Turkey-Lurkey

Nope, not a post about the holiday. Rather, a posting chronicling going "cold turkey" with no pacifier use at night. It's something that started to become an issue about 2 weeks ago, in which Peanut started to wake up frequently during the night, just for her pacifier. At first, it was fine. When it became 5 or 6 times a night, it was getting ridiculous. She couldn't keep herself asleep without it. We were debating getting rid of it altogether, but we decided to wait to read some books from the library. Well, seeing as how we're still waiting on those ordered books to be ready for pick-up at the library (really, how long can it take??? Especially when there are available copies that just need to be brought in from a different branch!), we had to take matters into our own hands. On Tues night, she was awake within 45 minutes of being put down for bed and fussing for her pacifier. Ugh. So, we stopped giving it to her. There was a lot of rocking, shushing (Thank you, Dr Karp "The Happiest Baby on the Block"), screaming on her part, etc But it finally worked and she fell asleep sans pacifier. And she stayed asleep for 4 hours, after which she woke up to eat and then went right back to sleep.

Night #2 Went to bed easily without the pacifier, as she had just bottled and drifted off to sleep while being burped. We laid her down and she slept for 4 hours. 1:30 am feeding- ate and then proceeded to scream until 2 because I tried to put her down without the pacifier. Again, lots of rocking, shushing, etc She did wake up once about 10 minutes later and we rocked her (well, the standing/jiggling/side-lying kind of rocking) and then put her down. She slept until 7:3o am. Like a rock.

Night #3 Fussed at bedtime (well, screamed is more like it for this feisty girl) for about 20 minutes, then went down and slept until 3:30 am. Wow. Went to bed easily after her feeding. Was awake at 6:15, which she hasn't done in a week or so. I didn't know what to do with her, so I fed her and brought her to bed with me and she slept until 8. Pacifier free.

I think the trade off here is that now I've become the pacifier, meaning that if she eats, she'll drift off to sleep. Or that she needs to be rocked to near-sleep, whereas before we could put her in bed somewhat awake, but with the pacifier, and she'd conk out. But she is sleeping soundly for long periods of time, which is a sigh of relief for all.

I will add two things to this. 1) I'm discovering how much I fear her temper at bedtime. She is such a pistol and her screams can get to me, to the point that I lose patience and start to worry about whether I can keep my calm with her. It's so hard to remember that I am the adult and that she is a little baby who can't control things. And that the ways in which we talk to her and treat her are already forming her emotions and brain. 2) The Pacifier is still in use during the day. We aren't brave enough to take it away altogether.