The Paci is going to be the death of us.....

AUGH, where to start....

Our babies are just shy of 5 months old. They've always been really good sleepers and have been STTN for a while now. Just recently our DD has started waking up at 3:00 AM for no reason. She won't eat, doesn't want to be held but doesn't want to lay down either. That one we can "deal" with. Some nights we just put her in her bouncy in the bathroom with the fan on and she spends the rest of the night there. (which may be causing another issue that I'll have to post on later) Other nights my DH is able to rock her back to sleep. Our bigger problem is our DS and his paci......

Last night my DH was up almost every 1/2 hour putting the paci back in his mouth because the second he drops it he wakes up and cries. :headbang: The second it is back in his mouth he falls right back to sleep. However, we just can't continue on like this. We have them both swaddled (my DH is the king of swaddling) and they go to bed just fine, but DS keeps waking up because he drops the stupid paci. I have no idea what I should do. Part of the reason for keeping him swaddled is so that he won't take the paci out of his mouth. But then I'm thinking maybe we shouldn't swaddle him so he can get a hand in there if he needs something to soothe himself.

My initial plan is to try the "happiest baby on the block" technique tonight and see if we can't get him back to sleep without the paci. That's the only thing I can think of doing....is there something else that I'm missing??

I feel they are still a little young for CIO but they really are waking up for no real reason, so I don't know if I should attempt it. And if I do, do you think it's worth trying to get them to sleep w/o being swaddled at the same time? Or do you think that's too much at once?

Also, if we do decide to do CIO how did you guys do it with 2? We are so afraid that one is going to wake the other and we're going to have 2 crying babies!!! Is it really fair for DD to be stuck in the room with her screaming brother or vice versus?

Please help....any thoughts or advice you can give would be a great help. I feel so lost right now.

 

There is something called a wubbanub. Search on ebay. Helps keep paci in mouth-worked wonders for our son. I would start by unswaddling the one arm he favors during the day-my son at 4 months holds paci in his mouth with the wubbie and even w regular paci. Will answer more later-gotta tend to babies!

 

WE literally had this exact same issue a few months ago. It was a nightmare--we were aslo waking up about 10 times a night. we didn't have our DS swaddled, but it didn't matter b/c he still didn't know how to put it back in his mouth the right way, so would cry with it in his hand. Unswaddling him may help--just depends on if he can get the hang of putting it back in his mouth.

We ended up just having to do CIO w/o the paci. It actually wasn't as hard at night as I thought, b/c we just took it away from him during the day first. That specific day was pretty horrible, b/c we didn't give it to him at all--for naps or anything. But then that night, when he cried for it, we just did CIO---it only last a little bit--don't even think 20 minutes, and it was over. Our DS didn't need it to fall asleep though, just when he woke up, so it wasn't that bad.

I know some people may think it it still too early to do CIO but that's the only way to deal with the paci issue in my opinion-b/c as you said, you can't just keep getting up every 1/2 hour. Some peoole said to put a bunch of pacis in the crib , but that dind't work for us either. We had to be th eones to stick it back in his mouth---and we just couldn't take it anymore.

Now we try to give himt he paci only when he is a real mess and nothing else works to calm him down. But he can easily fall back into the habit, so we try to be really careful about when and how much we give it to him. This weekend our parents babysat a day and gave it to him a bunch, so now we have to deal with that once we get home. As much as we love the paci we hate it too!!

As for one baby waking the other---yeah, it does happen, but for us, even though one would wake up the other, once one calmed down the other would just calm down on his own. Sometimes the other doesn't even wake up b/c he used to it.

Good-luck...it really was a nightmare for us for a while--I was crying in themniddle of the night I was so tired of getting up!! You just have to make a decision on whehter you are ready to just take it away and then stick ot it the best you can!

 

oh yeah...well, my twins boys are 11 months but have the same issue...waking up now all of a sudden after months of STTN...we're not swaddling anymore but we ended up putting 2 or 3 extra pacis in the crib with them, sometimes one in their mouth and one in hand when we put them to sleep...they still get up from time to time if they can't find them, but usually after a few minutes of crying, we can hear that they found the extra paci and went right back to sleep...my sister in law said that she had 8 or 10 pacis in her son's crib every night!

 

We went cold turkey with no pacis at about 2 months because we were having the same issue. They couldnt keep them in and I had to soothe them anyway.

 

I wanted to have paci babies in the worst way!!! I'm learning that parenthood is not what I want, usually. Sigh. My boys at 10 weeks (BEFORE THEY TECHNICALLY HAD HANDS according to What to Expect) were caught on the u/s by the ob who said they were sucking their stumps. :angry: They would love nothing more than to suck on our fingers or their hands. I tried 5 different brands of pacis... they like the Soothies (I HATE them). :crazy: But they only kinda like them. And like you, when they are soothed to sleep with them in their mouths, if they fall out, they cry. So DH & I aren't really paci people. We do them every once in a while if they are fussy but not tired & are holding them. But not usually if they are going to sleep- it's WAY too much trouble! :catfight:

For the record, I blame DH. He was really slow to get on board that we don't stick fingers in their mouths. In the hospital it was pretty much all fingers in their mouths. I blew up at DH & MIL when they were 2.5 weeks old in Sam's Club and they were both sticking fingers in their mouths. GERMS! Since then, they stopped with the fingers for the most part.

 

I second miraclebabies' recommendation of Wubbanubs - we have them and they are great. They are weighted so they don't fall when the paci drops out of the baby's mouth. I guess it depends on what type of soother your babes are used to though because you cannot attach any type of pacifier to the Wubbanub - it is a First Years Soothie pacifier (luckily my girls already declared their affinity for Soothie soothers before I bought the Wubbanubs). They may be worth a try and good luck!

 

At 5 months old I would try swaddling with one arm out. We swaddled that way for a while before we quit the swaddle altogether. I was too afraid of them rolling over and having their arms tucked in. I felt like one arm out gave them some balance and a way to self-soothe if they felt so inclined. I took my DD's paci away cold turkey on her 6 month birthday. Of course at that point she had been sleeping through the night for about 3 months and would keep her paci in half the night then drop it but was so asleep it didn't matter. Let me stress how much she loved her paci, but in two days she had forgotten all about it. It's one of the benefits of taking it away sooner rather than later. You could try taking the paci away and letting your DS learn to soothe himself. It will be harder at first but will make it easier on you all in the long run. It's like my Baby 411 book says (it recommends taking pacis away between 4 - 6 months), if the paci isn't there to begin with then there's nothing to fall out and wake the child up and ultimately make them cry. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

We have the same issue and we do have Wubbanubs and they don't help. Still get up 2-3 times a night to put the paci back in. We might do Ferber method for this again since it worked great for their sleeping issues before but we might wait till 6 months to go cold turkey. Right now we give paci only in the car seats and for naps and nighttime. It's killing our sleep too.

 

I guess I look at it this way, yes, it sucks right now for you. But it won't be long and they will be able to get that paci back themselves. And so, I'm willing to suffer for a few months by getting up to replace paci's (well maybe not if I'm replacing it every 30 mins, but usually it's several times a night).

My babies have been able to get their own paci's in for at least a month, maybe longer, time is flying by me!! :lol: I make sure there are several in their crib for them to find. The only time they fuss is if they can't find one, or they have all fallen to the floor. It's pretty rare now though.

If it's driving you crazy then by all means take them away! But I prefer not to take them away that early...that's just a personal choice though, no real reason

 

we decided to quit cold turkey and, knock on wood, it's working!!!! The downside is that he's taking shorter more frequent naps during the day, but that I can deal with. For 2 nights now he has gone to bed without it and hasn't gotten up once. And to sweeten the deal, his sister must be following my example because she hasn't woken up either! YAY for 2 nights of sleep! We've also kept him fully swaddled, since that's the only way he'll sleep, but I'm also hoping that will prevent him from taking on his thumb since the paci isn't available.

Thanks Everyone for your advice! I really do appreciate it!

 

Glad it's working. I wouldnt care about the thumb sucking. Its a great soother for them and if they want it, they will find it. My DD sucked her thumb and then gave it up on her own at 4. Sure there are lots of stories out there about kids going to school and still sucking their thumb, but I think you will find that is not the norm. If he wants his thumb and it get you sleep and him soothed, I would let him have it. So glad you are getting some :lazy:

 

Our babies loved their Soothie pacis when they came home from the NICU around 2 months old. We used to use those pacis while rocking them to sleep, but they were never put in their cribs with the pacis. It would be frustrating though when they would be laying on the couch beside us while we ate dinner, for instance, and their paci kept falling out which would make them cry. So I bought some Wubbanubs, which helped a little but they weren't great. Then I decided to make my own after that. I just used a thick burp cloth, folded down one corner, and sewed a Soothie to that corner (using the 2 little holes in the Soothie). That worked just as good as the Wubbanub if not better, plus it was MUCH cheaper! Though over the past couple of months our boys haven't shown much interest in their pacis (yay), but instead they have started sucking their fingers and thumbs, which I prefer to a paci anyway, because I don't want to have to run into their nursery every time it falls out!