When to wean pat & leave out of the room ?

[Ethan's Mom]

Hi, today is the 4th day since I did PU/PD, weaning my 5.5mo baby boy from nursing to sleep association. He has done so great since yesterday. Previously he would screamed & cried by the time I put him on his bed, but now he would suck his thumb, play with his blanket and went to sleep calmly. Suprisingly he even sleep soundly on his carseat.Thanks to everybody here who has been so supportive during all my tough time. I still have some questions regarding his sleep  :

My nap time ritual is wash hand, change diaper, read 5 stories, swaddle, draw the curtain and pat til he drop off.

a. When should I wean the pat & my presence ? Im quite worry it would build a separation anxiety, but on the same time Im too chicken to leave him so soon even though he looks calm.

b. I read from the PU/PD thread, for boy, there is going to be any regression on the 5th day. Is it right ? When would I expect the regression to come so that I could be prepared ?

Thanks !

[Barbaara]

Hi there!

Regarding the patting: you can gradually shorten the amount of time you're patting him.  Now you do it until he drops off, maybe nex time you could pat until he starts to close his eyes and then stop but stay in the room.  Later on you could pat until he gets drowsy but stay in the room.  And so on until you're able to put him in his cot and leave the room.  Even the leaving part you could do step by step by gradually stepping further away from the cot until you're able to just walk out of the room.

I have no clue about the regression, I hope somebody else can answer that one for you!

HTH

Barbara
x

[elmarie]

Hi,

Barbara has given great advice.  Here is a quote from a post from Stacy:

Shush pat is a tool to teach sleep.  You use this to teach them to go to sleep in their crib. This is why you start out on your shoulder and then into the crib, finishing in the crib.  They actually go to sleep in their crib.  Also you can use less or more of shush pat. You can try to reassure with just your hand and use more if needed and you can gradually use less when trying to teach more independant sleep.  Its a balance.  Its easily removed when done correctly, doesnt become a prop/dependancy.


Just take your time, you are doing the right thing...

[MomToKate]

It wasn't until my sixth day doing shush-pat and pick up-put down that I realized my continued presence was actually acting as a distraction for my daughter.  I put her down in her crib as usual and left the room intending to return if I heard a genuine cry.  She whined for a few minutes and did a little bit of a mantra cry but then fell right asleep.    That night, she slept through the night with just one quick feed for the first time (6:15pm to 5:45am) and she's been doing it ever since.  I always leave the room after putting her down now and go back to reassure her if she does anything more than just a mantra cry (which, she only does at napt-ime, not at night.)  I think there comes a point when the baby is comfortable with the skill of falling asleep and just needs his/her own space with no distractions to do it!