Who else sleeps their newborn on their tummy

Ok i am well aware of SIDS precautions so please dont add a lecture in here.

Wondering if anyone else's bub sleeps on their tummy (pre rolling age?)

I quite often put Cameron to sleep on his tummy - prerolling - but I only did it during the day so I could go in and check on him. He seemed to sleep better this way. About a month ago he has begun rolling back to tummy, and most mornings we find him on his tummy (he sleeps through) so not sure when he flips, but sometimes hear him after I put him down at night talking and singing, so I'm sure he sometimes flips at the beginning of the night - so obviously he likes his tummy whether I've put him there or not.

DS2 was rolling at 3 1/2 weeks, so it wasn't pre-rolling age, but I started sleeping him on his tummy really early. The thing was, it was the only way he would sleep for ages and TBH I wish I'd realised that sooner. It might have saved us a lot of grief. I knew it was against the SIDS recommendations, but then I'm not sure that it's safe to have a really tired mum either, especially when driving etc. So sleep is important too. I did have an angelcare monitor though, so theoretically we would have been alerted if he stopped breathing. But you know, the risk of tummy sleeping for SIDS is minimal and partly theoretical (ie no-one really knows what causes it), so sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. HTH.

thanks girls
His bassinette only has a foam mattress in it - no monitor or breathe easy stuff.
But he gets the worse tummy pains sometimes crying up to 8 hrs a day in pain and i find it helps him on his belly.

PP - tummy sleepers in this house

xx

i have one of the anti roll pillows - i assume i should take this away if tummy sleeping?
Do you roll them onto their backs once asleep?

dunno bout the anti roll pillows never had them
And I never roll them over. Thats how they sleep. I ain't gonna disturb peace and quiet!!! LOL

(But we do have a breathing monitor in the cot)

mmm i wonder if i could find someone who wants to lend me their breathing monitor for a few months? do you reckon id have any luck?? if i did a post?

Mia loves being on her tummy and i have put her on it to get her to sleep somedays. When she is asleep tho, i do roll her back over.. if i didnt i would freak and be checking her every 5 seconds. Tho ive never heard of these breathing moniters.. are they just like regular moniters?

holly - the monitors have panels that go under the cot mattress and tthe alarm goes off if their breathinbg slows down. most people have the angelcare one - i have a different brand.

PP- duuno - maybe?

ahhh Mel... the things u learn. what a good idea!

just put a thread in kel.. someone might have one u can borrow.

Yeah, Si is. He rolled and pushed himself up at 2 weeks - though I think that was an accident from having such an arched back from wind - all that arching and wriggling made him pretty strong. We probably figured the tummy thing out a little later than 3 weeks, maybe 8weeks when he started sleeping through, and how that happened was that we'd start him on his back, and then when he woke, we flipped him to his tummy. Wasn't long before dh just started him off on his tummy in the first place.

You know all the other SIDS recommendations though, so you can still keep those. Nothing that could cover his face, no toys in cot, nice firm mattress, good airflow in room. Don't wrap him either, at least not his arms. Make sure he won't overheat, I've heard that's the main issue with tummy sleeping - my MCHN said that when I was little (my generation were mostly tummy slept) there wasn't too much central heating around, so bedrooms and babies tended to stay a bit cooler.

Great honest thread... can be such a taboo subject to raise hey?

All 3 of mine slept on their tummies from birth. With my first I just intuitively knew that there was no-way-known she was going to sleep on her back. For a start she had a huge bump on the back of her head from a vacuum extraction... it looked sooo sore and i just couldn't make her lie on it (it went down quite quickly though... a matter of days).

With my second I started to ask my MCHNs and doctors how dangerous it really was. Some of them told me that as long as ALL the other SIDS guidelines were strictly adhered to it should be ok. My son also was just not interested in back sleeping either.

With my third I spoke to a MCHN that told me that she encounters about 1 in 10 babies that refuse to back sleep. She said it usually co-incides with good neck strength (yes to all 3 of mine)... and that it also "ran in familes".

All my babies have been able to hold their heads up for longer than usual periods from birth.


Also none of them could bare swaddling. I don't think you should swaddle and tummy sleep... mine needed their arm strength to lift and move their heads.

I really think it can be done safely... a firm mattress is extremely important though... and no cot bumpers.

If I had forced my babies to back sleep it would have been so traumatic... however I rarely recommend it to new mums... I wouldn't like to say that it was the right thing to do and then have a tragedy occur. I really think it should be something that is "sanity checked" by a professional.

ETA: great point Nelle about central heating. We have it but keep it off overnight.

bath - what do you mean by sanity checked lol!
It is a bit of a controversial topic isnt it. And i dont want it to turn into a sids attack - so happy that people has left supportive comments :)

We have a bassinette with a firm foam mattress in our room. No toys or anything and i wouldnt wrap him.
Atm we are co sleeping and he is on his side snuggled into me on my side.

I could put him in his big cot but he looks so little in there!!

DD was a back sleeper but in a sleeping bag she hated the swaddles but she didnt have the wind pain like DS does!

"Sanity checking": Oh that's just my generic phrase for "running it by someone so you are more confident that it's ok". I didn't mean to make it sound like people are "not sane" by allowing babies to tummy sleep :) Far from it! I really think that for some babies it is the best way.

lol didnt think you meant that at all! lol just never heard that phrase before !haha.

:) Well i told DH i want to try him on his belly overnight. He is ok with it but i guess i might be up all night checking lol

PinkPalace - I had just posted about this same topic too as DD likes belly sleeping although has been good sleeping on her side this past week or so as her belly pain has been minimal.

I mentioned the "tummy" sleeping at my mothers group and got the worse look from the clinic nurse, and kinda made an example of what not to do for the rest of the group. Having said that though plenty of bub's tummy sleep (as I found out from BB mummies) and so I'm happy with it for DD when she wants to.

I do have an angelcare monitor though for some reassurance. If bubba doesn't breathe for 20 seconds an initial alarm goes on both the nursery monitor - a long beep - (to try to wake bubba and get them breathing again) and also the parent unit, if nothing in a few more second then the full blown alarm sounds constantly on both units to alarm the parents and also to try to alarm the baby. Some hospitals don't recommend them as parents can be blaise (not sure of spelling) about the alarm if it goes off too many times without issue but as long as you treat the alarm as a sign of a problem and not just think (oh it's going off again) then it is worthwhile. Also need to make sure it is setup correctly so you don't get false alarms.

If you don't have one and can't find one to borrow maybe try ebay for a used one. Just a matter of running a test on it when you first get it, put bubba on it, take them off but leave monitor going and it should detect no movement/breathing after 20 seconds, if alarm goes off then the unit should be all ok.

Thanks snow.
I have been searching ebay and will keep watch on a few.
I cant post on here unfortunately asking if anyone has one i can borrow :(

DS is asleep on his tummy atm. He has very strong neck muscles and always has his head to the side. I am happy but DH is nervous about it.

And now our normal monitor is shot! so i have no monitor at all to hear a thing!
So hoping i can pick a sensor one up for a reasonable price

There is the babysense ones to.... not sure what they are like?

PP - the babysense one is the brand we have :)

Still going strong on bub #2

what would you say is a fair 2nd hand price?? ill keep a look out mel

I can't remember what we paid new cos mum brought it for us - think it was $280 or something?

I would probably sell mine for around $100 I guess??

We have just started tummy sleeping and feel safer in the knowledge that we have an alarm too.
I have a baby sense, i bought it on ebay for around $80 -$100, cant actually rememeber...
IMO it is money well spent and if i couldnt get one second hand i would def buy one brand new...

DH isnt too keen on the babys ense as it has no sound ... and we would need to buy a second monitor to hear when he cries...

but i hear that the angelcare one has lots of false alarms... ahhhh..

We had very few false alarms with the Angelcare - and the couple we did have were when DS was right in the corner of the cot.

PP - when we got the babysense one it came with two monitors as well
When I was looking online for another one - they still had the same deal on too.

Pink - We have the angelcare one and it's only gone off 3 times since we've had it, all in the one week and was twice due to the mats were not positioned correctly/fell off centre and the 3rd bubba was holding her breathe during a stretch and it went off right while we were literally standing over the top of her cradle rocking her. There is a sensitivity switch on the back of the nursery unit so if you get alot of false alarms you adjust the sensitivity of it to suit.

I slept Oliver on his tummy a few times when he was little and wouldn't settle. Now he can roll he chooses to sleep on his belly - just like mummy :) I was a reflux bub and was tummy slept from birth so its not unexpected that Oliver prefers it.

We also have an Angelcare monitor and its gone off twice -once the other night when he was asleep in the corner, and once when he was 6 weeks old - not sure why, we think he might have been really deeply asleep and shallow breathing. I'm ok with false alarms, just having the monitor helps *me* to sleep better so its been worth the investment.

DD has slept on her tummy from the early weeks as she just slept so much better that way. We were careful with all other SIDs things so I felt ok with it and DH did too after some time. We didn't use a monitor though for a few reasons though and at nearly 11 months Dd still rolls to her tummy to slepp.

thanks girls.
Last night was such a bad night of back sleeping for us....:(
DS screamed in belly pains and would splurt his feed every few seconds - then to sleep on his back he screamed non stop from 330-6am!

I am glad to hear the false alarms are easily fixed with the angelcare! :)

Cant wait to safetly to try one out

We didn't use alarms. Instead all my newborns slept in cradles (small cots) right next to my side of the bed. It was just a matter of lifting my head to check them if I couldn't hear them breathing (I usually could... newborns can be kinda snuffly). Also they can breathe in a shallow way but as long as they have pink lips then there is no need to disturb them. Once I panicked when my first baby was sleeping beside me and was breathing so shallowly and was so still that I thought she was dead... i actually shook her awake! (gently)... when I mentioned it to my mother (a nurse) she just said that I should just check baby's lips before shaking them awake... the lips are the first part of the body to change colour when there is oxygen deprivation (shortage). They go a purple then bluish colour. If baby is in deep sleep with bright red or healthy pink lips then all is well.... or even pink cheeks... but not too pink (cheeks) this can indicate overheating.

This little tip was invaluable.