sleeping a baby with sleep issues on its tummy

So, i am so tempted to sleep my DD on her tummy-she is 10 weeks old and a nightmare on her back. The swaddle rips off, i try every night to sleep her without it and she flails, screams and literally stretches for 30 minutes straight..it is crazy.
Some of my friends slept their babies on their tummys-esp those with reflux..my DD has a problem with that and i am wondering if that is it..i am so nervous to sleep her on her tummy but feel terrible for her and this sleep issue we have.

Anyone do this and is it a bad idea?

Re: sleeping a baby with sleep issues on its tummy

This is a very personal decision. I decided at 5 weeks to sleep my DS on his tummy. He honestly likes to sleep on his belly and sleeps very well this way. My DS is 11 weeks this week and once I get him to sleep, which is difficult he sleeps for 9 to 10 hours.
Whatever you decide you need to be comfortable with your decision. You may want to start with her naps then progress to night time, see if that works. This is how I did it.

Good luck!!!!

Re: sleeping a baby with sleep issues on its tummy

We used to put my son on his belly to go to sleep and we started that fairly young (2 months +/-). He was a terrible sleeper and this helped him sleep a tad bit longer. My mom was actually the one that suggested it. I was really hesitant doing this at first b/c of all the warnings not too. Eventually though, my lack of sleep won I was really nervous in the beginning and would check on my son constantly. After awhile though that faded and we both got to get a little more sleep. Good luck with whatever you decide!

Re: sleeping a baby with sleep issues on its tummy

I always put my son to bed on his back. Now he is old enough to roll around and if he ends up on his belly, that is fine. But I personally didn't feel comfortable taking the chance of belly sleeping before he could roll around on his own.

BTW, my son has reflux issues and hated being on his belly. It caused him to reflux MORE because of the pressure on his tummy. HTH

Re: sleeping a baby with sleep issues on its tummy

I wouldn't do it, and the AAP recommends against it, but if you feel comfortable with it, then that's a choice you, and only you, have to make.

Re: sleeping a baby with sleep issues on its tummy

We had the same issue as well. DS slept in my arms for 9 weeks because he is a stomach sleeper. He would literally wake up after a minute of being on his back and would not go back to sleep. One day while he was sleeping on me, I realized that he only slept comfortably when on his stomach.We first began to nap him during the day on his stomach and would check on him literally every 2 minutes. He slept great and seemed so much happier.Then when he was 9 weeks old, we spoke to the pediatrician about it. Since DS was able to hold his head up with no problem, she told us we could try to sleep him on his stomach. We bought the Babysense V mat, which detects movement and slept him on his stomach at night. We've been doing so ever since. DS is so much happier now because he is getting restful sleep. I don't like it but DS won't sleep any other way.

Re: sleeping a baby with sleep issues on its tummy

We were having similar sleep issues with my son (he is 6.5 weeks) it was a minimum 3 hour process to get him to sleep and some nights I would end up going downstairs to the couch and let him sleep on my chest. We swaddled him, tried not swaddling him, I was really tempted to have him sleep on his belly since he slept so well on my chest but our pediatrician suggested we try him in his car seat first. She said to think of it as a baby lazy boy.

The car seat has been a life saver! He sleeps so well in it! I can even put him in it when he isn't fully asleep and he'll go to sleep. I think it's the combination of being slighlty upright and feeling all nuzzled in, instead of being wide open in the crib.

Maybe give the car seat a try before going to her belly.

Message edited 2/9/2009 12:44:00 PM.