14 wk addicted to dummy at night - help

[trinanz]

Hi, our 14 week dd has started waking frequently at night - every 40-60 minutes wanting her dummy. She first sleeps from about 8.30pm to 1ish, then has her dummy, falls straight back to sleep until 2ish, do same again until 3am when she is fed (won't take back dummy and cries so is hungry) then from here onwards she used to sleep until 7ish then fed and the day begins. Now she is waking very frequently from 3 onwards wanting her dummy. We are not sure what to do as we are getting very very tired. If we don't give her dummy she screams and screams and won't be consoled any other way. We think we should wean her off the night dummy but still think we should use it during the day but aren't sure. She likes to suck it and we only give it to her if her grizzling turns to cries and it isn't time for feeding, or nappy changing etc... Quite often her grizzling means she's ready for a sleep but not always. Does anyone have any advice about dummies and babies around this age as we would love to get back to our one or two feeds during the night with sleep in between.
Thanks.

trinanz

Is it possible that when your dd wakes "for her dummy", she is actually a little bit peckish, but will settle for a dummy? It might help to actually give her a quick feed at 1 and then see how it goes. Of course this might not work, but it could be that she wakes up so much at 3, having become starving, that she can't sleep the rest of the night (if you see what I mean)

Anyway I don't think you should necessarily wean her off the dummy. It was at about this age that my dd found her thumb and started getting herself back off to sleep - maybe yours will too!

i truly wouldnt worry about the dummy,my first child had one day and night until one yr,then only at night until two when a blocked nose meant he didnt want it.he as always had very clear advanced speech,no buck teth(!!)and it helped him sleep and thro teething pain.as long as your baby is not hungry etc yor sleep is THE most crucial thing,so dont worry.all my friends whose children have had dummys have had no problems when stopping using them.my second child would not have a dummy at all so its not cos im madly pro them,i just dont have a problem with them.

I have said this before, but my ds did not sleep through the night until 8 months. He was having at least two feeds a night until then. He also had a dummy. I think that Lucy123 might be right. If you tried feeding her when she first wakes she might go longer. Sorry that I can't offer any hope, but some babies just don't go through the night! When she reaches 6 months old you will know that she does not NEED food until the morning and can use controlled crying. Until then, if she wakes, I would try her with food.

It is hard I know (from experience), but the time does pass, and you do get some sleep longer than three hours eventually. My ds goes through from 7.30pm to 7.30am now. It is lovely, and I have almost forgotten how hard the first 8 months were (almost!)

ps my ds still has his dummy for naps and at night, but we try really hard not to let him have it during the day. I would much rather that he had a dummy than sucked his thumb. My mum recently told me how much she regrets not giving me a dummy, as I went on to suck my thumb until 10 (at nights only, I hasten to add! ) A dummy can be disposed of, but a thumb will always be there.

I agree with everyone else. Are you bfing? If so, try feeding her whenever she grumbles and then stuff the dummy in her mouth straight after feeding. I did this with my ds (and now my dd) who fed day and night every 2 hours for the first 6 months. At around 3 months he threw his dummy away and would never take it again. I then did controlled crying at 6 mo and eliminated the night feeds within 2 days. My dd (now 11 weeks) has had a dummy from the beginning and shrieks if it falls out of her mouth. But interestingly it only seems to "fall" out when she's hungry. Luckily she sleeps 5 - 6 hours at a stretch at night and has done since she was born (she does 3-4 during the day), so I'm really feeling spoiled this time around. By the way we had my ds in bed with us (makes the night feeds much easier if you're bfing) until 6 mo. and are doing the same with dd. Babies change their routines every few days/weeks at this age, so I wouldn't despair yet.

Hi Trinanz
We had almost exactly the same thing happen with my dd at about same age...I actually posted a thread too - under 'dummy problems'. We decided to go 'cold turkey' and get rid of the dummy - which she LOVED. She cried for what seemed like forever and it was pretty tough. But we persevered and now she has no dummy anytime. We have found that she is actually more settled during the day too. She has found other things to amuse herself. She does suck her hands a fair bit but not constantly like she did with the dummy. If you want to do this, keep in mind that 14 weeks is a bit too young for true crontrol crying ...she will need to be picked up etc. (just not immediatley). I tried to look at it as helping her learn a new skill (putting herself to sleep unaided). She sleeps much longer and better now (she is 19 weeks now). good luck.

Whoops...meant to say...maybe you should try an extra feed as the others have suggested and see if it makes a difference too. Your dd may be having a growth spurt or something?

I am also getting desesperate about getting some sleep.I think my 6 months old baby is waking up,because she goes to sleep with her dummy and i think it's the reason why she still gets up so much in the night,when it falls out of her mouth.We stopped night feeds ages ago.she is definitely not hungry.
Anyone ever been through the same experience??.Please help! She has only slept through 4 nights since she was born.

Nanou, if you can, have a look at "the No-Cry Sleep Solution" by Elizabeth Pantley. It is an american book, but widely available. It goes into a lot of detail about sleep for babies, from a "No Controlled Crying" point of view. The author has a technique for weaning a baby off sucking to sleep, and it works for either breast fed or dummy sucking babies. We didn't have the application to stick with the technique through thick and thin, but it did help a lot.