Hi everybody,
I started putting my 5 month old on the 4-hour EASY routine mostly to break the association between breast feeding and sleep. Before, I would always nurse him before his naps and bedtime and the result was that he would only fall asleep when offered the boob, resulting in short 45-min naps (which I extended by another 45 min by nursing him when he would wake up) and many, many awakening during the night. Pu/pd has been a GREAT SUCCESS already, even though this is only day 3. He now goes down for his morning and afternoon nap with only a few minutes of shush-pat!!! Bedtime goes great too, although that is partly because I do still feed him as part of the bedtime ritual. Catnap and awakenings through the night are not so successful though. This is where my question comes in.
I start the shush-pat in his cot, but this does not always settle him and sometimes just seems to agitate him. I read that you may do it over your shoulder - which I then do and it (eventually) calms hin down . But with shush-pat, do you keep going (on your shoulder) after he settles, or do you also (as with pu/pd) put him down as soon as he's quiet, comtinuing shush-pat in cot again? And with pu/pd, do you continue to tap his back and shush-pat him (whilst picked up)? Or do you not shush-pat during pu/ps? I'm just not quite understanding the difference, or when 'shoulder shush-pat' turns into pu/pd? When to put down is the question ...
