Dummy and sleep deprivation!

[NeedaDiscoNap]

My DD is 18 weeks old. She has fallen asleep with a dummy since she was about 6 weeks old. However this week's experiences are making me despise the dummy!

She goes to bed at 7 and falls asleep easily sucking her dummy. DH and I usually have to pop upstairs to put her dummy back in once or twice until about 7.30pm. Until this week, she slept until 3 or 4am after a dreamfeed at 10.45pm, then back to sleep til around 7am.

This week has been hell. She falls asleep the same as usual, and we can see on the monitor that she can self-soothe back to sleep as we can see her do it. After I give her her dream feed, she wakes minimum every hour looking for her dummy - two nights she has woken every 30-45 minutes. She falls asleep, then wakes an hour later looking for her dummy again.

I'm thinking I need to wean her off it as I can't continue popping it back in all the time and existing on virtually no sleep. Any suggestions? Have any of you been through this?

Have read about the Pantley gradual pull out method, or just going cold turkey. What worked for you? Or is weaning her from it at this age going to make things worse and cause problems at bedtime?

Been there!

We tied an Olly & Belle muslin (they are very thin) to the dummy. It made it easier to find. After one month we removed the dummy and left the muslin. DD1 still sleeps with hers at 2 years.

We went cold turkey with the dummy at about 16 weeks for the exact same reason. Two days of shush patting hell but then like magics son slept right through. Can't recommend dummy dropping enough!

Thanks for the replies!

stargirl I was thinking of giving her something like that - there's a soother thing she likes so could put that in the cot with her.

tryingto that's encouraging! Did you just go for it, or start with naps or bedtime?

One other thing to consider is whether the dreamfeed is starting to become more of a disruption than a help. I dropped my DD's dreamfeed and found the remainder of the night became a lot more settled and she still went until 7am before needing another feed, so I think she had outgrown it's usefulness.

I do agree though that ditching the dummy will probably be very short term pain for longer term gain. Both my DC's used one (until much later - around 2yrs but only in bed) and were very attached to them, but giving them up was really no drama at all.

I wondered that about the dreamfeed actually IDontWantTo. Last night, she was very soundly asleep when I went in to give her the dreamfeed. Usually she is a little bit restless, as if she needs it. She had slept well up until her dreamfeed (3h 45min without waking) and she ended up waking up as I fed her and crying too - which never happens at this feed.

I might see how things go tonight and if she's very settled then not give her the dreamfeed.

I presume you know about the 4 month sleep regression. Essentially they start to need the same environment to resettle as when they originally went to sleep, so you will need to remove the dummy for initial settling to allow resettling at night.

Can't help on what technique is best though.

Thanks Little, yep I know about the 4 month sleep regression - foolishly thought we might get through it with the dummy still in use but clearly it's going to have to go!

Another awful night last night - decided to drop the dream feed but she woke up crying at 10 anyway, and it took an hour to resettle her. She was then was awake about 5-6 times during the night. The dummy is becoming my nemesis.

We had this. It was awful but it will pass. In the meantime, have a look at a Sleepytot - it's a bunny you attach the dummy to (in the hope your baby can always find it). Our DD couldn't use it at 4mo unfortunately (Tho many can, apparently) bit she uses it now (11mo).

It took a few weeks for this stage to pass with us. She just started self settling again.

Good luck

Sorry meant to come back on. Yes we took it away for both naps and sleep straight away. We also did a dream feed until about 6 months but he never woke up for it. Greedy, sleepy little man could sleep through 6oz!

Thanks for the replies. Will look at the sleepy tot Blankiefan - sounds interesting.

Last night was slightly better - she slept 7.15pm-3am with only waking once in between. I popped her dummy in and she drifted back off. She took a little while to fall asleep after her feed at 3, but the real problem was at 5 - I was awake for an hour constantly putting the dummy back in as she was half asleep and crying for it.

That was without a dream feed too so am going to continue without it and see how she goes over the next couple of nights. She has vaccinations next week so would ideally like to wait until after that but don't know if I'll last that long!

Dd is very attached to her blanket comforter, it's a little blanket square with a little teddy and I give it to her for naps and bedtime. She puts it over her face! Just thinking you might want to make more of a thing with the soother, give that to her every time you give her the dummy.