Babies hate official medical recommendations.

Nice of him to pause in his rolling for a pretty picture, no?

For the past couple weeks, Jim has been rolling over like a fiend. Back-to-belly, clever lad - belly-to-back is for more pedestrian babies, I guess. Ever since he figured it out, he's been completely unwilling to lie on his back for any reason at all.


Remember how his head is officially huge? Photographic proof.

During the day, this new preference has been great. We just plop him down on his back and he promptly flips over to his belly and entertains himself for twenty minutes at a time with dazzling feats of head-holding and neck-stretching.


Yeah, when I say "just plop him down," I really do mean anywhere, sanitary floor coverings or no.

As I mentioned in his 3-month post, though, this has been very worrying at night. Doctors are terribly strident about The Proper Way for everything, and they kind of beat the "Back to Sleep" mantra into us before we left the hospital. Babies left to sleep on their stomachs will inevitably succomb to SIDS at worst, mental retardation from lack of oxygen at best. Naturally, The Proper Way changes regularly. Twenty years ago, babies left to sleep on their backs were doomed to choke on their own vomit. These modern babies are very impressive with their not-choking-on-vomit abilities, you know.


Alternative half-rolled sleeping position. Never let it be said that Jim is unwilling to compromise.

Anyway, point is, Jim has ceased being willing to sleep on his back ever. The first night he figured out that belly-sleeping is more comfortable, Noah was over there every ten minutes flipping him back over. We have since given up, though. If the kid's got a death wish, far be it from us to deny him.


Just look at those devious twining hands.