Question on pat/shush

[kal]

I've been doing this with DS and it seems to help him get to sleep but I have a feeling I might be doing it wrong..should I do it till he's asleep, just till he's calm and them leave the room or till he's calm and then just stand there with a hand on him till he's asleep? I normally give him a bottle and rock him and then lay him in his crib, his eyes are closed but he's still moving and awake. I'm nervous I'm making myself a prop. TIA

[kal]

bump

[Jaime]

i'm not exactly sure about when your baby is as old as 5 months.... i did the bulk of shh/pat when ds was about3-4 months.

the idea is that at first you do it for about 20 minutes until they are sound asleep, so that you get them past the jolt of moving into deep sleep.  as he gets used to transitioning into sleep, you will need to do it less and less, until you get to the point where you just lay him in bed & day good night.  took me about 6 weeks total - i have a stubborn one! 

HTH

[GG]

You can definitely become a prop.  (I'm at the point where I'm trying to figure out how to 'un-become' one).  I know how it happened to me: I didn't let him fuss long enough as he was falling asleep.  DS is spirited/touchy so he whines, fusses and complains when going to sleep.  I didn't know how long to let this go on for before coming in and shhh'ing him.  Now, when he's not overtired, he expects me to come in one last time before he rolls on his side and falls asleep.   :?   (it's kind of cute, really, but I'd rather he fell asleep on his own.  :wink:)  When he's overtired, he expects to hold my arm while falling asleep.  :?

You know you've become a prop if, like a pacifier/dummy, he wakes up and expects you to be there in order to fall asleep.

I just re-read the Sleep Interview.  I highly recommend looking that over; Tracy talks about when to leave the room so that you don't become  prop.   

[GG]

I found the following information in the Sleep Interview on page 7:

Q:  A lot of people ask:  At what point do I leave the room?
T:  When you start to see that they’re settling themselves.  We call it “heartsluffed” in England.  It’s just a name that we give to someone who’s going off – I don’t know what they call it here.  Let’s say when you see that their breathing starts to become calm and regular.