Hi,
My little boy is 7.5 months old and has in the last couple of weeks decided he wants to sleep on his tummy. I put him on his back, but he rolls straight over onto his stomach every time and will then go to sleep (he also just generally does this during the day, and will always roll off his back whenever he’s put on it). This would be fine, except his sleep has also rapidly gone downhill in the same period of time.
Since 6 months he started sleeping really well - waking up once between 2 and 4am for a feed and then going back down. However, in the last couple of weeks it has been the worst it’s ever been. Waking every hour or so, with lots of crying, and often difficult to resettle - I end up having to rock him which I haven’t done since around the 4 month mark. His sleep had started getting slightly worse just before he started the tummy sleeping, but not as bad as now. Not sure if it’s just coincidence.
Day naps are fine, he usually has 3 a day, one of which is usually 1.5-2 hours. All on his tummy now. He self settles, but with his dummy, which he only has for sleep. I tried taking the dummy away once but he really, really screamed and I couldn’t do it. I think he might be losing his dummy more in the night now he’s on his tummy, but he’s not going straight back to sleep when it’s replaced anymore either.
Any advice on what to do? Is this just a phase that I need to get through? Should I persevere getting rid of the dummy? The only other thing to mention is he always sleeps on the same side of his face, which I guess is just a preference as he has no problems with head/neck movement otherwise, but I don’t know if maybe that’s some kind of discomfort?
Thanks for any advice.