Waking after every cycle looking for dummy

jester77

My lad is 16 weeks old and sleeps in his own bed beside ours. We put him down around 10ish and he will sleep through until about 5 or 6 when he gets his next feed. The only thing is he wakes after nearly every cycle looking for his dummy. Once we stick it in he's quiet again until the next time, if we ignore it he will wake up crying and it could take a while to get him back down.

Is there anything we can do to stop this? It can get exhausting being woken every 50-60 mins and not getting a few hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Chattastrophe!

Is it not a good thing that you can placate him so quickly and easily with the soother? Plenty of parents have babies that wake up that often and just won't settle down again. Once an hour, you're doing really well.

dublinlady

This drove me insane and the only way to stop it from happening is to stop doing it it's very hard but I don't like to see kids with soothers over the age of one really anyway - personal thing - so I took mine off them by reducing it to just nights and then one night we were so fed up of going in and out to replace it or find a new one we just didn't give it back. The baby has to teach themselves to self soothe and it took us about 2 days of horrible upset - we just went in every 5-10 mins and put hand on chest wtc to reassure for 2 mins - this lasted about 40 mins a couple of time the first night and then maybe 20 the night after and that was it. She totally forgot about it after that ( applies to both my daughters!)
But that was around 8/9 months. I think it's just something if you are fed up with u need to decide to do - otherwise u decide u can live with waking every hour - I couldn't!

theLuggage

I think at that age they need the comfort so give it to them! It wont be too long til they can feel around for it themselves and when they can, throw LOADS in so they'll grab one ;-) This is what we did with our first. Our second loved her thumb - if yours has any inclination to suck their thumb then encourage it - they can always find it no bother! Obviously stopping that might be harder down the road than the dummy but you can cross that bridge when you come to it.

jester77

Yeah, don't want to take it away from him yet. His teeth are already starting to appear and it helps keep him calm. But he still hasn't figured how to put it back in himself, he usually ends up putting it in sideways and it falls and then he can't find it

Although last night was better, he managed nearly 3 hours without looking for it. That makes a huge difference to how you feel the next morning, actually feed good and fresh today compared to most days.

theLuggage

Oh yeah broken sleep is the worst, apparently worse than no sleep. I'd well believe it. Just remember to keep napping through the day as well to help yourself catch up on some sleep. It does get better. If you're wrecked, get someone to mind while you go to sleep ;-) As you say a few hours can do you the world of good!