Pacifier prop?

[MrsK85]

Hi, my LO is almost 5 months and has used a dummy (pacifier) since being 4weeks old.
I have recently used the shush-pat method with her to reduce night wakings and a feed-to-sleep association. It seems to have worked well and she now wakes much less frequently and doesn't need feeding to sleep.
However I'm a little confused about the use of the dummy and whether I have created another sleep prop!? When I shush-patted her to sleep, she always had her dummy in. It appears that she now needs this to fall asleep and settle with. At night she goes to sleep with the dummy in but spits it out after anything from 5-40mins after falling asleep but stays asleep. Sometimes when she stirs/wakes she falls back to sleep on her own but sometimes I have to put her dummy in and she will go straight back off - she seems to want/need the dummy more the closer to morning it is.
Is this a problem? Should I leave her to settle herself everytime or is it ok to use the dummy occasionally?
Thanks

[Buntybear]

Hello - sorry your post has been missed - hopefully someone will be along shortly x

[creations]

Hello and welcome to BW forums.
Sorry you didn't get support yet, it's a busy time of year and many of our community take a little time off to enjoy celebrations with their families.

The dummy can certainly become a prop. Tracy's advice on dummy use was to use it for LO to fulfil their sucking reflex just prior to sleep, to watch for when the rapid hard sucking reduced to slower, weaker sucking and then remove it so taht sleep came without dummy use.
It is not advised to drop the dummy cold turkey before 6 months old (SIDS guidance) if LO is already dependent on it for sleep so my advice at this point would be to continue as you are for another month or so and then wean the dummy if you want to.
Some people like to keep the dummy and teach LO how to find and replug themselves which you might prefer, or else you can use shush/pat to drop the dummy in a month or so.

It might also be that she is in a very light sleep in those early hours, this could be routine based and a tweak in your overall routine might actually help her to sleep more soundly and reduce the need for the re-plugging in the early hours.  If you would like to post your EASY times we could have a look for you and see if there are any changes we might suggest.  She is approaching the time when most babies drop a nap so this could be on the cards now.

Hope this helps.