HELP - night waking due to dummy dependance

[fingersx]

Hi all

I have a 4 month old daughter who has slept through the night since she was 9 weeks old (7pm till 6am). She has always settled really well and quickly with the dummy for all of her sleeps, day and night.

At night she used to fall asleep with it in and then after about an hour it would have fallen out and she didn't need it for the rest of the night.

In the last week things seem to have gone a little pear shaped!!! Every night she has gone to bed with dummy and settled and asleep within about 10 minutes. At around 10-11pm she has been waking crying and won't resettle without the dummy. Then again from 2am ish every hour!!!! All she wants is the dummy as she settles again straight after we put it back in.

Myself and hubby are exhausted from continually getting up.

I know the answer is probably to get rid of it so I'm wondering if anyone has any advice on the most gentle way of weaning a dummy. I'm really not comfortable with controlled crying as my daughter has a VERY loud scream and gets distressed very easily and gets into a real state. I'm prepared for a bit of crying but not hours of it. it would break my heart.

Any help would be great!

[Bel1978]

Cant really help you here all i can say is put lots of dummies in the cot..

My DD slept up until 6 months perfectly then now 17mths and still doesnt sleep through.. throw in a 5 mth old as well its not fun...

Sienna just started walking so she is getting better... although i found at that age bonjela helped she sucked on the dummy with bonjela until she went to sleep dont know why but it helped

[Damamma]

I would look for reasons for her sudden change in sleeping, maybe she is teething. Maybe its a temperary thing and she'll settle back into her old habits.

[Bel1978]

as i said my bubba alept perfectly until 6 mths and still is a horrible sleeper at 17mths

[SpottySocks]

I'm not sure I can help with the dummy side of things. My bub did have one but when she was about 9 or 10 weeks old she discovered her thumb and would pop the dummy out with her thumb. After about a couple of weeks she just started refusing the dummy.

She is now 5 months old and started sleeping from 8pm through to 5ish when she was 8 weeks old. Around 4 months she started waking up around 1ish for a feed, she did this for about a week and then settled back down again. This past week she has been very unsetteld at night, waking 3 or 4 times. I am exhausted :sleeping:

I think it is because of her teeth - she got her bottom 2 at 14 weeks and now we can see a couple more just showing under the gum.
We did try my husband getting up and trying to settle her but have noticed that if we do this she only sleeps for an hour at the most and then wakes again. If I give her a feed when she wakes she will usually go back to sleep for 2 or 3 hours.

Could your little one be hungry? Maybe going through a growth spurt. I find if I give her a late feed when I go to bed then she usually lasts a bit longer before waking.

Sorry, am not really much help! Am not getting much sleep myself!

Goodluck!

[melaniec]

I'm reading a book 'Save Our Sleep' by Tizzie Hall and she says the reason for this to happen is that babies start waking from their sleep cycles (40 mins each) at night when they are 6 months old (prior to this, they only sleep in sleep cycles in the day). So when she wakes up, she needs her sleep aid (the dummy) to get her back to sleep. I think the only way to avoid this is to give up the dummy altogether and teach her to go to sleep without it. Introduce a comfortor toy or snuggle rug, something she can find on her own when she wakes between sleep cycles. If you haven't heard of the book, definately worth a read and should be available at your local library.

All the best for a good nights sleep :)