Help weaning from pacifier
Hi ladies!
For the last few weeks DD has been having a hard time at night. She wakes up anywhere from 2-12 times a night crying because her pacifier falls out. Sometimes if I put it back in she will fall asleep and stay asleep. Other times I have to rock her. Sometimes I put it in and she wakes up 10 minutes later.
Because of this interrupted sleep, I would like to wean her from her pacifier. I guess my thoughts are if she learns to fall asleep without it, she will be able to soothe herself to sleep when she wakes up.
Tonight I put her to sleep while she was drowsy and sucking on her fingers. 5 minutes later she was screaming. I tried rocking her back to sleep without it, but she became completely hysterical (not typical for her). I broke down and put it in her mouth. She fell asleep instantly.
She is only 3.5 months old and not old enough to do sleep training.
Any recommendations or suggestions? Should I wait until she is older? At this point she is probably not able to self soothe, but getting up 10 times a night is killing me!
Thanks for your thoughts!
Re: Help weaning from pacifier
I have no suggestions on weaning from the paci - we're a slave to it, too. I'm hoping you get some helpful answers!
But I will say that this could very well be a phase - your DD is pretty close to 4 months, and some babies aren't very good sleepers at that age. My DD went from being a great sleeper to doing the same thing you described - and I think it was a combination of development and teething. It was that bad probably for about 2 weeks, then it got a little better. She got much better at 5 months, regressed some at right before 6 by not wanting to nap, and then last night I actually slept from 11pm to 6 am without having to get up once, and she took 2 naps today without issue! I'm hoping tonight will make it a trend. (I also have moved her bedtime earlier - I think that's helping, too).
Good luck. I know it's tough to find yourself *wham!* back in the land of the walking dead, but it should pass.
Thanks so much for your response! Truthfully, I wouldn't care at all about the paci if she were sleeping well.
I feel like each night is a game of russian roulette. Am I going to sleep tonight...or will I be a slave to the paci (as you described). You're probably right about her development/teething. It's helpful to know that it will start to get better. Just like you, Brynne was a fabulous sleeper up until about a month ago.
I really hope you get your sleep tonight!
TTC since Jan 07. Dx with PCOS Jan 08
No, not too much sleep for me last night. A was up screaming in tongues in her sleep at 12:30. Teething - always teething. But I gave her some Motrin and rocked her and she slept OK until 4:30, when I had to go back in and give her the paci.
No, Ali doesn't have a nighttime feeding. She gave that up around 2.5 months. She's a pretty big girl, though (19lbs at 6 months) and always has been.
Sometimes when she is so awake that we can't get her to go to sleep any other way, we breakdown and give her a few ounces, but it happens very rarely. We can usually hear her little tummy grumbling when we do this.
I think we have the same child! Brynne is the same way. She gave up that feeding on her own weeks ago, but sometimes if she is awake I'll offer her a bottle. (she's not doing her hungry cry or giving any other hungry signs...I'm not trying to starve her! Obviously if she was I would feed her right away).
I find that when I do feed her in the middle of the night, she will only drink a few ounces, but then will be super awake and want to play. Then it takes forever to get her to go back to sleep.
Last night I fed her pretty quickly and she wasn't up as long. I'm going to try this again tonight.
Good luck again tonight!
Good luck to you, too.
If it gets bad enough and you're sleep deprived long enough, maybe you and your DH would want to consider switching off nights to be on baby duty. I don't know if your situation would allow for it, but DH and I did it for a few nights last week because we were both zombies.