SleepyTot - it works!!!

[RemindMeWhatSleepIs]

DS (8 months) sleeps with a dummy, which means I spend the whole night finding his lost dummies for him. He breastfeeds every 3 hours through the night too so having to find his dummy 10 times a night too is not much fun.

Anyhow, I bought him a SleepyTot Bunny which arrived yesterday.www.sleepytot.com/baby-comforters
Basically it's a soft toy that can hold a dummy in each of its 4 paws making it easier for your baby to find their own dummy. I wasn't expecting it to work but anything's worth a go!

I've let him play with it all day today to get used to it and tonight ive fed him to sleep (naughty mummy!) and put him in his cot with his bunny.

I've just TWICE watched him on his baby monitor camera- wake up, roll over, grab bunny, select his dummy of choice, put it in his mouth, roll over and go back to sleep!!!
It's a miracle!!!!

I'm amazed!

It's been 3 hours and DS hasn't cried once!

I'm amazed! I have very low standards I know- my DD (2yrs 10m) only started sleeping through a few months ago.

Glad to read this. I've bought one for my DS in the hope that it'll radically improve his sleep once he's old enough to take a stuffed toy to bed (he's only 4 months at the mo). Roll on April!
Now stop watching that monitor and make the most of the sleep

This is really encouraging to read. Have bought one for my nearly 6 month old ds, who's dummy I replace at least 10 (feels like a million) times a night. It hasn't worked yet, maybe he's too young still? I like your idea of letting him play with it in the daytime. Fingers crossed...

Ps I bought the large bunny and am wondering if it's too big. Did you buy the normal one?

It's the large size bunny. Doesn't seem so large next to my chunky DS though! I bought it from an eBay shop though as it was free postage.

After my quiet evening last night I fed DS at 10:15pm, he then slept till 5:30am!!! (He's done that once before in his whole life). Then slept till 7am when DD woke him up.

Wow, I'm persevering!

Claudie, one thing you could do to make it easier is sew the Sleeptot to ds's grobag - dd is 6 months and couldn't find hers in the cot once she flung him away and rolled around, but can find it now it's right under her nose! An 8 month old is better able to go looking for it in the cot because they understand that objects still exist when they can't see them. 6 month olds might not yet.

Another thing to do is if you do still need to help him until he gets the hang of it, put the dummies into his hand then move his hand to his mouth each time, especially at bedtime, don't just put it back in for him (unless he's too upset). DD had gotten so used to us replugging it for her she didn't bother trying to do it herself for a while. Then once you know he can do it do give him a chance to do it for himself before jumping in. DD was waking every hour for a while for replugging and now sleeps through from 8 or 9pm to about 6am almost every night!! Well worth persevering!

Sioda, thanks do much for advice. Sewing it onto grobag until he's a bit older is a great idea, and can't believe I haven't thought about helping him re-plug himself! So obvious, yet I've never done it. Will give it a go, I have faith in the bunny!

My friend swore by hers - her DS had one and slept brilliantly.

Is it a sign of how sleep deprived I am that even though my ds2 doesn't even take a dummy I actually considered buying one for a moment to see if it worked ?

Good advice Sioda. Even if DS could put his own dummy back in before (if he could see it) it's now attached to a bunny so it's a slightly different skill. He does seem to play with the bunny and pull the dummy back out by accident.

Good progress last night though. He was asleep at 6:15pm (busy day so didn't nap well). I had to help him find the bunny around 8pm, fed at 9pm then slept till 3:15am. He fed then messed around till 4:30am, then slept till 6:45am.

Shame I had to put 2 yr old DD back in bed 7 times during the night!!

Poor Indith! You have my sympathy, DD never had a dummy either and she was an absolute nightmare! Fed hourly for about 6 months and was well over a year old before she slept for a 5 hr stretch. She's the reason for my MN name!

me too Indith! and DS is 3, and hasn't had a dummy for a year

Glad it isn't just me then!

I had high hopes that ds2 would be like his perfect sleeping brother. adly he appears to be following in dd's footsteps instead (about to turn 4 and just sort of slipped seemlessly form waking 10 times a night to be fed to waking 10 time a night to be cuddled/given her lions back/have her bedcovers sorted out/because the spider/octopus is being mean to her).

I should say she went from feeding to random waking around 2 not just now . Though at least if she were still waking to be fed I could stay in bed. I could just lie in the middle with one child on each boob. I might get more sleep that way .

DS was asleep at 7pm, had one feed at 5:15am and slept till 7:15am!!!!!
I didn't have to put his dummy back once.

I'm truly amazed!!!!

DD slept all night too and was up at 6am.

I'm off to buy a spare bunny in case we ever lose this one!

Good to hear you had another good night remindmewhatsleepis.

sioda what part of grobag did you sew it to (ha! Phone tried to correct grobag to Gorbachev)? Bit paranoid about safety so would love to know

Lucy, I have mothercare sleeping bags. They're work better for sewing it to than the proper Grobags because they have a round neck while grobags have a v neck. I do have one grobag and sewed it to the left side at the top. You just have to pick one side or the other with them and sew the tummy to it so that hopefully the Sleepytot is right under the chin whichever way they turn in the night. The main thing safety wise is that there are no loose threads so you just have to sew it really close and tight and knot the thread lots at each end so it can't unravel. Don't try sewing the two sides of the grobag together to get the sleepytot to sit right in the middle IYKWIM. I'd take them off before washing too in case they came loose.

Thanks Sioda, so the sleepytot can't flop over baby's face in that position can it? I mean, the dummy reaches the mouth but not much further up the face? I have grobags but they're round neck too so will have a play about with positioning!

Yup that's it. If you have the sleepytot's head facing towards the side then there should be two dummies that'll reach to the mouth but no further, one from his arm and one from the leg. Once you've sewn sleepytot by the tummy it won't be able to flop onto baby's face at all.

Sleepytots arm and leg that is. Hope that makes sense!

I sewed a dummy to my LO's bedtime bunny, and he's been able to find himself from about 6 months. It's brilliant, and once he has it, he know's it's bedtime.