First I want to say HI and thank you all so much for being here. I've read the books, and have been lurking for a while trying to solve my problems on my own. I think I need to ask for some help! My name is Sheri, SAHM to Owen, who is our first.
Owen was probably a touch colicky, and had formula issues. The first 3.5 months of his life he spent all day screaming. We seem to have straightened that all out and for the most part these days, when he is awake, he is happy. He used to sleep like a champ-we even got a few 7-9 hour uninterrupted stretches, but recently things have changed for the worse. We have night waking problems.
Because of the colic and being hard to settle Owen slept swaddled for all naps and night time. He also got a pacifier (almost all day at one point-now only for naps and at night) Back when the days of sleeping were great, he would often lose his pacifier and still continue to sleep for a few hours after losing it. If he woke, we'd give it back and he would sleep well for hours more. Well as he got older and more squirmy he would lose his paci more often and wake right up. Admittedly, we never tried to settle him without it because we didn't know any better. At the beginning of this month, we were getting up between 5-8x a night to give him back his pacis. He never stays awake, just wants that paci. During naps I'd have to go in maybe 2-3x per nap-though sometimes not at all.
We thought that he might be ready to be out of the swaddle because he kept breaking out of it, and we figured that if he were unswaddled, that he would suck his fingers to settle once he lost his paci. A week and a half ago I stopped swaddling him. The first night went OK-took him a little longer to settle, but he slept until 3:45am, but stayed up until I swaddled him again at 4:15. (I'm a wimp!) The next night, he took less time to settle, then slept ALL night till 6:45am (we get up at 7). At 5:30 I heard him in there making noises and cooing, but he went back to sleep. Since then, it has deteriorated rapidly. He's not using his fingers as planned, and we're still doing the paci dance. During naps he takes the paci out, but cannot get it back in. I worry that it is now time to be rid of it. I just worry about him getting to sleep in the first place. He has never NOT gone to sleep with out a pacifier.
My DH is going out of town on Sunday and will be gone till friday. I figure now is a good time to get rid of the darn thing if we have to.
To give you some background on Owen, he is 5.5 months old. Is formula fed. Our schedule looks like this.
7:00 am wake
7:10 bottle 7oz)
7:30 activity
9-915-naptime
10:30-11:00 wake
11:00 bottle 7oz
11:30 activity
1-1:30 nap
2:30-3:00 wake
3:00 bottle 7oz
3:30 activity
5-5:10 cat nap
5:45 wake
6:00 activity
6:50 bottle 7oz
7:15 bath/nighttime routine
7:45 bedtime
Your opinionsand tips on getting rid of the paci are greatly appreciated. My thought is that if I have to do it I should start at naptime. Should I start giving him a toy or lovie instead of the paci? He does not have a lovie as such right now. Should I get rid the pacifier for naps only for a while and then do night time??? Do night time first then naps??
Thanks in advance!
~Sheri