Roll over, Roll over

Alexander is such a clever boy. He has now started to learn how to roll over from his back to his tummy. On Tuesday 20th September I was woken by him crying while in his cot at 11pm. I went in expecting it to be because he was due for a night feed but instead came in to find him lying on his stomach and not happy about it!. The problem was that he was still wrapped so he couldn't use his arms to push up (not that he really likes tummy time anyway). I fed him which settled him and put him back into the cot, still wrapped as I didn't know if he was ready to be unwrapped. Alexander does like feeling secure and being wrapped. I was hoping it would just be a once off. On Wednesday 5th October in the morning I was woken for Alexander's morning feed but again found him lying on his tummy when I went in to him. I spoke with James and we decided that he needs to be unwrapped for his own safety. 

During his naps on Wednesday I put him in a sleeping bag. He took a long time to settle each nap, most of the time I needed to feed him to sleep or rock him to sleep in my arms. He'd then only sleep for one cycle, no long stretch like normal. This didn't look good for the night, and it didn't go well with the night sleeps too. James and I needed to settle him to sleep at night. He then slept for 3 hours but when he woke, he then couldn't go back to sleep without feeding. He then slept for another 3 hours but after waking at 2am he didn't go back to sleep until after 4am. This was a very long time! Both James and I had turns trying to settle him and it didn't work until he eventually fell asleep while feeding. The following day and night was much the same in Alexander needing to settle either in our arms or being fed to sleep. 

First nap in his sleeping bag

Fortunately since then he has improved a lot! James and I have found that putting Alexander down earlier is better for him to self settle. He has also started to sleep more than just one cycle again during the day and is back to waking once or twice at night and settling straight away. Thank goodness for that because I was exhausted after just a couple of days.

So even though he had rolled over in his cot, he hadn't rolled in front of me yet. I had seen him roll to his side but that was the extent of it. Cheeky boy.

He kept on only making it to his side. He did get close to making it to his stomach but couldn't quite get there.

One go he was so close I just helped flick him over. He then worked out how to pull out his arm from underneath himself. 

While at Mothers' Group on Thursday 6th October I was telling the girls about how he had moved into a sleeping bag because of rolling in his cot. Alexander then showed the girls how he could roll onto his side, multiple times. At one point when I was outside checking on Daniel and Eliza, Preeti told me that he rolled to his stomach and then back onto his back. Of course he did it when I went away.

When we arrived back at home I put Alexander on the ground on his back and went into the back room to check on Eliza and Daniel. When I came back in Alexander was on his stomach. He must have rolled over on his own. Clever boy but again, not when I was there. At Mum and Dad's that night I told Jens how Alexander was so close to rolling over but just won't do it when I was there. She said that I should leave the room so she could see him roll. I went outside to check on Daniel and Eliza and of course, Alexander rolled over for Jens.

On Friday morning we had church Mums' Group here and I had Alexander on the ground. After rolling to his side multiple times, he then managed to roll onto his stomach and then back again. Clever boy. I was pretty excited to see it for the first time. He then rolled a lot of times just to show off. He continued rolling after everyone had gone home too.

He seems to be happier doing tummy time when he puts himself onto it. Although he does seem to roll over quickly again.

I am amazed at how quickly he worked out how to roll and pieced it together. Over a week he went from nothing to being able to roll. Can't wait to see him continue to develop although I will miss putting him in one spot and knowing he's still there when I come back. Today he managed to roll over under the table.