Shhh Pat with 7 week old

[ejmcmorrow]

Hello,
I have a few questions for those of you more experienced Mums regarding the shhh pat method. My son is 7 weeks old and when it comes to sleep he really fights it! When he starts to get tired I rock him until he is almost asleep and then put him in the cot. He cries and cries, getting louder and louder. Am I just supposed to stand there and do the shh pat until he goes to sleep? So far it has gone on for so long that I have to get him out and rock him some more, this can go on for an hour at the moment!!
Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.
Erin

[Onewoman]

The idea of shh/pat is to calm and relax your baby. WIth such a young one, hold him against your chest and do shh/pat until he is relaxed instead of rocking him. Make sure you are firm with the pat and the shh is fairly loud. Then when he is calm and his breathing is deepening put him in the cot and continue until he is asleep. If he cries, pick him up and do the shh/pat with him against your chest again until relaxed, then put him down again continuing the ssh/pat and just repeat the cycle until he goes off. Check on his awake time and try to get him upstairs a little before he is really tired so he does not get overtired and it should be a lot easier.

Are you doing a wind down ritual?

Hope this helps