Sleeping on Her Tummy

So anyone who reads the latest literature on newborn care will discover that there's a big campaign for "back to sleep." Putting babies to sleep on their backs reduces significantly the risk for SIDS, which is Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. For the first three weeks we put Abby to sleep on her back. Of course, you can't just plop an infant down on her back and expect her to sleep! She has limbs that flail about without her knowing, and that startle her every minute. So, we were diligently swaddling her tightly in blankets. It was at times stressful because swaddling is a learned art, and unless you have a good swaddle, babies will get out of it, and end up not sleeping. Then the parents get upset and frustrated.

Enter mother-in-law. The first thing she did when she came to visit is to put Abby on her tummy when sleeping. She was adamant about it because she didn't want Abby to grow up with a flat head. I asked, "What about SIDS?" SIDS, Schmids. Her reasoning was that we were all raised on our tummies, so what's the big deal. So what was I supposed to do? Go against my mother-in-law?

So now Abby sleeps on her tummy. Sh! Don't tell anyone we do this. It's one of those things that you aren't supposed to tell your pediatrician or say out loud to other mothers. Kind of like if you're a Republican in California, keep it to yourself.

The results of Abby on her tummy have been great. She sleeps better and longer. The only problem is putting her in her crib without waking her. Imagine that she fell asleep in my arms with her tummy and face on my torso. How the heck am I supposed to switch her so that she ends up like that in the crib??? Well, every time I put her down, I would try a new method. There's the roll-over technique (she almost always wakes up with this technique), the flip-over technique (she almost always wakes up with this technique), and then there's the random-technique-that-works-but-I-can-never-replicate-again technique. Most of the time I just pray and have faith in God right before I put her in her crib that somehow she'll end up on her tummy and sleep well.

But today I learned a new technique from another mom. It's the face-plant technique! I was eager to come home and try it out. And...... it worked! It wasn't perfect, but now I have a technique to follow, and I'm sure I'll master it after a couple more tries. I'll still pray and have faith that God will allow her to sleep well because, hey, why not.