Let the Good Times Roll

Hello and Happy Friday!!

I knew that any day now, Ilah would roll over. And....

It happened early in the evening on Wednesday while we were playing on the floor with her toys in our living room. She did it twice and then was "over" it! She knew she did something new because her eyes got so big like, "What just happened?!".

Here are pictures taken today during our morning playtime; you will see the consecutive photos show our sweet girl rolling over....

"Here I go!"

"Are you watching Mommy?"


" I did it!"

Wednesday night {well, technically it was 4 a.m. on Thursday}, we heard Ilah over the monitor making some little grunting sounds. We looked at the video monitor and saw that she had rolled over from her back to her stomach in her sleep - suddenly being in that position naturally {and thankfully} woke her up. Earlier in the day it was all claps and smiles and me saying, "Yay, you did it!"...but I couldn't exactly tell over the monitor if she was face down in the mattress or not; so my eyes got big and my heart raced as I immediately wondered how long she had been like that. I let out an "Oh my gosh!" and ran to her room.

To see that.....

Ilah had her head up very high, with her elbows/arms propping her up. I believe she was grunting because she felt "stuck". "How exactly do I get myself back over on my back like I did earlier today??"

Ilah has always done great with lifting her head up....

Sometimes she even tries to do a push up! Kidding! Ha!
The girl has some serious strength!....

But because of that brief scare on Thursday night, I wonder if I should rely on more than just thinking that because she can lift her head she should be fine if she were to do that again. When I got to her room and saw that she wasn't face down in the mattress and was breathing fine, maybe I should have indiscreetly waited to see if she would have turned herself back over. Instead, I just wanted to sooth her {ok, so maybe I wanted her to sooth me!} so I picked her up.

Ilah used a sleep positioner when she was an infant. When we transitioned her from her bassinet to her crib when she was 2 months old, we did away with it. But now that she is at the point of rolling over, I'm wondering if we should utilize one again. We always put Ilah to sleep on her back but she nearly always turns to sleep on her side immediately after we place her down for the night. But now that she has started to roll over, I'm naturally concerned about possible suffocation as she may be unable to reposition herself. The night that she rolled over on her stomach in her sleep, it took me a long while to go back to bed. I just wanted to stare at the video monitor until the sun came up and she woke up from her nights sleep.

Ilah is defininitely a verbal baby and "calls out" to us {so to speak} when she needs to have a need met, but I don't want to solely rely on thinking that she will be vocal every time. I did some research on sleep positioners but saw so many different answers as to whether parents should place their infants in one while sleeping. Some say that should you want to use a sleep positioner for your baby, they can be used until the baby is 4 months old; others say 6 months old. Another answer was that sleep positioners should be used until your infant has head control - yet others have said that they can cause overheating. Another site relayed that they can actually cause suffocation {the very thing a parent is trying to ensure doesn't happen} because the baby can slip down in the positioner and their airways might get cut off {I can somewhat attest to that. When Ilah was an infant, I bought and used the most highly rated one on the market - made out of mesh - and regardless, she did slip down in it on occasion. I was usually always awake when this would happen so I would just reposition her}. Many moms have said that when their baby used a positioner to sleep, it was a hard habit for them to break when it came to the parents not using it anymore, and that it also prevents your baby from learning on their own how to flip back over. The SIDS alliance advises against sleep positioners but for parents who have babies that roll over in their sleep, after they have been placed down on their back, what's the alternative to ensuring that their infant is breathing properly {other than staring at a video monitor, or actually placing yourself in front of the child} while they sleep? Both are impossible to do.

I will ask Ilah's pediatrician about this when we go to our next appointment, which is coming up soon.

Here are some other photos taken of Miss Wonderful this morning.....

"Hey mommy! I got somethin' for ya"....

No more pictures please. I've done my fair share of posing for one day!