Infant sleeping misadventure

[hehateme]

Hi:

DS2 will be 5 month old soon. He was a great sleeper until he was 4 months old. He was waking up on once a night at that time. Last month he went for his 4 month shots. He had mild fever for a few days. We were trying to get him used to not being swaddled at that time.

We made the mistake of giving him a pacifier while putting him to bed.
He really liked it. He was sick for 2 days and that is all it took to get him hooked. From that point onwards he needed Pacifier to sleep. He would wake up if the pacifier fell off so we ended up waking up 5-8 times a night. The moment we put a pacifier in he would fall asleep so we selfishly enabled behavior. In the past 2-3 weeks he has also learned to roll over and is very mobile in the crib.

Last weekend we decided to put an end up the pacifier. These days he is waking up ever hour and crying. We let him cry a little and soothe him by picking him up. Sometimes he gets stuck in corner of the crib.

Our DS1 is sleeping in another room but DS2 is very loud so we don't let him cry for too long.

Initially my wife and I were taking turns. I would get DS2 one night and the other parent rested. Lately it has been so bad that we are no splitting half of night. First parent gets him from 8:00 pm to 1:00 am and the other parent from 1:00 pm to 6:00 am.

In terms of issues:
1. He may still be missing his pacifier
2. He is very mobile and gets stuck in a corner. Should we let him move around or try to restrain him with a sleep positioner?
3. He is now rolling over and sleeping on his stomach. This is somewhat stressful so we have an anglecare breathing monitor and a infrared camera so we can see him if we are in another room.

We don't believe in CIO. Our DS1 began sleeping through the night at 9 months and we were fine with it. DS2 was doing much better than DS1 was at the same age but last 4 weeks have been a big nightmare.

We are getting worn out due to not getting enough sleep for the past 4 weeks. Let us know if you have any suggestions for us.

[Tinochka]

In my case, I was not giving a pacifier to my first child. Ended up being a pacifier myself.... Then decided to give up and give a paci...
I used a pacifier holder
http://www.amazon.com/Booginhead-Pac...acifier+holder
and my child very quick learn to help himself to a pacifier. I also put in the crib all available pacifiers (3-4). He started to sleep through the night at 3,5 month (7 hours first night, then went straight to 10 hrs). Of course, had the occasions of waking up during teething, once he learnt to stand up, was not able to go back, being sick.... other than that, a pacifier actually saved my sanity.

[Liziz]

I don't have much advice (DD is a month behind yours), but if you want to let your DS keep using a paci but just don't want to get up all the time to give it back, you might want to try a Wubbanub (http://www.wubbanub.com/). My DD is already able to get the paci into her mouth by herself w/ the Wubbanub -- something she definitely can't do w/ a normal paci...but somehow the stuffed animal on there lets her grab it enough to manipulate it. Good luck!

[HannaAddict]

He's only five months and sucking is totally appropriate self comforting behavior, don't take it away. None of mine would take a paci but i was/am a human paci. Sleep always ebbs and flows in babies, sometimes easy and good and sometimes not so good. Hang in there, he's just a very young baby.

[HannaAddict]

Another plug for the paci, Pacifier use is also supposed to be good SIDS prevention in some way and you are in the peak time frame, slightly older than newborn I believe. Good luck.