Oh the pacifier.... yes, my baby has quite an affection for her paci and I have no problem knowing when she is asking for it. She doesn't exactly cry when she is wanting it (unless you wait too long) but she does have a way of "whining" for it and even has a specific outburst "neeay" when she needs it. This comes as she is getting tired but not quite ready for sleep. This is all good and fine and I like the fact that she is easily comforted by sucking on this small piece of silicone (ha), but it gets annoying in the middle of the night when she wakes up to realize that she spit it out while sleeping and needs it again to get back to sleep. This results in the head bobbing and pitiful "eh, eh, eh" as she desperately searches for it. I often watch this on our video monitor (which, much to my surprise, is one of my most favorite baby item purchases) and wait to see if she finds it or will settle back down without it before I go in and help her with the recovery. Sometimes I try to be strong and just let her work it out without the paci but experience has told me that if I let it go on too long, not only will she not give up, but she will become frantic, start crying and then spit up. Then she will not go back to sleep with her face lying in spit up. So what do we do?? We go in and try to give it back to her before she becomes fully awake! And stand there until she has a good grip on it and settles back down.
So at times I can't decide if the paci is helping her sleep or hindering it. At night, she can often self soothe herself back to sleep with or without it but during the day, she has a harder time with it. Granted she is still waking up a few times at night (but not to eat). So I'm trying to figure out the best way to respond. However, ignoring her and not giving her the paci does not seem likely to work. This is especially problematic during naptimes especially as she transitions through sleep cycles. This week, we have spent a couple full days at home trying to work on this napping thing. I haven't been great at getting her settled into a routine so I've been working on that a little harder. I've been trying to help organize her feedings a little better and put aside my worries about her CF issues. So far that is going ok....although today she has been periodically waking up from her naps even 2-3hours after a feeding with this awful reflux and spitting up quite a bit. Even though I've been trying to let her finish her nap on her own without picking up her, I finally gave in this afternoon. :/ I'm pretty tired myself and running back and forth up the stairs, giving her back her paci, and patting her until she settles down again is a little too exhausting by the end of the day, especially when I know if she doesn't get her rest now, she is going to be grumpy this evening! I'm hoping I can eventually influence some good sleep habits and not encourage the bad ones. I am optimistic though and think we are moving in the right direction. I start back to work this weekend so I'm praying she will start sleeping through the night consistently in the next week or so. We've at least dropped the middle of the night feedings so that's a good thing!
Oh, and one thing I've learned that I will take back to work with me next week is: being the provider and giving the advice is MUCH easier than being the mommy and heeding that advice!! Definitely something I will consider when telling moms to let them "cry it out"! Easier said than done!!!!
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