Baby Milestones Remembered: Rolling Over

After my daughter, Morgan, mastered the art of sitting up by herself at five months, we knew the next baby milestone was our baby rolling over. All the signs of readiness were there: sleeping on her side, rolling onto her shoulder, crossing one leg over the other while lying down. We tried all the techniques, such as putting a toy where she would need to roll over to get it, showing her how to make it happen, and going from both back to belly and belly to back. There were many times she came close but couldn’t quite make it onto her stomach from her back.

Three days shy of her six month birthday, while watching her sleep on what my husband and I lovingly call stalkervision, aka Morgan TV, aka our video monitor, we heard a noise. Suddenly I saw her head pop up, and there was my baby rolling over right there in her crib. It was then I realized that all the action happens when she thinks we aren’t looking (which would later be confirmed even more when she started crawling in her crib). There she was, lying on her stomach in her crib, ready to sleep for the night. Baby milestone completed? Check!

I was very informed about the dangers of babies sleeping on their bellies and about SIDS, so I began to panic, even though her baby development move was quite impressive. She was sleeping for the night, and rolled over by herself, so should we just leave her there? I didn’t want to wake her or disrupt her sleep, but I also had her safety in mind. I told my husband to very gently move her back onto her back to sleep. Mission: completed.

The next day, we wanted to witness our baby rolling over in person and not on a blurry monitor screen. We put her on her back and placed her favorite rattle just out of reach. Morgan easily rolled over onto her belly to grab it, then rolled on her back and kicked her legs in joyful pride as we celebrated our baby’s development halfway through her first year of life.

Photo by Jenean Newcomb on Unsplash