Help! Been dealing with this for 6+months now!

Ok, here is the situation that has been going on at our house for the past 6-7 months now. 3-4 nights out of the week, Reece will start whining/crying in his sleep a couple times a night. When we go in there he is never awake, but as soon as we put the paci in his mouth his is quiet again. I feel like this is maybe a habit or something and I'm not sure how to break him of this habit. We haven't gone one full week without this happening in 6 months. Anyone have any advice or been through this before?

 

Does he just have one paci in the crib? We give two, one in the mouth, one in the hand. Most nights they can find an extra suckie, but now we get the whining if they can't find one to hold in their hand! :lol: We have given 3 sometimes, and I've heard of people who toss 6-10 in there just to be safe!

 

He doesn't even try to grab a paci, he is just laying there sleeping and whining.

 

What happens if you don't go in there, and give him a few minutes to work it out? Will he fall back asleep, or does he then wake up completely? When my girls were that age, they would wake up out of habit. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore, and I left them to work it out on their own. It took a couple nights, but we haven't had any issues since. Good Luck!

 

Krystyn, we are going to let him try and work it out on his own and see how it goes.

 

Yeah I agree with Kyrstyn then, if he's just whining, just leave him for a bit. My ds does that sometimes, and if I leave him he'll go back to sleep most of the time. If it turns into crying then I have to go in and lay him back down. :hug:

 

I have one DD who did this until just recently. She would whine and softly cry once or twice a night and I'd pop her paci in her mouth and she was fine. I found it easier to do that than let her cry, but after nearly two years of it, I was getting tired. She just would not find her own paci. I put 10 or so in her crib and would space them out before I went to sleep, but she wouldn't make any effort to find one. I tried a night light so she could see them, and that didn't help.

We had a run of illnesses this spring/early summer that lasted nearly four months. We had major sleep disruptions, so I finally did CIO again after I knew everyone was healthy so we could get back to normal sleeping hours, and I included the whining/crying for her paci in the CIO. Since then, she's been finding her own paci and my nighttime-paci-duty is finally over!! I still put tons of pacis in her crib. She never moves in her crib after she goes to sleep, so I strategically locate them for her right before I go to sleep at night.

 

I would also leave him a bit to give him a chance to work it out. It could be that he will wake enough to replace the paci himself or just settle back down without it.

Good luck with the experiment.

 

I would definitely recommend trying this. My guys half-wake a lot; they let out a few whines or a cry, and we give them a few minutes to see if they really wake up. Most of the time they go right back to sleep.

Let us know how it goes!

 

How did it go Holly?

 

Zoe did this. We just got used to it and rarely went in. She was never awake and settled back down. I would try not going in or giving the paci.

 

oh ugh! good luck!

I got so tired of the paci replacement. I did give ours a few pacis. I also put the pacis on a paci leash thing that I hooked on their sleepsacks. I know some people don't like the leash things... but they worked good for us.

Actually, now that I think about it, I also tied a pacifier on a small 4 or 6" ribbon to the crib (no way to choke with such a short length). that was pretty funny... to actually suck on that paci the kids had to be lying right up against the edge of the crib... anyway, that's not really your issue, but just letting you know that we had multiple pacis available, and ones that couldn't be thrown out... I hated going in their room and having to hunt on the ground for dropped pacis.