Need sleep advice - freaks out for his paci

GuitaristsGirl

I think I've posted about this before, but I'm honestly exhausted and clueless about what to do. 

My good little sleeper has disappeared.  In his place is a child who wakes several times during the night - most times just putting a paci in his mouth is enough to calm him (the other times?  ugh).  It's ridiculous, and I'm wishing I'd never seen a paci before!  (Fwiw, he's doesn't usually have it during the day, it's more at stressful times or sleepy times.)

We've tried putting several pacis in his crib so he can find them - but he never actually wakes up, so that doesn't work.  Instead, he lays there, eyes closed, shrieking!! - sometimes the paci is just inches from his mouth and he just doesn't realize it.  (So, going in and putting it in his mouth does the trick.)

When he wakes up like this we do respond pretty quickly, because he escalates into hysteria so fast, it's 1000 times easier to rush right in, pop the paci in, and be done - rather than let him get too worked up and have to somehow console him and get him back to sleep. 

That said, we have tried giving him a little more time to see if he realizes that the paci is right in front of his face -- but for him to wake up enough to have that realization means that he shrieks and shrieks and totally comes undone (face turns red, gasping for breath, etc.) - um, no.  We're definitely not okay with that!  

 I realize that we're lucky that he is, often, so easily consoled (by just giving him his paci) - but I'm also getting really weary of this routine.  This weekend we did this dance every 30 minutes!!!  Unfortunately, there's definitely signs of something else going on (teething, ear infection, etc.) - we have a pedi appt this afternoon - so I'm not sure how much I can expect out of him right now. . . but still.

Assuming he's healthy and when he's not teething - suggestions?  I just can't come up with anything that seems like it solves the problem.  We're not willing to "just let him CIO."  Do I need to get him to fall asleep without the paci, so that it's out of the equation altogether?  (That would be quite a feat!  Currently we do bath-bottle-bed -- he freaks when the bottle is empty so we quickly replace it with the paci, which keeps him calm!)  I don't know where to go with this. 

Thanks for your thoughts, and sorry this got so long. 

Mouseygail

this is totally just replacing one issue for another one down the road, but will he suck on his fingers?  maybe if you "gave him" his fingers after the bottle...

ugh..i'm sorry...sleep issues are very frustrating!!