When should I stop patting?

[Sanne]

I'm currently using the pat and shush method with my 5 week old daughter and it's going great! Just last week I placed a desperate thread here but now I feel so much more confident. I just have two questions. Of course she still needs me to pat her back before she can fall asleep she doesn't need the shusihing anymore but when should it be enough to just place her in her cot? How long should I continue to pat? I don't want to become a prop.
The second question is: she stays up after feeding for just 5 to 10 min, and sleeps about 2 hours. I feed her every 3 and a half hours after the last feed. I sometimes have time to spare. I don't want to overstimulate her so I don't want to keep her up longer then necesary. What should I do with the spare time? I can't force her to sleep!
Sometimes she just lies awake in het cot and looks around and doesn't cry. That is alright isn't it? Or is that overstimulating too?
I admit it, I'm still a beginner but I'll get there eventualy!

[estherofi20]

Hey i think you are doing a wonderfull job!!!!!

about the patting, when my DS was that age he was very hard to settle, taking from 45min to an hr to settle with pat-shusing, he was at his worst from 4WO till 9WO, the his need for the pat-shush decreased, and suddenly at 12WO he stopped needing it completely, i could just leave him in his crib and he would go to sleep, so it was a really hard month and a half to teach him independant sleep, but its realy worth it!!!!!!

Don't worry i don't thinl you'll become a prop, you are just teaching her to sleep on her own, and she does need you help to get there!!!

What i used to do was pat-shush him if he was crying, when he stopped crying but still was fussing i did the patting, and when he was calmer, i decreased the level of the patting and the rithm until i stopped completely.

As for your question on the Atime, i think if you see her happy just let her be, if she is lying in her crib watching the world around her , let her be, but at the first sign of tiredness (in my DS's case was at the first yawn), start the wind down routine.

HTH