Rolling and crawling in the cot

My son is 6 1/2 months old and has been rolling for the past 1 1/2 months and crawling (his version, then properly) for about a month.

Problem is he wants to do this in his cot....I know that's what babies do, but it's disrupting his and my sleep and I was hoping someone might have some ideas of things we could try.

I've started wrapping him again which has helped immensely at getting him settled down for sleeping. The problem is that he either wakes up and moves, or moves in his sleep and wakes up all upset as he's no longer under his blankets and often has his head right up against the head of the cot.

I was thinking about trying a SafeTSleep, but I can't quite get my head around tying him down. Perhaps I just have to get over that and give it a go?

What's worked for you?

We use sleeping bags, keeps them covered and as long they can roll back on to their backs leaving them to move about is fine.

DS has been a sleep-crawler and sleep-roller for months - ever since he started crawling and rolling!

He is sometimes in the funniest little positions when we go to get him up in the morning ...

We just use a sleeping bag to make sure he stays warm, and leave him to it. We couldn't bear the thought of straping him down. He's just developing, and having fun.

He gets enough sleep, it doesn't wake us up, he's warm and well rested in the mornings.

Not sure if he'll grow out of it, but we're hoping he will before he moves into a bed!

My DS is 5months old and is rolling all over the place now. We sleep him in a grow-bag. He can roll from side to side (and seems to enjoy sleeping on his side) but he can roll back again so I'm not too worried. Because he's in the grow-bag he is always snuggly and warm too. He doesn't crawl yet so I'm not sure if he could do that whilst in his grow-bag.

Sounds like he's fascinated in all his new tricks!! If you can try the sleeping bag option maybe to ensure he's warm and then just let him explore. You would think he'll grow out of it to a certain extent. Both my boys moved around heaps in their cots :)

Yep, sleeping bag here too. My DD rolls around all over the cot - I can't imagine how we're ever going to get her into a bed! The sleeping bag keeps her nice and warm and also stops her from crawling as much. She doesn't do this often now but at your LO's age she did.

Gosh, I just wrote a similar thread not long ago.

Our problem is mostly when DS goes down to sleep even when tired he will roll onto his tummy and cry or laugh depending on his mood. We roll him back and he does it again and again. We use sleeping bags to keep him warm at night. During the day the problem is a bit worse and we have discovered that swaddling him in a breathable blanket is helping immensly. He feels so secure he goes to sleep almost instantly

Thank you so much for your suggestion to use a sleeping bag. I was thinking about it a month or so ago then promptly forgot it as an option! I think I was looking at the problem the wrong way "he's crawling in his cot", rather than "he's waking up lots".

I sewed one yesterday and tried it out last night. His first sleep was 6 hours (until 2am), so much more settled. The rest of the night turned to custard, but I think that was due to teething pain and a rather sore belly, so I can't blame the sleeping bag for that :)

I will keep trying and see how it goes.

Do you use it during day sleeps as well? I've got him swaddled at the moment, like you Lisa, as that has been working for his daytime naps.

Thanks again. Hopefully we are on the way to more restful nights.

Maybe just go with what works for the moment.

Although at one stage there with my DD i was wrapping during the day and using a sleeping bag at night and you could tell the difference between the sleeps. I think it may have become a little confusing for her. Once i made the sleep routine the same day or night we got into a better groove.

6 hours is great!!!! Sorry about the second half though :)

[[[does everyone else get the Adele "Rolling In The Deep" song in their head each time they see this thread?]]]

We swaddled for say sleeps until DS was around 6 or so months old - he just didn't want a bar of it after that! And following that, we just put him down with a light blanket for day sleeps. No sleeping bag.

Hope the sleeping bag helps for overnight sleeps from here on! :)

I agree with the others. Try a sleeping bag. I wouldnt be worrying about it too much, he will get over it eventually.

I ended up going with the safe t sleep for DD. It freaked me out a lot at the time, but it did work. She was obsessive in her rolling and crawling in her cot, though. Every time you put her down for a sleep, she would flip and cry. I ended up having to sit with her and physically restrain her to get her to sleep. So the safe t sleep didn't do anything more than I was already doing without me being there and it meant that if she woke a little she wouldn't be able to roll and fully wake herself up.

I have only just discovered that not all babies are like that, LOL! DS just sleeps on his back....imagine that!

My son sounds like your daughter Star. He doesn't seem happy at the moment to sleep on his stomach, so there are plenty of tears when he ends up there. That's the great thing about this forum - you can find lots of people that share similar experiences and then hopefully find some useful advice too. Most of the time I've found baby/parenting books rather frustrating as they don't describe my son at all and just make me feel bad that I don't have a baby that has 2-3 hour naps and sleeps long periods at night. I come online and find that there are other babies like him and it puts my mind at ease, even if secretly I wish he would sleep a bit more!!

Last night he woke every 2 hours, with a few hourly wake ups too. All but one of those he wanted to feed, so perhaps he's growing again too!!

I shall hope for a better night tonight.

Well at least I have an explanation for the terrible sleeps...he came up in a rash on Monday/Tuesday. Doctor said some kind of viral thing, so no wonder he wasn't sleeping very well.

The last couple of nights have been much better, so let's hope the sleeping bag is the answer to all the sleep issues :D

Oh poor little guy....let's hope it's smooth sailing from here on in. :)