lay on the ground with her & sing a song or something to distract her. Or I pop her in the Jolly Jumper for 15 minutes.... I don't leave her crying because I know that its just a frustration thing & she'll work it out as time goes on. I give her "rolling time" around 5 times a day so she gets the chance.... and I'm also happy for her not to be moving too quickly
Oh yeah, I'm also happy for her not to be moving too quicky as well! But she just seems to be so into this rolling thing, I want to accommodate her as much as possible while still keeping my sanity :-)
She gets really annoyed with me when I roll her from her tummy to her back as if to say "hey, I was enjoying that" and I'm like, "well, why were you crying then?"
Jesse use to do the exact same thing. He hated tummy time so the minute he'd roll over, he'd scream cos he couldnt get back. It was frustraiting for both of us but he too learnt to roll back (it wont be too long!). I would get down with him and talk to him while on his tummy for as long as it would last (about 1 minute!). Until he learnt to roll back i just tried to find things for him to do on his back so he wouldnt wanna roll over, like baby gyms etc. But to answer your question, if he was crying, no i wouldnt leave him there, id roll him back or pick him up. Whether its the right thing to do or no, i didnt care, i didnt like hearing my baby cry.
Oh dont worry hun.. once they start to become mobile they are more easily amused i think... jesse can play with things by himself now.. but there have been a few head bangs from trying to stand up and falling down! Comes with the territory i think
What to do with frustrated baby?
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