Sleeping Weird...

I have never heard of a baby sleeping like that. I don't really know what to think of it. I would go and see my pediatrician about it. It may indicate that he has a pain somewhere. Babies with reflux arch their backs a lot. My son used to have reflux and he arched his back all the time. I would also do a google search to see what I could find. I would find out all I could about sleeping positions of babies. It is good that you are trying to find out about it. I am sorry that I am not more help but I know someone out there will know something.
Good luck.

My son is 21 months and he sometimes sleeps with his cocked way back too. I'm not sure why this is, but he is perfectly healthy and the doctor gives him glowing reports. My son has done this since he was tiny. You might mention it to the doctor, but if your baby doesn't appear to have any breathing issues that were mentioned in the previous posts, you shouldn't stress. I can't see myself sleep, but I can watch my husband and he gets into all sorts of weird positions too sometimes!

All 3 of my boys slept all bunched up for the first couple weeks. That's how they were for 9 months---they don't have the ability to change that position quickly.

As their bones and nerves grow, they slowly begin to lengthen out. Don't worry.

I teach yoga. In yoga, we do child's or embryo pose. You would be surprised how comforting that is for adults to curl up in embryo pose when they are tired! It is inborn to us.

Yes, they do tend to sleep the way they did in the womb, but that's a very very odd position. Did you have a cesarean with a malpositioned baby? If not, then I can't imagine that he did sleep that way. I would talk to his pediatrician about the way he sleeps, it could indicate a problem.

I just did a google search on it and it is common with those infants who have sleep apnea or laryngomalacia, as it helps open the airway, so you may need a sleep study. Is he noisy when he sleeps? 60 to 70 % of down syndrome kids have obstructive sleep apnea and I found out about the apnea on a downs syndrome forum because many of those women have reported that their babies also sleep like yours does (and they also have apnea, or other such breathing issues at night.)

Low muscle tone is another thing that is linked to this sleeping position because the back is so much stronger than the core stomach muscles. The tone is not there in the stomach to even out the trunk, so the stronger set of muscles (the back) wins out. There are things that can be done for hypotonia, and ECI (early childhood intervention) can send you a therapist to the house for free or super cheap to help build muscle tone. Low muscle tone can lead to late milestones met, such as sitting up, rolling, crawling, walking, ect.

So you definitely need to talk to his dr and mention these possibilities (some pediatricians always say that everything is fine without further investigation.)

But don't worry about it, it might be nothing...and if is one of these things, they can be helped. It's just good to know if there IS something wrong.

S., mom to 4 princesses, CDA in infants and preschool, tons of experience working with babies!!!

It takes a little while for the baby to "stretch out" after being bunched up in the womb for so long. As long as he is sleeping well, I wouldn't worry about it.