Mover and a shaker
Livi has been able to roll over from her back to her stomach for a few weeks. At first, it was just an awesome sign of development, and now it’s starting to give us anxiety because she’s doing it in her sleep. When we put her into her bed on her back, she’ll roll over onto her side almost immediately, and by the time we get downstairs, she looks like this:
I watch the monitor like a hawk to make sure her head is to one side, and had to sprint up the stairs last night. She was faceplanted, breathing into the mattress with her elbows out- exactly how I like to sleep 🙂
I figure that if she can get herself into that position, that’s how she wants to sleep and as long as her head is to one side and she can breathe, all is bueno. When I see her face down, it freaks me out and I run upstairs to move her. Tom doesn’t like her sleeping on her stomach at all- he gets pretty alarmed. He got up quite a few times last night to flip her onto her back.
We’re going to call the pediatrician tomorrow and see what the nurse says. I think we’d be less worried about it if she could flip from her stomach to her back, but it only happens rarely, and other times she gets stuck and cries out for help. Poor nugget. She’s a mover and a shaker, for sure.
While Tom was at the fair with the fam last night, he won Livi’s first pet:
Meet Fred the goldfish.
He was just moved from his murky shanty into a Las Vegas club.
He could like for 3 days, or 8 years, like my childhood goldfish, Fiona. She defied the laws of nature for a long time, and it was a sad day when we came home from vacation to see her floating at the top of her tank.
Who was your childhood pet?
I had Buddy the schnauzer. We found him in a parking lot one day and he had no tags and we couldn’t find the owners, so we kept him. He used to chase me around my nana’s backyard while I’d sing “We’re Off To See the Wizard” 😉
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Mikey the hamster was my first pet. Funny story: i used to sleep walk ALL the time when I was little and once when I was 2, my parents heard something in the kitchen (our hamster cage was in the pantry. now that I think of it, that is really gross!) and my mom went in to see what was happening and i had let the poor thing out of the cage and he was running around the floor. mikey was my first pet but my childhood pet that I will always remember is Lexi the dog. She is going to be 8 soon. We rescued her when she was 2 months old. I was 9 and my brother was 12 when we got her!
When I was really young, my family had a dog named Shemp. I wasn’t too much of a dog person, though – I preferred horses and loved taking riding lessons! Never did get my own horse, though, although my cousin and I always came up with elaborate plans to get one, haha 🙂 It’s so funny that you had a goldfish who lived for 8 years – my neighbors won a goldfish at a fair and it’s still alive after 7 years. The fish is HUGE! I had no idea they could live that long.
Aww, schnauzers are great! My exboyfriend actually also had a schnauzer named Buddy haha. My first pets were hermit crabs. Not terribly exciting!
I love goldfish! A lot of people don’t know this, so don’t worry, but they actually need about 20g of water apiece (that looks like about 2.5?). They’re very dirty fish! If you have a place for it and can spring for a new aquarium, I would recommend moving him to bigger digs. If he doesn’t make it more than a couple days – sadly totally likely for a carnival fishy – you should totally keep the small aquarium and get Livi a betta to watch. They do awesomely in smaller tanks, and are very active!
that’s great to know! the tank said that it was suitable for goldfish, but i read online that they need a LOT of water.
hermit crabs! we had a couple of those when we were little.. they had a very unique smell to them haha
yes those hemies are smelly, I always loved watching them change there shells, I thought it was soo cool!
opps meant hermies!
Hahah yeah, they’re ridiculously smelly – I can’t believe my parents put up with them! For some reason, almost every tank I’ve seen in petstores is labeled suitable for goldfish. I’ve never owned them because they’re so high maintenance, but as far as fish go, you really can’t beat them for how cute they are (is that weird? hahah).
What does Livi think of the fish??
A dog (Shih Zu) names Snuggles, little dude lasted for almost 20 years!
When I was young, our first pet was a dog, Shannon! He didn’t really like kids and since there was 4 or 5 of us at the time, he didn’t last real long! She would pull our hats off and run with them and we would be stuck on top of the sliding board yelling for my mom if we wanted to go back inside! Shannon would be at the bottom of the ladder barking! So they found a better home for her! And after a few more years, we got a cat, Mickey!
I had a little turtle. Unfortunately I took it out of its tank too much to play with it outside with my dirt filled hands… I came home one day to see him lying on his back, pale and dead. Poor Turtleton. R.I.P.
When we were registering I wanted to just do the regular baby monitor, audio not necessarily video. I figure its good enough. After this story now I’m glad my hubby wanted to put the video monitor on there also! I could totally see myself wanting to check the video for the reasons you listed above.
I had a lot of pets growing up since I thought I was going to be a vet one day. The most memorable one was a little black gerbil named Pumbaa (oh yea, such a “kid” from the 90’s there 🙂 and he was so sweet. My dad even fell in love with him and let him sit on his shoulder at times like a parrot.
Ha ha. That fish tank is a major upgrade and does look pretty swanky! My first pet was Murphy, an orange cat I named after my Uncle Murphy. First pets are the best…you can learn so much! And such good memories.
First pets are so fun!!! I remember when my parents finally let me get a puppy after begging forever!!!
schnauzers are the best! i had my schnauzer peaches for almost 15 years and now i have my baby schnauzer daphne.. they’re worth their bark!
we had a black cat names casper, yup because I’m an 80’s child and it was one of my fav. cartoons. He was an indoor cat because we lived close to boston when we moved to nh my mom let him be an outside cat, but he was not fixed so after awhile when she had saved enough she made an appt to get him fixed and he went out the night before and never came home poor casper. So when we went to the local shelters we found bambi a female black cat and she was calling to us as we were leaving, so me and my brother begged our parents for her so they turned the car around. Bambi was 1 yrs old and lived to be 17 she was my side kick and even walked me to school every morning. My family are huge animal lovers so my future kids will have lots of pets! We also had hermits, a bird, lots of hamsters, a gerbil, cats and a dog! My uncle had a big snake that I loved and everyone else was freaked out by it!!
My babysitter, who was like family and a teenager, took me to the county fair when I was little and brought me home with a new pet goldfish. My parents were like, “Great, now we’re going to inevitably have to explain death to our three-year-old, because this thing will inevitably die.” And, of course, a few days later, it did. They sat me down and gently broke the news to me. “Cool!” I exclaimed. “Does this mean we get to flush it down the toilet!?!” Turns out my babysitter had thought of all of the ramifications of getting a goldfish after all and prepared me a little too well.
My daughter is the same age as yours and she’s also rolling over in her sleep. I roll her over and the stink rolls right back to her tummy! Thankfully, our monitor keeps track of her breathing and sounds an alarm when it fails to detect movement. So far, so good. I don’t blame her for wanting to sleep on her belly! I’m wondering what your pediatrician will say…
My goddaughter sleeps like that and it freaks me out too whenever I watch her. I always flip her back, but I know she’s fine (she’s 8 months – ha!).
The only pets we ever had were three goldfish—that I killed—by accident? Apparently I fed them an entire bottle of food and told my family that “they were hungry.” I was three or four, so I was forgiven pretty quickly!
My bestie was really concerned about her son who did the same thing, she was having more sleepless nights than the kid! They purchased an “Angel Care Monitor” just to give them peace of mind. Apparently it comes with an under the mattress sensor which will sound an alarm if it doesn’t detect movement for a certain number of seconds. Maybe you have something similar already, but it really worked for them!
That’s the one I have…see comment above! It really is great.
I have a 6 month old and also have the angel care monitor. If she can get from back to belly I think she is fine – they say that is the “harder roll”
As she does master the roll the angel care isn’t as effective if you get the one with only one sensor bad. My daughter will roll to the top of the crib then to the bottom or smush her face up against the side and all of those things were making the alarm go off a few times a night. We called angel care and they sent us a dual pad which works wonderfully!
It really does provide great peace of mind.
Our baby girl loves get tummy so we learned to love the angel care 🙂
A friend of mine had a baby that would flip over at a week old. It scared them so bad that they bought the Fisher Price Rock N Play so that they could strap him on his back to sleep. They said it worked for him for months and they were able to sleep knowing that he wasn’t flipping himself in a dangerous position.
It’ll be interesting to see what your doctor says. I would look at it this way… if babies died from rolling over and sleeping on their tummies (once they were strong enough to roll onto them), it’d be happening all the time and we’d be strapping them down to sleep. I think I recall that as long as they have the neck muscles to lift their head, suffocating in the mattress isn’t much of a concern.
I remember so well when my son started rolling over like that in his crib… I too would get so freaked out! I seem to recall also that if they can roll like that and can lift their heads, even a smidge, they can breathe. But good idea to check it out with the doc!
hey!!!
our pedi told us with all of our little ones that if they can roll that way, they are ok..
It is SUPER nerve wracking though.
also we had the angel sleep monitor.. LIFE saver till theyr’e about 6 months old and roll off every 4 seconds.
good luck!
Yup that’s my favorite sleeping position too. My childhood pet was a beagle named Minnie, she was super cute!
My childhood cat, Dusty was 23 lbs at his peak. He ended up getting diabetes, my mom had to give him insulin shots every morning and put him on a kitty diet. The diet didn’t work because he would be let out in the morning, then make his rounds to all of the neighbors’ houses and eat the dog food they had set out for their dogs. He would also nap in our dollhouse. It made for entertaining Barbie story themes.
My son has ALWAYS been a tummy sleeper, he slept longer and better when he was on his tummy. The first few weeks were nerve wracking but eventually we got over our fear. He’s 10 months old and he’s still on his tummy. I wouldn’t stress it but I know it’s easier said then done 😉
The most dangerous thing for little ones is having things in the crib…pillows, fluffy bumpers, stuffed animals, blankets etc…basically anything that can get in front of the babies face and affect her oxygen levels. Once they are rolling on their bellies on their own, it is especially important to keep the crib “extras” free. Just baby and a sheet is all you need.
But honestly, you guys will never stop worrying even if the doctor tells you not to bother with the tummy sleeping…Next it will be her climbing stairs, then kindergarten, then driving. That nervous, worry-wortness will never, ever leave you 🙂
I could be wrong but I’m pretty sure the pediatrician will tell you all to just give her a safe sleeping environment and let her be. My daughter wore a Woombie to eliminate ANYTHING in her bed that could possibly tangle/smoosh her face. After she didn’t need swaddling she wore jammies only – no blankets until she was really mobile around 6 months. There is also the extra firm side of the crib mattress for this reason. If you put your flat hand up to your face and breath -just like a baby with her face against the slat of a crib or the firm (blanket free) mattress – you will be able to breathe without difficulty.
Our first family pet was a big ginger tomcat named Lucky (we found him under Dads car in a parking lot…). He was awesome, a great smoocher of a cat and totally beautiful.
I freaked out when my little boy started rolling in the cot, especially as he was swaddled (ergococoon, similar to a woombie I think) and couldn’t roll himself back the other way. We bought a safe-t-sleep, it was a life saver for my sanity and actually it kept the little man sleeping well, as he’d wake up when he rolled and fuss about. We stopped using it when we weaned off the swaddle, and he’s been fine since then. He generally sleeps on his tummy, butt in the air. Does not look comfortable!!
My childhood pet was a fish at about age 8 and I begged!!!! for another pet and finally when I was about 10 my parents caved and we got a cat. Such fun memories of that kitty.
Have fun with Fred and watching Livi’s reactions to him every day.
I can understand why you would be nervous with her rolling over. I’m sure there will be a whole new level of worry when she starts being mobile, crawling around and investigating things! Exciting too though, and I guess a good sign that she’s growing and getting stronger every day.
hehe- love the name Fred! My first pet was a goldfish called Poley. We also had a cat called Sylvester.
I hope the goldfish gets a little more room in the end … (I very much enjoy reading your blog and normally I don’t leave any comments but it’s so sad to put an animal in such a little tiny thing)
thank you, wendy! the tank said it was suitable for betta and goldfish (and a couple of other kinds i can’t remember)- we’ll make sure to keep it clean for him 🙂
Most fish actually have a fairly long life expectancy, it is just that in captivity they become too large for their tank and basically poison themselves with their feces. Goldfish especially need a lot of space. The kind you won is often considered a “feeder fish” to give to reptiles. They do great in ponds. 🙂
As soon as my daughter started rolling, she started sleeping on her side and belly. Once they are big enough to get themselves into the position, it’s ok to let them sleep that way. Just make sure her arms are free to move herself if she needs to. Now even though we always put her to bed on her back, my baby sleeps on her tummy.
The kitty we had the longest (at least 18 years as we lost count of how old she was), was Zooey. We had a handful of other cats, but Zooey was my baby. We got her when I was in elementary school and she went to kitty heaven when I was in college (and I cried for an entire week). She used to wake me up by licking all over my face, and would often bring us “presents” in the form of baby animals on our back porch. She always looked out for us! 😉
The fish is very cute!! In my childhood I had a lot of pets, dogs, cats, fish and even a parrot!!
My daughter did this and it gave me so much anxiety, just when you thought sleep was getting better…THIS! I asked anyone who would listen about this, because every time I went in her room she was faceplanted, and everyone agreed that she would lift her face and go to the side if she couldn’t breathe…..its really the worst though. Soon she will stop! My daughter only did it maybe a few weeks?
ok, good to know. i was up all night last night consoling her when she got stuck face down… it was a little rough
The pediatrician I work with says once they can roll, they’re fine, as long as there aren’t pillows or blankets that can get in their face. BUT even his own wife kept flipping their kids over, even after he told her they were fine! It’s just so ingrained-BACK TO SLEEP! My daughter slept better on her tummy, so we also had the Angel Care monitor. I loved that thing.
You can buy little bumper bars to put on either side of her body to stop her rolling. I used them till 6 months with my son. Once the SID danger age had bypassed.
I am new to your blog and absolutely love it! Found it through following Eatingbirdfood.com (which I also love). My Grandma Rose always let me have a dod at her home in the country – due on the fact that my parents were not big animal people. I had a collie named Dusty who had puppies once and oh what fun we had with them! I grew up watching Lassie, so hence my love for collie dogs! I now have 9 dogs that are all rescues!