How long will this phase last?

D

Dink

Registered User
My baby is 4 1/2 months and has recently learnt to roll over. Last night I played 'hunt the baby' in her cot roughly every 2 hours. She shouts out, I go in (its dark) and feel around til I find a baby (she can get anywhere, top or bottom of cot, at any angle) put her back onto her back in the middle of the cot and she goes straight back to sleep. Did this happen with your baby, how long did it go on for?

A separate, but probably linked, issue - the dummy. She's a dummy addict. Do you think I should keep giving her the dummy back every time I go in or is this encouraging the dependence and making the waking worse? How long til she can find it herself??

She used to be such a good sleeper, I'm not sure where I've gone wrong :haha:
 
It's very normal at this age, you haven't gone wrong.
I had this problem with both my boys.
They used to move around and get themselves jammed and then need me to go in and move them.
I solved the problem by tucking the bottom of the grobag under the mattress.
This meant that they could roll side to side, but not onto their tummy's, and kept them from moving all over the cot.
Only needed to be done for a few months.

Is your baby waking because she is losing the dummy? My first had this problem.
We took the dummy away at about 6 mths. It was a tough few days, but great in the long run.
 
My 8 month old is still all over the cot - and with the dummy, we give it to her ONLY in bed, or when we're out and she's cranky (since when we're out it's harder to attend to her as quickly as she always would like). We've kind of "weaned" the dummy a little so it's ONLY at bed time, not all the time. Hopefully that's SOMETHING... but we haven't tried to take it off her completely yet... When she was younger though, she'd have the dummy ALL the time so already it's a big change - and she didn't even really mind that much...
 
Thanks - its good to know its not just me! I will try tucking her grobag in Matty.

I also only give the dummy at bed time and nap time Nicolejoy. I know she can re-settle without it because she slept through for 2 months, she still sleeps a 4 hour stretch when she first goes down and some long naps too. However, other times she definitely wakes looking for it, particularly during the day when she'll often sleep 45 mins then wake, have dummy put in, do another 45 mins, and repeat repeat repeat til she's had enough sleep! I just hope the dummy thing doesn't get worse. Am going to try one of these Sleepytot - the award winning baby comforter My problem is I can't do anything that makes her cry, so going cold turkey is not an option.... Yet! Ask me again after 2 more months of midnight dummy action and it might be a different story...
 
At about 5 to 5.5 months my baby learned to put the pacifier back into her mouth. Also, you could try swaddling your baby before bed to keep from rolling over. Good luck :smile: It does get better.
 
Some babies are really susceptible to dummy addiction - at first they are fine, but suddenly become dependant. Unfortunately it does sound a bit like yours is one of those. Mine are also..

With the first we went cold turkey at 5.5 months. She used to just need it at the beginning of the night but got progressively worse waking every hour and needing it to be replaced (cold turkey was a short but sharp pain). She wasn't able to replace it herself.

My second is heading the same way - 45 min sleep cycle then wake and need to have the dummy replaced in the day (not the night yet but I know it's coming..).

I am trying a gentler approach with him as he's only 4 months, rocking instead of the dummy (easy as he's in a hammock). Once he's off the dummy I'll then start to minimise the rocking til he self settles (or that's the plan anyway!)
 
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