If baby wakes up only to cry for pacifier (as soon as I stick it in his mouth he goes back to sleep - no rocking, patting or picking up required), does that mean he's sleeping through the night?
Thats great if you don't have to do much to get him to go back to sleep. But for me sleeping throught the night means putting my kids to bed at 8:00 pm and not having them wake up until 7 or 8 the next morning. I didn't consider any of my kids to be sleeping through the night until they started doing that.
To me it means its time to get rid of the pacifier if he is getting close to the 6month old range. Trust me--don't get roped into this bad habit. By 6 months baby is old enough to find a new way to soothe himself and doesn't need to have that sucking motion. We did this with our daughter at 6 months and she has been an awesome sleeper ever since! It was one night of her crying for the paci and that was it. If you don't take it away early, you'll find yourself getting up 20 times a night to put that paci back in---that is not good sleep for either of you. And don't try putting 5 pacis in there, thinking he'll find one....If he is still a newborn I would continue to give it back to him, but slowly phase it out by 6 months. Best of luck to you.
I considered sleeping thru the night to mean 6 to 8 hours without waking up, so I could get a good nights sleep.
Yes and no. Obviously he isn't sleeping through the night, but at least he isn't waking up to feed, etc. I know that they have pacifiers that have stuffed animals on them that are easier for them to find and grab themselves. The next step is now to see if he can go back to sleep without the pacifier. Great start though, congrats. How old is he?
Depends on who you ask. To me, I'd say no. Sleeping through the night is 5 consecutive hours of sleep without waking up.
But, I am happy when my son does just wake up briefly and goes back to bed!!
I say yes. In a few months, hopefully, he'll be able to find the pacifier on his own. I consider our daughter our Rock Star sleeper. Occasionally, she whines when she can't find her crib, but compared to her older brother who's only slept through the night enough times to count on 1 hand (he's 3.5), I'd say that is a decent definition.
