Last night, Ayla had the best night's sleep in all of her nearly 6-months of life. Consequently, Dean and I slept better than we have in 6 months! She slept for 11 hours...no pacifier, no crying. I heard her stirring a couple times, but she was out after 30 seconds. I'm so proud of her!Of course, this was after a horrendously bad day. Besides her late morning nap, she pretty much didn't sleep all day yesterday and was not a happy camper. She was extremely fussy and wouldn't let me put her down. By the time Dean was on his way home from work, I was in tears with her. I was thisclose to giving her a pacifier. During times like that, I feel myself start to crumble because I start to feel guilty about taking it away.
I flipped through my "What to Expect During the First Year" book and it stated that the best time to wean a baby off a pacifier is between 3 and 6-months. At this age, they no longer need to use sucking as a means of soothing themselves. Also, their memories are short at this time and in a few days they'll easily forget about how they needed a binky. Reading this really reassured me that we made the right decision. Today, she went down for her early nap rather easily...her afternoon nap was much more of a battle, but we fought it and won and she has now been sleeping for an hour and a half (and counting).
This definitely has not been a walk in the park and I know it's not over yet, but we're seeing improvements with each day so we're sticking with it!
2 comments:
hi! I am so glad to hear you finally got some rest. I work in an office with tons of mommy and another co-worker is expecting in May. We were talking about paci's yesterday and debating what would you do if your child started thumb sucking to soothe themself? A co-workers brother sucked his thumb when he went to bed until his 20's!
btw our neighbor is from Nebraska and is a huskers fan. Can you guess what his favorite color is? ;P
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