Parenting Decisions - Tummy Sleeping

When E was probably only 5 weeks old, I started putting him to sleep on his tummy.  GASP!  I know, right?  When my first son learned how to roll over onto his tummy to sleep, I would go in and roll him back onto his back.  All of the advice that I had been given and all of the information that I had read about SIDS told me to put my child to sleep on his back.  With my first child, I heeded all of the warnings.  I was CERTAIN that if B rolled onto his tummy in his sleep he would have a great risk of dying.

Fast forward two years and I found myself with a cute little baby that DID NOT like to sleep on his back.  I swaddled him, rocked him, got him all cozy and he just couldn't stay asleep.  One morning out of sheer exhaustion and frustration, I laid him down on his tummy.  It was almost as if his teeny tiny prayers had been answered.  He slept.  For 2 hours.  STRAIGHT!  So, I continued to lay him down to sleep on his tummy for naps.  That first-time-mommy in me was still a little nervous about tummy sleeping overnight, when I couldn't check on him constantly.  I will admit, I got over that the next month.

I kind of giggled at my first-time-mommy self for being so anal about things.  That being said, my best friend had her first baby a month after E was born.  She thought I was absolutely STUPID and CRAZY for putting him to sleep on his tummy.  Perhaps I was.  But he was sleeping.  And he was happy.  I think that when we deliver second children, we also deliver a good dose of perspective.  We wonder what was so hard about having that first infant.  We wonder what we were so worried about.  I think we relax a little with that second baby.  Because, when we get down to it, now we have a toddler who is challenging us in new ways and that infant, well, we have done that before.  And now we are pros.

E's tummy sleeping wasn't just an infant phase.  He still sleeps on his tummy.