Secretly Rolling Over

J rolled over, front to back, for the first time in February, at just 2 months old. I didn’t see him do it again for a few weeks, but pretty soon he was rolling onto his back very easily.

And we think he first rolled over, back to tummy, on May 12 at his great grandmother’s house, at 3.5 months. But we’re not sure… I had laid him on his tummy for a nap (it’s bad, I know), and when I returned, he was still on his tummy but about a foot away from where I had originally placed him. It looked as though he had rolled onto his back, and then onto his tummy again. But there was really no way to know for sure. Especially since he never did it again, at least not in front of anyone.

We knew he could do it if he wanted to. He could get his whole body turned onto the side — he would just let his arm get in the way. No matter how much we would try to coax him to roll all the way onto his tummy, he simply wouldn’t. I’ve been a bit concerned lately that he wasn’t rolling both ways yet. It wasn’t even listed in What to Expect the First Year at six months, meaning the milestone was way past due, right?

And for the past few weeks, his inability to flip over on his own has become a problem. J is a great sleeper, as long as he’s on his tummy. But recently, he’s been waking up once or twice in the middle of the night, whimpering. Not exactly crying — but definitely fussing, in a half-asleep state. To calm him down, all I have to do is go into his room and roll him onto his tummy, and he goes immediately back to sleep. (No feeding, rocking, shushing, holding, or singing necessary.)

But then! This morning, I had put the baby back down for his morning nap, when I started to hear him cooing. I looked at the video monitor and watched for a minute, as he flipped from front to back, and then… back to front!

Confirmed: He can do it after all.

Maybe he has figured out that if he flips over onto his back and cries for a bit, then I’ll come to his rescue and he’ll get to see his momma in the middle of the night.

Smart kid.