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Hi Monique,
From your answers, it sounds like your little one might be waking every 5 – 10 minutes (until she falls into a deep sleep) because the pacifier has fallen out, and she needs it to fall asleep. The pacifier is falling out, and because she isn’t yet fully asleep, she is waking up fully, calling you to come and put it back in and then resettle her to sleep.
The key to helping her fall asleep at bedtime and for longer stretches overnight is to help her learn how to fall asleep on her own. At the moment, because she cannot put the pacifier back in her mouth independently, this is stopping her from doing this.
So for this reason, there are two options:
1. Teach her how to put the pacifier back in his mouth independently.
Your little one should have the fine motor skills to do this at 7 1/2 months, but it might take some practice for her to learn this skill. It’s better to teach her this skill when she is happy and alert. So, during her next playtime, lay her in her crib and place lots of pacifiers around her. Then, let her practice finding the pacifiers and putting them in her mouth while lying down. The hope is that once she learns this skill, she can find the pacifier during the night and put it back in herself, eliminating the need to call out to you every 5 – 10 minutes at the start of bedtime and throughout the night.
2. Remove the pacifier.
Until she learns to put the pacifier into her mouth independently, you will need to continue to go into her room and put the pacifier back in her mouth. If you would like to stop doing this, I recommend you remove the pacifier.
It’s important to note that removing the pacifier will be challenging at any age, as she will need to learn how to soothe herself to sleep without using it. However, removing the pacifier at this age can be easier than when she is a toddler. Either way, if you decide to do it now or in future years, you will notice a change in her sleep habits as she learns a new way to fall asleep.
If you choose to remove the pacifier at this point, I recommend you stop using it for all sleep (naps and overnight) and use the settling pyramid to help your little one fall asleep. Removing it from all sleep is less confusing and gives her lots of opportunities to learn a new way of falling asleep, which will help her learn this new way of falling asleep quicker.
It will be a little challenging at first, but with time, she will be able to soothe herself to sleep without the pacifier.
I hope that helps!
Emma