I am not sure if this post should be here or under naps. My daughter is now 13 weeks old. We had been doing the gradual weaning since she was 7 weeks old but especially for naps she got more and more dependent on the pacifier. Up until last week, she would take great naps but wake frequently during active REM and would only go back to sleep with the paci. Then all of a sudden even the paci did not help. Then she started waking up at night. So we decided it was time for cold turkey. We are on day 5 and it has been hard.
She used to go to sleep by herself with the paci. Now, she she cries and I do pat/shush in the crib. Some times she'll cry for a few minutes and then grumpy noises and fall asleep. Some times she'll cry for like 10 minutes before falling asleep exhausted. Does this get better. Will she eventually (are we talking weeks?) learn to fall asleep on her own?
Now I do I wind down and put her down and pat/shush her. Every once in a while if she cries way to hard I'll pick her up calm her and then continue pat/shush. Nighttime so far as been better. Naps are now a total disaster and her EASY is totally off. She wakes after 30 minutes (she enters sleep in deep sleep rather then light sleep) In the morning I can have so far been able to extend her nap with pat/shush to 1 or 1 1/2 hours. After that, I cannot extend the nap past 30 minutes (regardless of wake to sleep or patting and shushing). She's calm then starts sucking her tongue, then looking for the paci with an open mouth and then starts crying and crying and after 15 minutes of crying and patting and shushing I give up. She is trying to find her thumb/fingers during the day but is not yet really coordinated and most times gets frustrated with it.
Will she learn to fall asleep on her own, without crying and without patting and shushing? Will she learn to take longer naps? Do I just continue what I am doing for every nap? It sure is very frustrating.
Thanks
