[lozzylots]

My DD is 14 weeks and started rolling from her back to her tummy this week. She has been sleeping really well until the last few nights, usually 7-9 hours with only occasional waking. Since starting to roll, she has been waking at 3-4am because she has rolled and isn't very good at rolling back. She's always hated tummy time due to reflux, loathes being on her stomach, so she won't go back to sleep. Usually when she wakes in the night I can pop her dummy in and she will go back to sleep easily, but now she just wants to roll around and won't go back to sleep. If I try to make her go back on her back she screeches and squirms and immediately goes back on her side when I let go. She does seem happy enough on her side, but I don't want her to go from her side to her tummy. It has taken and hour and a half each night to get her back to sleep, last night I ended up strapping her in to her rocker and sleeping in the lounge with her.

Even if it wasn't a SIDS risk, I can't just leave her on her tummy because she doesn't actually like it. I tried swaddling her super tight so she couldn't use her arms or legs to roll (she's been in a sleeping bag for about a month) but she still rolled and just ended up with her face in the mattress. I rolled up a blanket and wedged it against the side of the cot she rolls towards, placed her right next to it, but she can still get on her side and gets annoyed she can't go any further. If she wasn't so young, I'd call it a tantrum!!

Her day sleeps are becoming a bit rubbish too, she used to have at least 2 really good naps, but is finding it hard to resettle after one sleep cycle. She's having a long nap now but that will probably be the only good one she has today. She is becoming really whingy from the poor sleep. What's happening to my previously good sleeper?? What can I do to get her back on track? We've just sorted out her reflux, she has been so happy, now this

[KRT]

It's always the way, once you've got one thing sorted another comes up.

14 weeks is prime time for disturbed sleep as sleep cycles become more adult-like. The aim is to get through without introducing sleep associations (like holding to sleep) that you don't want to maintain long term. The good thing is that it is usually the time that daysleeps start to improve and self-settling can develop.

If you are concerned about the SIDS risk for tummy sleeping, I would not be putting anything extra in the cot. The usual advice I've been given is that if they can get themselves onto their tummy, it's okay to leave them because they're developed enough to learn to either roll back or wake up and call out for help.

Some ideas:
- Try wrapping/swaddling with arms out/one arm out/both arms up but still wrapped in the fabric, so she can roll back more easily

- Offer heaps of tummy time and rolling practice during the day so she can get it out of her system. The drive to learn is so strong that they'll wake themselves up trying to crawl in their sleep, and it's the same with any other skill

- Remember that it will pass! Really, honestly, it will. For DS, the bad periods were usually over in a week - but it was an awfully long week. And then we'd have a few days of problems, then a week of good times, and then it would start all over again with something new.

[littleboysmum]

My DD is exactly the same. She sleeps on her tummy and side every night, we just can't stop her. She has done it from 4 months (she's now 6 months). Sometimes we roll her back but she just turns over again. She's gotten used to sleeping that way but still wakes many times over night and I'm just resigned to it for now. We tried a sleep positioner but unfortunately she just rolls straight out of it. Not much help but commiserations!