24 weeks sshh pat instead of breast to go back to sleep in the early hours..

[babydancer34]

Hi,
I'm new here and came looking for the forum as I've just re-read the baby whisperer. The BW helped me hugely with my first child - we were very lucky with her she was an 'Angel Baby'.
We are now on baby no. 2 and in an attempt to stop him waking up my daughter in the early hours I have inadvertently rushed in and been feeding him back to sleep. We're now trying to help him learn to go back to sleep by himself and I've been doing shhh pat and it works well. It does however take a while (sometimes up to an hour) for him to go back to sleep. Is this what I should expect and how long in peoples experience does it take for them to learn to get themselves back to sleep?
I've just been shhhing him and putting my hand on his tummy until he relaxes. Then I remove my hand and stop shhing and just sit in the chair next to him until he's fast asleep. Is this right???
Any advice much appreciated!

[Nauvoo]

great job on implementing sh pat. an hour is long but not unfamiliaar here.  does it always take so long? can you post his easy routine?  what you are doing sounds perfect and I promise if you keep it or are able to keep it up eventually you won't have to stay with him. what happens if you just leave the room once he is calm? the early days of sh pat always take so much longer than what you will experience later.

[babydancer34]

Hi Nauvoo,
Thanks for your response. It was an hour again last night and I tried leaving the room when he was calm. He was fine initially then cried again so I went back in and then he fell asleep. It's like he can't quite do that last bit on his own. I think we're making progress as I don't need to do PU/PD anymore.

He is on 4 hour EASY:
Wake up 7:30am
Feed: 7:30am
Nap: 9:00-11:00am
Feed: 11:00am
Nap: 1:00-2:00pm
Feed: 2:00pm
Cat nap: 5:00pm'ish
Feed: 6:00pm
Feed/Bedtime: 7:30pm
Sleep: 7:30pm - 3:30am
Shh/pat: 3:30-4:30am
Wake/Feed: 7:30am

He has gone through on a few occassions but this is when he hasn't got his usual amount of naps in the day or had a later bedtime - say 8:30pm. He is tired in the day though and I don't want to/can't force him to stay awake.

Last night he woke at 3:30am and was babbling. I left him to see if he would settle. It escalated to crying so I went in and soothed him by talking to him and putting my hand on his tummy, shhing etc. I waited until he was calm then I left the room. He babbled for 30 mins then began to cry again so I went back in and calmed him. He then started to drop off to sleep and I left the room. He went back to sleep and woke again at 6am! I fed him at 6am and then got him up at 8am.

I'm sure he's not hungry at 3:30am as he goes back to sleep and when I did dream feeds he still woke up and kept exploding his nappies so I went back to no dream feed.

Any help/advice/support much appreciated.

[Nauvoo]

sounds like you are doing fantastic with handling night wakings. what you are explaining is very familiar and doesn't sound like a prop issue at all. I think you would get much better afvice on the Night wakings board so I am going to redirect your topic there.

[katie80]

Hi there, it does sound like he's doing well with the shh/pat, although it would be great if he went back quicker!  My guess is that he is a bit UT and his first A time isn't long enough, which can encourage a long NW in the early morning like that.  At close to 6mo, his A times should be more like 2-2.5hr. I'd start pushing that morning one out gradually to at least 2hr and then pushing the second one to closer to 2.5hr, as he's not getting a full nap there with only the 2hr A.

It's also worth it to note that it's still very normal for LOs of his age to have a NF or two, so while he may be waking out of habit at 3:30, he may actually be hungry at 4:30-5. Just don't want you to be surprised if he doesn't go automatically to sleeping through.  In fact, I don't know of many BFd babies who sleep 10-12hr without a feed before 7-9mo, or when solids are established.