Back to Sleep Toben, In the Position You Like

'Back to Sleep'  I heard that at least fifty times the 38 weeks I was preggo last year, and probably fifty more since Toben was born.  This phrase is uttered by so many unjustifiably, opinionated idiots while referring to placing your child on their back to sleep.  Ever time I would have some know-it-all mom or psycho doctor regurgitate this phrase, I either said, 'yep' or 'ok' or 'I know.'   All the time thinking, my baby will be fine, however I decide to lay him down.  

So why the fuss?  Why is this baby sleeping position such an issue?  SIDS.  Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is just as it sounds, infants suddenly dying for no 'known' reason.  The baby didn't choke on their own vomit, or were unable to move their head to the side to breath, they just stop breathing.  (FYI, SIDS is inclusive of deaths due to suffocation, so make your own opinions on that fact.)  There is a real unknown disease out there and since this 'Back to Sleep' campaign started, SIDS deaths have dropped in a statistically sound way.     

http://www.sidscenter.org/Statistics.html

Yeah right.  I took enough statistics in college, and know that you can twist numbers anyway you want.  So I decided from day one, Toben could sleep however he liked.  Turned out, for the first two or so months of his life, he liked being on his tummy to sleep.  When I would lay him on his back he would wake up and cry right away.  So, if it was time to go to sleep I would hold him closely to my chest until he was deep in dreamland, then to keep the warmth against his belly, I placed him facing down.  It worked.  He could sleep for hours like that.  

Once Toben got a bit older, and more active with his legs, sleeping on his belly was not something he preferred.  He was always waking him self up by moving his legs up and down and all around.  There has been a few months of his life now that he has been slumbering on his back to sleep.  

He is now 6 1/2 months old, and yet again he has changed his preference in sleeping positions.  Now at night, when I lay him down to sleep, he rolls on his side and burrows his face in some covers or a pillow, coos a little song, and shortly thereafter is completely gone.  I let my baby sleep, in whichever position is most comfortable and relaxing for him.  Laying a baby down to sleep isn't Rocket Science.