Let me just start by saying that I was very hesitant about giving Olivia a pacifier from the beginning and I blame her addiction to it on the nurses in the hospital. Our second night in the hospital they brought Olivia to me for her middle of the night feeding all bundled up with a binky (that's what I call it) in her mouth and she was so cute and happy! Ever since that night she wants that thing in her mouth all the time!!!! I am glad that it calms her down and it is soothing, but it is starting to cause some issues, more specifically sleep issues! She can't fall asleep without it and if it falls out, she wakes up and will not go back to sleep until she is happily sucking!!!
Here is a typical night! She goes to bed around 9:30 with her pacifier in her mouth of course, and will sleep great anytime between 2:30 and 4:30 am. She will not have her binky in the whole time of course, but when she wakes up and realizes that it is not there she freaks out. From that point on, Scott and I are up and down several times putting the binky back in her mouth until she finally gets herself back into a deep sleep. It is so frustrating! She can't get back to sleep without it and she can't fall back into a deep sleep for a long time either and I think the binky has something to do with it!
I know she is still little and part of this pattern is just her age and soon she will be able to sleep better and longer, but we don't know what to do! Soon she is going to really start figuring the binky out and I feel like we are headed down a road that I do not want to head down! HELP!!!!!
Despite this little bump in the road everything else is going great! They switched her to Prilosec and although I have had some dairy I am really trying to eliminate it from my diet. I think it is part of the puzzle. We also do Mylicon drops for gas and maybe it's all in my head, but I think they help a little bit!
4 comments:
Aww.
I can totally understand your concern over heading down the paci road, however if i can share our experience (with both kiddos) with you, maybe you'll feel better? (maybe not? :o)
Derek didn't start the binky 'til about 3 months old and then became ADDICTED. McKenzie had it from day 1 and was addicted :) (I was a thumb-sucker and didn't give that up til like 8 yrs old so I knew I didn't want them to become thumb-suckers out of necessity!) So...Ben and I decided we would give into the binky situation and I have to say that overall it made soothing them and their sleeping through the night SO much easier. They were both cuddlers but they also very much had the need to suck and my boob was NOT going to dual as a paci, sorry :)
With Derek we decided to go cold-turkey with the bink when he was 2 1/2...we had 2 "tough" nights and then everything was fine. I'm predicting roughly the same thing with Kenzie, although she is already less attached to it now than Derek was at her age...so maybe she'll self-wean.
I was also going to mention that as lil miss Olivia gets a little older she'll be able to grab the binky on her own if it falls out during the night so you won't have to wake up to fetch it...that def helps! :)
I hope this makes you a little less concerned over it...I'm sure other mamas will share their stories with you too and then you and hubby get to just decide what's best for you and sweet baby.
She's ADORABLE! Love seeing pics :o)
kari
p.s. also many Peds will actually suggest pacis for baby to soothe themselves easier without always having to nurse/bottle-feed and pacis help reduce the risk of SIDS too..
wow. sorry that was a book, steph!
Wyatt took the pacifier but was not dependant on it and easily stopped using it before he turned 1. Garett hated the paci from the beginning but then loved it at nights. He did the smae thing as your daughter... he started to "need" it at night to fall asleep. I couldn't keep doing that so for a few nights, he would cry for a bit before I came in to soothe him with a back rub. Somehow, he became dependant on his thumb -- now, that's a habit we can't break!!!! :)
If you are comfortable with it, try letting her cry for a little bit (15 minutes tops) before going in to soothe her with a rub or your soft voice. This was sooooo hard on me as a first time mom but it helped Wyatt with some other things -- he was using me as his paci mid-night and I couldn't do that either! It took two or three nights but it worked. We all have to stay sane somehow!! :)
Holy cow, you're a mom!! just going through old emails and saw the one when you first started the blog. So happy for you and your family. San Antonio misses you. love, your favorite neighbor! Allison
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