pacifier free family

Unfortunately, Tripp's sleeping through the night while we were in Dallas did not translate back to St. Louis. He went back to waking up about 5 or 6 times a night wanting his pacifier put back in (which is what he was doing before we went to Dallas). So when we went to the pediatrician for his four month check up, the dr. asked me how his sleeping was and how long his longest stretch without waking up was. I kinda laughed and told him the situation. I also told him about his 45 min nap problem- often he would only sleep for 45 mins because his pacifier had fallen out and so he would not go back to sleep unless we rushed in there at the slightest sound of a peep and tried to put his pacifier back in. He then told me that that was not good and that we needed to do something about it. His solution-take the pacifier away. Deep down, I was happy to hear this because I knew it would make things better. However, I was not so excited about the process that it would take to get there. It required letting him cry it out. I am not against it at all (obviously since that is what we did) but I knew it would be hard on us as parents. I just did not know how hard. So come that Friday night, we put him to bed without his pacifier. He actually fell asleep fine but then came the first wake up in the middle of the night. And he cried. For a long time. And Nelson and I almost died. We went and checked on him at the allotted intervals and after an hour he was back asleep. Till the morning. So then came nap time and we did the same thing. Naps were a little more rough on the going down. He cried for a while but eventually fell asleep. But then he kept waking up at 45 mins. All weekend long. So we were pretty discouraged, I felt sick to my stomach and got all nervous every time we had to put him down to sleep. But by Sunday night, he only cired for a few mins before going back to sleep. On Monday I called the dr.'s office and said I did not think it was working. The nurse told us to hang in there. I wanted to tell her that she should come over and listen to him cry with us and then tell us to hang in there. Our families told us to hang in there. Innocent bystanders on the street told us to hang in there (ok joking about that one). Tripp was with my mom during the day on Monday and when I dropped him off, I told her sorry and good luck. But he took two rock star naps at her house, no waking up at 45 mins. And then Monday night came, and it was a break through. He went to sleep and didn't wake up all night long. Or if he did, he didn't cry, he just put himself back to sleep. He took great naps on Tuesday and slept great on Tuesday night. Same with yesterday. Yesterday afternoon when he was with his great babysitter, he woke up at 45 mins but she let him fuss for a little bit and he went back to sleep for another hour and a half. It is awesome. We are truly so proud of our little guy! and I love getting 8 solid hours of sleep (except now I feel more tired because I think my body is realizing what I was missing out on). And we are so glad we stuck with it. It was probably the worst weekend of our lives to date, but it was totally worth it come about Monday. I know some people don't agree with letting their kids cry it out, and I don't either when they are tiny babies. However, he is a big boy now and it has helped him so much. He is happy, we are happy and I am pretty sure the world is now a better place. Ok that is an exaggeration, but still, we are all good. and here is our happy boy.



p.s. Aunt Steph- do not worry and think the pacifier clip you got us will now go unused. Quite the contrary! Tripp's toy is now clipped to it for his car seat so he can play with his toy a lot better now!