SLEEP > Naps

pat/shh success stories PLEASE POST, really discouraged

(1/17) > >>

bla04017:
I am really trying to be persistant with the pat/shh with my 6 wk old... dh and I decided to try no matter what for one week if no 2 weeks.  I am hoping it'll work, but I'm already feeling discouraged at day 2.  I need some encouragment by people's success stories. How long did you have to do it before they could settle on their own?  What was the pattern-- every nap? how long each time? in the middle of naps? etc.
PLEASE POST SOMETHING, or I might just quit and go back to CC (and I don't want to do that!)

lyndsy_p:
Hi...{{[hugs}} honey, don't do CC. That breaks a trust that you can't easily get back.

My LO is 6.5months old and shh/patt works to this day. We do a modified version of it at every nap and most bedtimes, also we use it after the dreamfeed if she's woken up. She didn't like it at first, and I practically had to yell the shh part to get above her crying. That was the part that got her orginally, the "shh". It seemed apparent that she couldn't concentrate on crying if I did it. I felt like my arm and back were going to seize, and who was crazy enough to think this would work. I patt her bum instead of her back, she would arch if I did it that way. I also used to patt her bum quite hard....family members couldn't believe that this would actually put her to sleep as opposed to wake her up, but it worked. I had to do it over my shoulder for a while in the beginning, then we did it in her crib on her side. She sleeps on her side to this day, and it only takes a quiet shh, and some light patts and she's relaxed...I then leave the room and she's off to dreamland.

Consistancy is the best advice I can give you. Stick with it, and patt past the point you think she's sleeping. Slowly slow down the patting until your hand is just resting on her and then leave.

It'll get better
HTH :)
Lyndsy

zed:
Hi,

My DS2 was a horrible sleeper for the first 10 months of his life.  That is when I got really sick and tired of being up all hours of the night.  I got all sleep training books ever written and decided I liked BWing best.

So at 10.5 months I used Shh/pat because I felt PU/PD would not work quicklly enough for me since my son had/has really bad SA.  It took 1.5 weeks of consistantly putting my son back to sleep with Shh/pat.  It worked really well.  We went from 5-6 NWings per night to one per week.  Now my son is 16 months old and he sleeps through most nights unless he has a cold or wakes thirsty.  B/c he is older I leave a 4 oz bottle of water in his crib and he puts himself back to sleep.

It will get better you LO is so young yet.  I didn't worry about sleep training with either of my boys until 2.5 or 3 months.

Lots of hugs to you

hannahbanana:
Shh/pat also worked for me, but it wasn't until she was about 2.5-3 months that the hard crying at naps finally subsided.  Our problem, I think, was putting her down a bit too early, which caused her to resist naps from about 6-7 weeks.  Like noted above, I had to shhh REALLY loudly and the patting was almost like thumping at times.  You have to overtake their senses.  But, once I started waiting until she started her whiny fussing to move into sleep mode, shh/pat got down to less than 5 minutes.  Now, she hugs her bunny and sucks her fingers and put herself to sleep, unles she's overtired, in which case I put my hand on her and shush (she still responds to the sound).

I also started BW early, about 4-5 weeks.  I don't know that I'd put so much pressure of myself or the baby for #2 for independent sleep.  Some babies just need time to develop better habits.

shanaz:
1st of all (((((((((BIG HUGS)))))))))))).  I just want to second what Lyndsy said, please don't do CC!  If you have done CC in the past then I would imagine that it might take you a little longer to re-build the trust with your LO but that should happen fairly quickly as he/she is still so young. 

We found it shh/pat worked really well with us but it did take a while before she was sleeping totally independently.  I agree with pps in that consistency is the key.  I think if you do it consistently for 2 weeks then your lo should be a lot easier to settle.  I think we started at around 45 - 60 mins to go down for night sleep and within a few weeks this was reduced to about 5 - 10 mins.  It is gradual and you just need to stick with it.

My DD is now 18 mths, all we do (and have done since she was about 3 mths old) is do bath etc, wind down stuff with getting her into pjs etc, read her a story, then put her in her cot, say "it's sleepytime now, mummy loves you" and that's it.  On the odd occaisions that she doesn't go down ok it's due to teething, separation anxiety or other illness, in other words, there's been a specific problem and once that's passed she's back to sleeping independently again. 

As Tracy said in her books, EASY doesn't mean that it's easy to do, but it makes everyone's (particularly the babies) lives sooooo much easier (calmer & peaceful too) in the long run. Please stick with it and when you're struggling, come on here for reassurance, it's what got me through some tough times.

Keep us up to date with how it's going....you can do it  :-*

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page