My daughter is 5 months old and she is constantly waking in the night for her pacifier. She goes to bed awake in her crib with her pacifier and a lovey ( her blanket.) She goes to bed around 7:30 and initially sleeps 3 hours with no waking then after that she awakes every 1 1/2- 2 hours, if we put her pacifier back in she goes back to sleep if we don't she cries so much she wakes her self up completely. Around 4:00am I do feed her, which I don't mind, she goes back to sleep then she wakes up around 7:00am. We cannot keep getting up throughout the night to put her pacifier back in. Do you have any suggestions how she can go back to sleep without her pacifier?
Our son was doing the same thing and we were so exhausted! We went cold turkey and took the paci away at night (he can still have it during the day). We had one brutal night but he now happily sucks on his fingers instead of screaming for the paci. when he goes through his sleep cycles. We're all sleeping a lot better these days!
It won't be too much longer that she will be able to find her own pacifier. We would put a lot of them all around her at night so that where ever she ends up in her crib she can find it. Is she able to put it in her mouth while awake? Maybe put it in her hand, that may help her learn that she needs to find it and do it herself. Regardless, it's only a little bit longer and it will end.
My daughter was ADDICTED to her paci!! At 3 or 4 months, she would wake up ALL them time when it would fall out of her mouth. We were getting up almost every hour or so to put the thing back in.
I tried putting several in her crib, attaching it to her clothes, attaching it to her lovey... NOTHING worked. For the sake of my (and my husband's) sanity we went cold turkey. It was the HARDEST thing to do!!! The first night she cried for 4 hours!!! I sat outside of her room on the floor in the hallway and cried too. The next night she cried for about 20 minutes and the next night it was only five minutes. By the fourth night we were done :)
Its not the easy way, but I think its the most effective when sleep deprivation is taking over your life. She still had her paci during the day for a couple of weeks, but having it alot during the day made the nights more difficult, so we took it away all together. She developed a stronger attachment to her lovey, and still has it now (she's 3.5). Good luck!
I agree with the other posters; it won't be too long before she can find it on her own and put it back in. In the meantime, throw a few extras in the crib.
We have been going through a similar situation with my now 8 month old. I would keep going in every time she lost her paci and some nights it would be about every hour! Recently, however she has been able to find in on her own. Thankfully!! I would say just hang in there and eventually it will get better and when she is a little older she will be able to find it on her own and fall back to sleep. I would also have out daughter sleep in a co sleeper next to me so it made it a little easier than having to go to her room so many times. We put our daughter to bed now with 4 or 5 and she can always find one, she does not cry about it either. I thought it would never end and I would never get a solid nights sleep and she would not either but it has gotten much better! Hang in there, it will get better and you will sleep again!
Oh my gosh, this brings back bad memories. My daughter is 9 months old and did the same thing. Then, she magically was able to put it into her own mouth at about 6 to 6 1/2 months, which was around the same time she started rolling to her tummy to sleep and things got much better. She'll get there soon!
