[Mummy-2-1boy]

My 3 month old little girl has been challenging to say the least. She has always been difficult to settle during the day but until about 8 wks old was great during the night. Would settle round 7:30 & sleep until 4am. However, now she is basically waking every hr from about 10:30. She settles back to sleep with her dummy but I am thoroughly exhausted as a have a 2 yr old getting over whooping cough among other things who is waking overnight too. I know the dummy is causing us problems & I really wanted to keep it until she could replace it herself but I can't wait that long!

So I am just wanting advice on the best way to go about it. I know there will be crying involved cuz she is so dependant on it but just wondering what ppl have found to be the best way to go about it? I tried holding back giving it to her earlier this week & settling by rocking but I gave in but given that it's currently 2am & I have been up 6 times to put it back in& am very determined to get rid of it!

[Mummy-2-1boy]

Also... I wrap her during the day which she seems to hate but at night I never have & she used to sleep perfectly. I think I will stop wrapping during the day too when I take away the dummy so she can suck her hands. I wrap her as that is what they recommended to do at sleep school & whilst she does settle to sleep a bit easier wrapped she still only sleeps 20-45 mins at a time & she really hates being wrapped up.


I am obviously at such a loss with her - I thought the 2nd bub would be easier but somehow she manages to not sleep well day & night whereas my first just used to scream all day but crash at night & only wake for feeds.

This post has been edited by Mummy-2-1boy: 07/05/2012, 03:19 AM

[IVL]

I think we got rid of the dummy around this age also as it was starting to become more trouble than it was worth. I didn't mind getting up to feed her, but I did mind getting up to replace a dummy every hour.

Is there anyway you can time operation dummy has to go with a weekend so you can get some help for your 2 year old? My mum took my 2 year old for "holiday", that way we only had one problem to deal with. I basically threw all the dummies out so I wouldn't be tempted to revert. Then after she had her bath and last BF for the night I put her down in her cot and DH patted her. She did cry, but for each sleep the crying got less and so did the time it took to pat her. I think I read somewhere that by doing this I was jsut replacing the dummy with another habit - patting, but at this age I could not leave her to cry alone (actually have never had success with this, we juct couldn't leave them to cry).

She did pretty well and was over the dummy within a day or two from memory. She still woke overnight but only for a feed and not every hour.

I was really reluctant to use a dummy in the first place as I did not use one with my DD1. However, DD2 was described by the midwife at the hospital as "highly orally fixated". I guess some babies just really like to suck - a lot. I think by about 3 months they do loose the newborn suck relfex.

I think we were wrapping until around 5 months, but both mine seemed to really like being wrapped.

[BeachedAsBro]

The girls who used dummies in my DIG found heaps of success from sleepy wings. I can't comment though as I didn't give my daughter a dummy. She spat it out form day one, we persevered for a little while then gave up.

Good luck! I hope you get your break soon and your older one is better soon.

[Bek+3]

My first 2 kids never had a dummy but my 3rd did. The hospital gave him one to help him learn to suck and when we brought him home at 5 weeks old I learned that he was dependent on it. Over the next few days I tried a few things which didn't work and in the end, it went cold turkey. It took another few days to sort him out but all good there after. Good luck.

[Mummy-2-1boy]

Well I just made it through my first dummy free day. It was not nice & involved a lot I crying at naptimes. She only slept 1 half hr sleep & one 45 min sleeps all day. She actually did not need it at all during her wake times, but at naptime she worked herself up quiet a bit & nothing I did to calm her worked so we gave up quiet a few times. She's a tummy sleeper so she scrubbed her face non stop on the mattress so it was soaking each time!

Tonight she didn't fall asleep having her bottle assume usually does so I was prepared for a shocker but I only had to go in & rock the basinet a few times. Fingers crossed she stays asleep for longer than her sleep cycle!

It's so hard to know how to go about getting her to sleep cz she was never great anyways!

[IVL]

How did last night go OP?

I remember both of mine used to rub the back of their head from side to side on the mattress to get to sleep, they both had bald patches as a result.

[Mummy-2-1boy]

We ended up giving it to her at 1am. I got terribly sick & was in bed all day yesterday & my husband is away for a week so not the best timing! Shd has actually been really good since which is amazing. Has slept really well at night & settled easily during the day but has still only slept her 45mins! I will try again in a few weeks... Or maybe I'll be too scared & she might just get the hang of the dummy really early?