Pacifying Your Infant Through the Night

From flickr user Gergely Vida.

Has your infant ever woken up in the middle of the night screaming?

No? Then this blog isn’t for you. Your kid is an angel, and probably gives you enough entertainment you’ll never like any of the fun things my kids do. You also have no use for any parenting tip I’m able to scrounge up. You’re #blessed.

Or you don’t have kids, and have never watched any overnight.

Or you’re lying. You dirty liar.

For the rest of us, we know the main things causing this problem are one of the following:

1. The baby is hungry
2. The baby has soiled itself
3. The baby is sick
4. Or hopefully, the baby has spit out their Nuk, and needs something to pacify it (I say “hopefully” because that’ll shut the kid up and get you back to bed quickly).

However, have you ever tried to find a Nuk in the dark? It’s darn near impossible! You can’t turn the light on, for fear of fully waking your child. You can’t just dive into the crib, because you don’t want to rustle the child. Most of the time you search the crib and entire room to no avail, only to find it under the child after a last ditch effort to pick the kid up and rock them back to sleep.

Put multiple Nuks in the crib with your infant.

When Tom was a young child our pediatrician gave us the most amazing piece of advice, when Tom was old enough to put a Nuk in his own mouth, “Just dump your entire collection of Nuks into the bed. Then the kid can find them, and pacify themselves.”

The doctor actually said to only put three or four Nuks in the crib, but it does make a difference. It’s easier to find a Nuk when your child needs one, and your trips into the child’s room are cut down, as they can find a Nuk themselves.

What Tom looks like with his Nuks – From the Lord of the Rings Series

There is one blatantly apparent downside to this technique. Currently, Tom can’t go to sleep without multiple Nuks, and he holds them close like they are his precious. They each are his one Nuk to rule them all.