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Offline christiewi

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The end result of Shhh/Pat
« on: March 17, 2008, 21:43:15 pm »
Hello!

So, my son has been responding quite well to our shh/pat during nap training for the past few weeks and is getting better and better at it (today it took less than 5 minutes mid-nap, both in the am and pm).  My question is this: will he just one day sleep through the nap without needing shh/pat?  It seems every time he wakes up at the halfway point, then we do shh/pat and he falls back asleep until nap time is over.  Will I have to wean him off of this or will he just surprise me one day?

Thanks so much!
Christie
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Offline Aly Mac

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Re: The end result of Shhh/Pat
« Reply #1 on: March 17, 2008, 21:46:55 pm »
Christie, he will eventually start to sleep through that part of the cycle.  I can't tell you when sorry  8), but if you keep with what you are doing, and teaching independant sleep then he will.

Good work!
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Offline claires mum

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Re: The end result of Shhh/Pat
« Reply #2 on: March 17, 2008, 22:21:54 pm »
Ditto...and WELL DONE.  I've been following your posts and I'm so glad that you've remained consistent and are seeing some great results from your efforts!!
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Offline christiewi

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Re: The end result of Shhh/Pat
« Reply #3 on: March 18, 2008, 01:38:05 am »
Thank you so much, Aly Mac!  I will continue to look forward to that day!  ;D

And thank you, Claire's mum!  We have really been working hard for the past month or so, and it truly has made SUCH a difference.  I have absolutely no doubts about the effectiveness of BW after seeing the effects...I just know it is the best approach out there!  It's certainly not easy all the time, but it DEFINITELY gets results!  I am so thankful to have the support of this board!!  Thank you for all of your help and for the encouraging words!  :)
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Offline anna*

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Re: The end result of Shhh/Pat
« Reply #4 on: March 18, 2008, 09:20:34 am »
I hope for the same result Christie! We are going through the same thing, Stanley falls to sleep well, but wakes in the middle of every nap. One day we will be happily surprised.

anna
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Offline MoandJo

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Re: The end result of Shhh/Pat
« Reply #5 on: March 18, 2008, 16:02:19 pm »
Hey Christie,
I just posted almost the same question... I was wondering if you wait in the room to catch him wake up mid nap to shh/pat or do you leave the room and go in if he cries? I too am hoping that after a while of shh/pat mid nap that she'll get the hang of just fall back asleep by herself. Did you do any wake to sleep? Or just shh/pat if and when he woke?
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Offline christiewi

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Re: The end result of Shhh/Pat
« Reply #6 on: March 18, 2008, 22:04:48 pm »
Hi Anna and MoandJo!

Anna ~ You will SO make it...I know it!!!!  Noah still wakes in the middle of pretty much every single nap (he might sleep through 1...MAYBE 2 in a week's time), but he responds to shh/pat SO much better now...it really has been AMAZING to watch the transition.  4-6 weeks ago I was always on here saying "shh/pat doesn't work for me," just like so many others have, but then I really committed to it and worked to find what Noah responded best too.  It's still not an exact science for us, though I did find that he definitely likes the patting to be much slower than I had been doing it (I was originally doing it more up to speed with when I am trying to get a burp out of him than a slow, ticking clock...and his spirited self wasn't crazy about that, I suppose  ;)), and I have to transition between that and just resting my hand there and rubbing his head.  Sometimes he just wants to hold my hand, which totally melts my heart!   :-*  In any case, we have to mess around a lot to find what he wants/needs at any given transition, and if he doesn't respond to one of the options within about 10-20 seconds we try the next one.  It usually doesn't take long (5-10 minutes or so in the past 5-6 days) and he's back to sleep for the rest of his nap.  For 3-4 weeks I was in there every single nap period for transition, and the average shh/patting time was about 50 minutes.  YUCK.  It was not my favorite game, but now that the improvements have become so obvious it makes those few weeks SO worth it.  I was just talking to another BW friend this morning (Nicole~MomtoMegan) and she was saying how much work it is the first 4-6 months or so, but how oh-so-worth it it is when the kids are 2-3.  She now has a DREAM toddler, while her other friends with toddlers are majorly struggling with children who still don't nap, wake up at night, etc etc etc.  So, we have to believe that all of our efforts WILL pay off!!!  ;D  Sorry, I know you didn't ask about any of that and I just went on a rampage! lol!  Now that he is sleeping better I have time I am not used to and don't quite know what to do with it yet!!

MoandJoe~ I did wait in the room (or in the room next door where I could easily hear him stir) for the first 2 weeks of die-hard sleep training commitment.  I believe at that point I would start shh/patting as soon as he started stirring.  Then I actually posted this same questions about 2 days ago, and now I just do it when he starts crying since sometimes he will put himself back to sleep after a few minutes of fussing.  I wait until his cries start to escalate now, and then go in.  I never did wake to sleep, just because I was so focused on getting shh/pat right I didn't even think about it.
 :)  Keep us posted on your progress too!!  I know the number one thing that has been keeping me hanging in there has been reading other people's success stories on here...so inspiring!!
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Offline christiewi

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Re: The end result of Shhh/Pat
« Reply #7 on: March 19, 2008, 18:24:25 pm »
PEOPLE!!!  Oh my gosh, a miracle has happened.  Yesterday, just as I was finishing posting the above, I heard a sucking sound coming from Noah's room.  I snuck a peek and bless his little heart, he was sucking his thumb during transition, putting himself back to sleep!!!  He didn't make a peep, was out again within 5 minutes, and didn't wake up until the 2 hour mark!!!!!!!!!!!!!   ;D  HALLELUIAH!!!!  And he did the same for his next nap, and for his morning nap today!!!!  I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!  I actually laid down and read a book during his afternoon nap yesterday!!!  I thought that day would never come!  It's amazing!!  Stick with it everyone...IT WORKS!!! YAY!!!! ;D
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Offline anna*

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Re: The end result of Shhh/Pat
« Reply #8 on: March 19, 2008, 18:51:51 pm »
Well done Noah!! Oh, how I wish Stanley would find his thumb. For today's naps, I stayed with him the whole time to 'coach' him through the wake-ups, you know, so that he can remember how it feels to stay asleep for the whole nap. It went well, I put my hand on his back and 'shhh-ed' when he stirred, and he stayed asleep for the whole 2 hours. I'll do the same tomorrow.

anna
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Offline MoandJo

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Re: The end result of Shhh/Pat
« Reply #9 on: March 19, 2008, 22:15:29 pm »
Yay Christie! That's awesome and really give me  hope that one day these short naps will be longer. I long for the day that Maddy will self soothe herself. The only thing is that we still swaddle her so how will she learn to self soothe? I've tried not swaddling one hand but she can't get to sleep. A catch 22 it seems.
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Offline christiewi

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Re: The end result of Shhh/Pat
« Reply #10 on: March 20, 2008, 00:46:52 am »
Anna!!!  That is WONDERFUL!!!  GREAT job!!  ;D  That is SO awesome!  Even though you had to be there the whole time, you are absolutely teaching him the skills he needs to get quality, independent sleep, and if Noah can do it (he was no easy newborn, let me tell you!!), then any baby can do it!  I bet Stanley will be there in no time!  I have been reading your posts and know you guys have been working so hard.  I bet you start seeing some sort of results in the next day or two...and then we want to hear all about it!!!  :) 

MoandJoe ~ we were in the same boat!!  For the past 3 weeks we have been swaddling him with 1 arm out (we rotate arms, though actually, I will be posting a question about that in just a few minutes...).  We started it for naps, but put both arms in for nights since he was doing well on those already (we started leaving one arm out at night about 4 days later, I believe).  It only took a day or two for him to catch on and get used to having his arm out, and even though those first 2 weeks he didn't really find his thumb and also didn't get much quality sleep (we were shh/patting almost the entire nap time, it seemed!), he eventually caught on, and all that practice trying to stuff his entire fist into his mouth finally paid off with him finding his thumb. 

Actually, he really only truly found his thumb at the end of last week...enough where he could go straight to his mouth and get it in there within a few seconds.  So, it did take about 2 weeks of 1-arm-out swaddling before he actually got it, but it's so nice now.  I'm sure one day I'll be on here trying to figure out how in the world to stop him from sucking his thumb, but hey, that concern is far down the line.  ;)

Keep it up ladies!!!!  It WILL happen!!  I am trying sooo hard to soak up this time, because reading everyone else's posts tells me things always change and it probably won't last for long!  Watch...he'll start teething next week and we'll be back to square one.  ;)  Oh well, for now, it's FABULOUS!!
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Offline anna*

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Re: The end result of Shhh/Pat
« Reply #11 on: March 20, 2008, 10:16:14 am »
What I love about this forum is hearing the happy endings of all the hard work! It gives a girl hope!

Christie, I've started a new thread on the Naps board (called 'Swaddle, dummy, wakings... confuzzled about naps') and I'd really appreciate your input, especially if you have any advice on helping Stanley to find his thumb...
 :-*

anna
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