11 week old sleeping on side but wakes up when rolls onto his back

[Jen1978]

My 11 week old will only sleep on his side but we now have the problem that he rolls onto his back and wakes himself up with the startle reflex. Up until now we have swaddled him (but with his arms out) but he is now too big to be swaddled and seemed to wriggle free from it anyway. We have now put him in a grobag. We put him down asleep onto his side but during the night he rolls onto his back (even though there is a rolled up towel behind him) and then starts to flail his arms and legs around and make strange noises (snorting sounds) until he wakes himself up. We will shortly be putting him into his cot as he is in a moses basket at the moment and we want him to sleep on his back as it will be hard to keep him on his side in a cot.

Any ideas on what we should do? Is there something we can buy to help stop him rolling onto his back or should we try to get him out of this habit now? it is really startng to do my head in as I am constantly getting up to turn him back onto his side before he wakes himself up!

ok either side of him roll up a towel (each side) balnkeyt over it if you're fussed etc re roughness. and wedge either side of DS. we did it wiht our LO for about 5 months, (in the crib and cot ) I know you can buy things but in the short term to make sure it works iycwim

sorry just read you tried the towel thingy. no other ideas then.

Ideally they should sleep on their backs but DD had different ideas too! The problem is not waking up, it's learning to resettle themselves, which often only comes with time.

We coslept for a month and then DD was put in a cotbed, and quite honestly it seemed to help, she could roll around throughout the night and learned to sleep through it. Often in moses baskets the baby tries to move away from the side and gets stuck in an even more uncomfy position I think.

BTW all babies are exceptionally noisy when asleep, that's entirely normal

Thanks anyway! Maybe we are not wedging him tight enough as he still rolls onto the towel behind him.

When you did it, how did your LO react when you no longer did this at 5 months?

tbh we took one side off at a time, but he got on ok with it. I found the towels had to be really tight and if it was a thin/hand towel I used two for extra padding as or as you say DS would roll on top/it would come unrolled etc. the unswaddaling was more of an issue tbh. (but I let that go on far too long anywasy)

I know the baby whispered (tracy hogg) used a special thing - which is basically the same but firm iycwim.

good luck with it thou. DS had terrible colic as a baby swaddaling/towels and a raised bed wee the only way we managed to get some sleep. at times I was up from 2-6am with him so know where you're coming from but it does get easier

Yes DS had really bad reflux early on which was why we started to put him on his side in the first place but now this is much better. We have only got a small towel behind him so I think that he is definitely now wedged in enough. The swaddling was brilliant but i really feel it is not working now as he thrashes arouns so much that is all comes undone anyway!

He is in a grobag for the first time tonight so we'll see if it makes any difference.

I wonder if he gets uncomfortable when he rolls on top of the towel and this is why he thrashes about because he wants to get back on his side but can't!

it's quite possible yes - can't be comfy to lay on a towel rolled up - as I say try the thicker tighter towel and see what differnce - if any that makes - we only used two hand towels tightly rolled as I didn't want to risk a huge bath sheet wedged next to him iycwim.

My MW very against wedging with towels - because of the risk of overheating.