[cxk04d]

DD is 4 months old and wakes up about every 1-2 hours during the night for her pacifier. I only have to feed her about once a night, but am very tired of getting up just to put the pacifier back in. Should I try to get rid of it so she can figure out how to soothe herself back to sleep? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[HBV]

H did that until he figured out how to manipulate it back into his own mouth. Some research that came out about 2 years ago indicated that the pacifiers at night actually helped prevent SIDS, so you might want to take a look at that before you try to get rid of it.

[OnTheJourney]

DS used to wake up a couple times at night for his soother at that age, he had already given up his night feedings. I stressed about whether I was doing the right thing getting up to give it to him, or should he learn to sooth without it, but I continued because it worked for us and we all got sleep. I would go in before we went to bed and place a soother near each of his hands (we have a handful in his crib!) in hopes he would put it in himself. Around 5 or 6 months he did and we have had solid 12+ hour nights since!
You may want to give her a few minutes to try to work it out before you go in. Hopefully she will stretch out the time between!

[dlmartin67]

My daughter is 3 mos old and wakes up between 2am and 4am every morning. All she wants is her pacifier. She no longer takes a bottle during the night. I walk in, put the pacifier in her mouth and she goes back to sleep within seconds. I tried waiting 2-5 minutes to see if she would self-soothe but she would not. She kicked her little feet, made noise and then started to cry. I figure I'll give her another month or two before I try the self-soothing thing again. Fortunately, I am the type of person who can fall asleep within seconds so it really doesn't bother me

Denise

[Linny]

IMO, if they still want a pacifier, they still 'need' it. That's just me after having five babies.
Our youngest is just over one year, and still wakes up at least once a night---just for the pacifier. It's a matter of either getting up to put it in his mouth, or waiting a moment and he finds it to do the same.
Frankly, I'm usually up sooner to put it in his mouth...and that's okay for us.

My motto has always been:

I'd rather have a crooked-tooth child who was calmed and basically stress-free-
Than a neurotic, straight-toothed child...

But that's me. In the course of a lifetime, a few months of having to get up in the night, is sooo little.

Sincerely,

Linny

[chrisandaaron]

Our son is 2 and we still have to get up and help him find his "paci" at least once most nights. We also sneak in after he is asleep and make sure they are strategically placed around his bed so that he can find them easily during the night. That does help. He also likes to make sure he had 2-3 (one in mouth and one in each hand) when he lays down in bed. I've been thinking about ziptying a cup to the corner of the bed and filling it with paci's each night so that he knows exactly were to find them. Anyone ever try something like that?