Unable to put herself back to sleep..

[stephinct]

Hello. I am completely torn. My 5 month old, Mary, goes to bed by 7:30-8pm every night. And every night she wakes up before 10pm. She eats at about 7:30pm, so I know that she isn't really hungry.  When she wakes up, she does not cry, but instead does this sort of moan.. "uh-uh-uh".  If we don't go in to give her the pacifier, she will get a little louder after about 5 minutes.  She can't seem to go back to sleep without the pacifier. Going to sleep is the only time she takes it and when it falls out, she is fine with it, unless she sneezed it out or dropped while she was wide awake.  I would LOVE to teach her to go back to sleep on her own, but really have no idea how to do that.    If we go in and give her the paci, she usually will just take it & go back to sleep.. can someone give me some guidance on this?  It also often applies later in the night as well ( at least this week).. she'll wake up at about 12am, and then we go through the same thing.. how nice it would be to have a lo that doesn't wake at all until she's hungry!  (Preferably at about 7am!)     I appreciate the help!
~Steph

[October]

I'm no expert steph in ct (right ?) but I think you need to try paci-weaning. There is lots of info. here about how but I used the "gentle withdrawal" method. You insert the paci and when your LO is just starting to fall asleep, you gently take it out. I had to try it out a few times before I worked out the best time to take it out, i.e. not too soon, not too late that they are actually asleep. The key is not letting Mary fall asleep with it in her mouth so she expects it there when she wakes.

My LO has slept a lot better since we weaned his paci at 2 months (corrected)...he was HUGELY addicted from his early (he was prem) weeks in hospital where they use pacis a lot for soothing the v.young ones. 

I'd try at the w/e when you hopefully have help to get through what can be a tough time. Stick with it though. It pays huge dividends !!

Good luck   

[stephinct]

Thanks October. I was afraid that was the answer I was going to get.     That is intimidating. Particularly since we are just coming off of a giant growth spurt which held horrible night for us!  Maybe next week I can handle another couple of sleepless nights... you're lo has the best little cheeks!   

[October]

It is scary but the agro is worth the affort. Really. I don't use a paci at all for our LO (he's not so little anymore...more like 19/5lbs !)...he confuses it with his bottle nipple. He soothes himself to sleep and does far better w/o the paci IMHO.

Keep me posted OK ?

[stephinct]

Thanks October, I will. I'll have to ponder it a bit. Not that I mind ditching the paci, but she seems to go through little cycles.. we've been here before & she's worked herself out of it. I'd like to give it a few days to see if it gets any better.. if not, we'll work on getting rid of it. Thanks for the advise!  I'll let you know how it goes.

[Colin Macs Mom]

Just wanted to say that I agree about the paci... check out the props board if you haven't already. 

[stephinct]

Good morning ladies.  Well, I think we made good progress last night.  When I put her to bed at about 7:45pm, she didn't want the pacifier (wanted to play with her bunny instead.. naturally.. she's super soft   .  A few minutes after I left, she started doing her little moan thing that she does (uh-uh-uh) for a long time. I decided to just let her do it & see how it went.  After about 15 minutes, she went to sleep. No pacifier!  Yippee!  Of course she woke up around 9:15 or so, but we did the same thing.. this time she started to really cry, so we went in & gave it to her (we're such suckers, I know).  She df at about 10:45pm, went right back to sleep.. can't remember if she took the paci then or not.. I was barely awake myself (it's been a rough week coming off of a big growth spurt).  Then she woke up at 1am.. daddy gave her her paci, then she spit it out (in favor of the bunny again, I think), and a few minutes later moaned again wanting it (uh-uh-uh again).. we let it go and about 15 minutes later, she was sound asleep.  I felt like it was progress!  I think she'll get off that thing pretty well if we stick to letting her go until she really wails for it.. what do you think?  Do I need to just chuck them all together? Or might she be ok with some use?  (Never know if they are capable of going from addicts to simple soothers...) Oh!  and then she slept through until 6 am!  That was a treat.. especially compared to the last few weeks! 

[Colin Macs Mom]

GREAT NEWS!!!