sleep routine and baby with a dummy?

[reban]

Ok my eight month old baby has got to go through a sleep routine as i am broken down by lack of sleep. She is dc4 and i did a sleep routine with dc1 at 6 months, dc2 at 12 months, didnt need to do one with dc3 as he wanted to be left alone to go to sleep pretty much from birth. My issue with dc4 (who is dd2) is that she is the only one i have ever given a dummy to and she is quite reliant on it to go to sleep but isnt able to just pop it back into her own mouth if it falls out. Tonight we have put the cot in the large bedroom with her two brothers (i know this makes us sound like the waltons but the room is big enough to cope with three beds and its a temporary measure) and i have arranged for the two boys to spend tues, wed and thurs night at grandparents to give me a chance to actually do controlled crying with her. This is my very long winded way of asking for advice from anyone else who has done controlled crying with a baby who has a dummy please!

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My sympathies re the sleep situation, it is awful, isn't it?

Re dummies, could you give her a few (identical) dummies for her cot? If she loses one, she might still be able to find another...

Also add cot bumper so dummies do not fall out quite so easily.

This worked for DS1 who was a dummy addict: Undo knot on one "arm", slip dummy ring through, retie knot. DS1 learnt v v quickly how to find his dummy again after I guided his hand a few times. Same idea also currently working for DS3...

Hope some of this helps.

Oh, almost forgot, CC, yes, worked v quickly for DS1 (who was my most demanding baby ): cried when left alone, spat/through dummy out of cot, we went back in in 1,2,3,4 min intervals, he slept after 20min on night1, 10min night 2, and did not cry at all on night 3. He was also about 8 months old at that point.

So good luck with all that.

thanks for reply .. did you keep putting the dummy back in ds1's mouth when he spat it out during the controlled crying? she can pick her dummy up but im yet to see her put it back it her mouth properly yet .. hopefully she will learn quickly!

Poor you. Sleep deprivation is the worst!

We used dummies for our two, and found, like you, that around this age the dummies fall out and they cry but can't find them again. Some friends of mine advised going cold turkey on the dummies, doing cc for a few nights and then they should be in a sleep routine with no dummies, but we were never brave enough to try it! (Have twins).

Instead we also used cot bumpers and 2 or 3 dummies in the cot. They soon learned to find them, took about a week, the cot bumpers def helped. We also found whenever we were away it didn't happen... because dummies can't fall out of travel cots! So if you had one of these, could use it for a few nights?

Good luck, whatever you do.

We just gave dummy back into his hand, so he had to manage to pop it back into mouth himself, LOL.
Interestingly, he was much calmer when daddy went back in rather than me (we took turns initially) then it was over to Dh .
I do think a lot depends on the temperament of the child/baby: DS1 was a screamer and aged 6 he still very dramatic, DS2 never sucked anything, did not want to be held/rocked, DS3 17 months likes his dummy for sleeping but is not fussed about it during the day and in fact throws it into his cot after each sleep himself, aawww! And who knows what expected DS4 will be like....

I am off to bed now myself, night, night.

This bumper's good for keeping dummies in the cot. DD learnt to replug her dummy at about 8-9 months, so since then - like peonona - I dot about 4 dummies around the cot, so she can usually find one herself.

oops penona even.

i would really like to get her away from dummys .. kick myself now for introducing them in the first place .. may try weaning her off them for daytime sleeps over next two days and then tackle controlled crying when boys are out of the house from tuesday minus dummys. my dp may leave home though

How did this go? I do find the Sleepytot works to help them find the dummies themselves. But I guess going cold turkey is the fastest route!