My 11 week old fell off my bed. Feeling miserable and not sure what happened?

[Ferncheek]

I’m not even a FTM… this never happened to me before. I feel awful. I’ve even kicked my DH out of our bed for safe sleeping and this still happened?? Basically my 11 week old doesn’t sleep too well from about 3am, so usually I leave him lying next to me on my king sized bed and he sleeps better. I adhere to all safety guidelines, or so I thought. So it’s just me and him on the bed, no blankets near him, no pillows, and I also keep a distance between us in case I roll over. At 5:30am this morning I heard a thud and I woke to my baby face down on the carpet screaming. He was fine but I am still under shock and can’t stop crying because I don’t know how it happened. Lately I have occasionally found him lying horizontally in his crib. Could it possibly be that he turned anti clockwise and then pushed himself off? I did have the fan on overnight so it is possible I didn’t hear him shuffling because of our loud fan 😔

He is absolutely fine… laughing and smiling, feeding and sleeping, but I am so shook I might have to put an end to our early morning cuddles 😣

you need some bed guards - about £20 on amazon

I agree you should sleep C shaped around him but also you could create a barrier with a rolled up towel under the bedsheet. Don't give up the morning cuddles! Sounds like you both sleep better when together at the moment.

DD did this when she was about this age, it really upset me so I totally get how you're feeling. We had a next2me crib so from then on I didn't take her out of that when I was sleeping, I just put the side down (there's a little ledge so she wasn't able to move past that to get onto my bed) and I slept with my hand on her when she was unsettled which did seem to settle her a lot.

I remember at that age I would find DD upside down or horizontal from the position I left her sleeping in in her next-to-me. I think I remember reading that it's something they do for spatial awareness. Maybe your DC just rotated to the point he fell off?

OP, you're clearly a lovely mum who did her research on safe sleeping. I know it's so hard not to feel guilty, but try and go easier on yourself.
At least you know now and can put in a safety measure.

Hope you feel better soon and enjoy his playing and smiles x

@thismumneedssun yes! Mine has that ledge too. I think that’s the best way forward. Honestly I don’t think I’ll be sleeping much anymore with him on my bed. I’m scarred forever 😂 I was already paranoid about it…

@gollyimholly you’re lovely. Thank you for the kind words. Yes, I think he must have rotated anticlockwise and fell off.

GP has checked baby and confirmed all is OK thankfully

I'm late to the thread but just wanted to see how you are feeling now @Ferncheek it was obviously a horrible shock for you. I remember DD somehow leaning out of her bouncer and ended up at a really weird angle, she was crying but I ignored it as I was in the kitchen preparing her bottle and thought she was just shouting at me to hurry up so I carried on making it whilst calling out to her its OK baby almost ready etc. The guilt I felt when i finally (i say finally it was about 90 seconds) went back into the living room and found her sort of sideways/upside down (its hard to describe but over 9 years on and I can picture it vividly in my head) was awful and all consuming, especially as she was my first and I already felt incompetent!
It's horrible but it's happened and your baby is OK so please forgive yourself and just keep following all the relevant guidelines and your mummy instincts x

1. Don‘t worry these things happen. No lasting harm done.
2. If you do have them in your bed why would you not (or did you???) have them between you and the snuzzlepod, so if they did roll/move they could only move back into that?

Something similar happened to me. Turned to find out what my two year old was screaming at (& I mean really screaming!) & 6 month old rolled off the bed where I'd been dressing him. More screaming but no harm done (he's 48 now).
Daughter was screaming because she unhooked the outlet pipe while the washing machine was gushing out water & I found the kitchen & living room underwater. She's still alive too.
Accidents happen! If all is well, don't worry about it too much.

Oh OP! I’m glad your little one is alright, please don’t beat yourself up over it.

My DS (7mo) flipped over and launched himself forwards straight off the side of my bed last week. I’d just bathed him and was putting his lotion on when he did it, but because my hands/his legs were all lotiony, all that happened when I tried to grab his legs was that I lost my grip and fired him off the side of the bed even faster than he was already going. Luckily he landed on my dressing gown, but there was still a horrible thump. He cried, I cried, then we had a cuddle and he was fine.

Every day is a test! 🤣

OP my baby is also 11 weeks and she's starting somehow moving around in her cot - always when I'm not looking! - and it's pretty shocking because she was so immobile until now. You love your baby, your baby is fine, that's all that matters. The early morning are HARD, I really sympathise. Hopefully it'll get better soon!

I’ve not read all responses but my baby is a bit older now - very similar to you she wanted to be close to me and wouldn’t settle in the next to me after her 4am wake up so I’d put her in a sleep nest next to me on the bed with my hand on her. She was safe, couldn’t go anywhere and would settle. I’ve got 3 DC and my second rolled off a very high bed, during waking hours - I was terrified and took her to A&E. These things happen OP, please don't beat yourself up.

He’ll be fine, if he’s being his usual self. My DS did this around the same age. He’s now a strapping lad of 19, at Uni, and loving life. But goodness, I did beat myself up about the fall off the bed at the time. Welcome to motherhood!

When I Co slept I put a pool noodle under the sheet on the baby's side of the bed - created just enough of a barrier when they were small that they didn't easily scoot off.

I wouldn't put the crib that side in case god forbid they rolled off and got caught between the crib and bed.

My 2nd was unwell and didn't sleep well so I ended up buying a single mattress for his room and sleeping on that with him, that way if he rolled off it was hardly any distance.

Bed guards are unsafe and a suffocation risk. He could get trapped in between the guard and the bed

if you have the space and if you mr cot side comes down fully put that flush to the bed. When my daughter was smaller I built her cot bed so it was like a giant next to me crib.

Try not to worry these things happen - my daughter fell off the bed around the same age - fortunately I had a pile off washing to be put away next to the bed that she landed on. I panicked even more as I couldn’t see or feel her put main light on to find she had rolled under the bed! She was fine and didn’t even. Wake up until the lights went on. For my second child we had a crib that attached to the bed. And I used a travel bed rail when away from home.

I co-sleep. Put your bed against the wall and sleep on the side that's not against the wall. Pillows on the ground at the end of the bed. It won't happen again x

Hi you need to see if you can find safe co sleeping bed rails? They’re commonly used in Asia. He probably is rolling the little gremlin. I’m glad he’s ok and it’s an accident but you need to be on prevention mode now x alternatives are a bedside crib that has one panel removed and attached to the bed safely. That means if he rolls away from you there are rhe crib rails.

Thanks everyone. Last night I persevered and he slept in his cot 2am till 5:30am by which point he had turned clockwise!! So that must have been how he fell off. I then brought him to my bed at 5:30am and we were in cuddle curl position. He didn’t move until his toddler brother came barging in and woke us up 😅