What happended last night was she woke up at 12:40, I went in and gave her the paci, waited for her sucking to slow down and then I took it out and she settled back down and went back to sleep. She woke up again at 3:00 and the same thing happened. Then she woke up for a third time at 4:20, I gave her the paci, waited for her sucking to slow down and then I took it out, she fussed and rooted for the paci so I gave it back, I repeated this for 20 min. and she settled back down and I thought she would go back to sleep. I went back to bed and about 10 min. later I heard her making noise, but she wasn't crying so I didn't do anything. At about 5:15 she started crying so I went in and gave her the paci, etc. only this time she never settled back down, everytime I took it out she cried. This went on until 6:45 when I got her up and fed her. She then was awake and in a fairly good mood until I put her down for her nap at 8:45. She napped for 1 hr. 10 min.
She had 2.5 hrs of A time in between her morning and afternoon nap. She wasn't showing tired signs but at 2 hrs. 15 min. I started the wind down, but after putting her in her bed it took her 25 min. to fall asleep and she only slept for 30 min.
Yesterday and today I've been trying to just watch for tired signs and not worry too much about the clock, but yesterday after her afternoon nap she was in a great mood--laughing and talking and blowing raspberries and she ended up with 3 hrs of A time. She still wasn't acting tired but I put her down for her nap and it took almost 45 min. to get her down. She then slept for 45 min. when I woke her up.
I don't know if she is so hard to put down at naps because she is overtired or not tired enough. She woke up from her catnap yesterday at 5:15 and I put her in the bath at 6:15 and she was in bed by 6:40. She took about a half an hour to fall asleep but she did it on her own without any shh/pat.
So basically, I don't know what to do. I feel like I'm doing something wrong or I'm not reading her cues right or she is so thrown off that she isn't showing tired signs.
Prior to starting paci weaning she was napping well and sleeping well at night (I thought). I was just having to replug her a few times a night so I decided to wean. Plus, it had been my intention from the beginning to wean her off the paci by 6 months. Since I've taken the paci away everything has been a disaster. I think the paci was masking the sleep problem though. I think she was awake for long periods during the night but was content to lay there with a paci, so when I thought she had woken up and cried to be replugged, it's possible that she had been awake the entire time and I didn't know about it.
Yesterday she only had 2.5 hours of daytime sleep and was still awake from 4:20 a.m. on after being put to bed by 6:40 and asleep by 7:00.
I really feel like if I could just figure out what I'm doing wrong then I could fix the problem. It is also getting harder and harder to do the gentle removal of the paci when I know I could just give her the paci and go back to bed, even though I know it wouldn't solve the problem. Before I started gentle removal I thought I could wean from the paci cold turkey which resulted in her crying and me shh/patting for hours during the night. She is not falling asleep with the paci at night, I don't give it to her at all except in the middle of the night when I do gentle removal.
I don't know if I should stop the gentle removal...is she waking up for the paci even though she's not falling asleep with it??
Today her morning nap was 1 hr. and her afternoon nap was 30 min. I don't know if her nap was short because she was OT because 2.5 hours was too much A time or if she is just OT all the time now because she is barely sleeping.
I'm sorry to keep bombarding you with info and questions, but I am at wits end. It feels like everything I try doesn't work and being consistent with what I'm doing isn't helping. She hasn't fallen asleep with the paci in 2.5 weeks, she hasn't eaten during the night in 9 days, I haven't even picked her up out of her crib during the night for a week, and I've been limiting her daytime naps for almost a week, although the last few days her naps have been so short that I haven't had to wake her up.
I don't think I can say thank you enough for all of advice and support you've already given me, but if you have any other suggestions I would really appreciate it.
