Does this pat-shush thing really work??

[lizbui]

My daughter is 2 weeks old and we have been trying the pat-shush thing for the past week.  It doesn't always seem to work.  Sometimes it seems that it makes her even more annoyed.  Does anyone think that it is too early to start this method??  I just don't think she has the capacity to understand what we are trying to do and it just makes her more hysterical lying if the bassinett.

Can someone tell me what has worked for them?  I've read the interview with Tracy about a thousand times, and still can't seem to get it to work.  Sometimes, after I've swaddled her she seems even more mad and I can't even begin to spend a little time with her before I have to start the whole pat shush thing.

We are going mad!!
Please help

[balani]

When my son was that age, I used the "Happiest Baby on the Block" 5S method. It involved swaddling and holding him on his tummy, kind of in a reverse cradle hold, shushing - volume in proportion to his crying, jiggling, and the pacifier if he needed it. He also would get more upset at first when I would swaddle him, but then as I held him, it held his limbs still and allowed the movement and sound to calm him. I know BW says don't jiggle, but it was the only thing that worked at that age, and he outgrew it when he was a between one and two months old - meaning it stopped working.

That was when I started using pat/shush with him lying in his crib. At first it was difficult because my husband and I were taking different approaches to getting him to sleep. Finally we got on the same page, but still we had to teach my son how to go to sleep. It took forty minutes of crying while I did pat/shush but then he stopped, turned his head to the side and drifted off to sleep. From then on he responded quickly to the method. It worked great for the last 4 or 5 months.

[mickymuscles]

it worked well for us but we didn't start BW and the pat/shh until Jackson was 12 weeks old....and then the first few weeks we had to pat/shh for the first 20-30min of his naps and bedtime for him to get to stage 3 of sleeping--past the last big twitch.  He hated being swaddled also but it was the only way to help keep his arms and legs from waking him up.

[lizbui]

I appreciate your replies and experiences.  My husband tells me to be patient as our daughter is still learning to be confident in falling asleep on her own.  Did any of you use pacifiers?  In my opinion they don't work because as soon as it falls out she wakes up, instead of being ready for it to fall out (spent energy). 

We will keep trying this method as it is how we started and I really don't want to confuse her right now.

[Finnegans Mom]

I say keep it up a little longer.  I really relied on the shh/pat for my lo for naps and for trying to extend night sleep.  One of the points I came away with was that if they are very upset, shh/pat won't work.  I always picked my lo up and tried to calm him down, then when he was calm (we did the 5s's too) I would put him in his crib to do the shh/pat to get him well into stage 3 sleep.  When he figured it out that we were putting him down, that was when he let loose.  So, I would pick him up, calm him down, put him on his side, doing the shh/pat or my favorite was having him on his back swaddled and "rocking" or "moving" him back and forth so his head would sway lightly.  He seemed to like that one. 

It's never too early to start your sleep time routine.  Another point I came away with (looking back on it) is that at 2 weeks, you won't damage them by letting them fall asleep on your sholder or walking them around the house or even feeding them again if nothing else is working.  If the shh/pat isn't helping and you can find something that makes them happy and fall asleep, I say, go with it.  I know that isn't very bw of me, but, I wish I just went with the flow a little more and not worried about them falling asleep on me and getting "used" to it.  I had to train my lo about shh/pat, but, once I did, it was so much better. Now, my "baby" will only fall asleep in his crib even when I want him to snuggle.  They grow up so fast.

Hang in there.  As your lo gets older and bigger, it really will get better.

I hope this helps!

Cheers,
Jill

[lizbui]

I must have an old book because I can't find any info on this 5s method.  Could someone give me the quick version of it?  I hate to use the pacifier as I don't want her to become dependent on it, but sometimes it's the only thing that works.

thanks again.
the funny thing is that we already have a 2.5 year old son and I don't think that I ever worried about stuff so much with him.  I know that I did accidental parenting with him but he ended up just fine.  I guess I just need to loosen up and not worry so much about the "right way" to do things.

[balani]

I agree about needing to loosen up. The right way is to love my baby and do what I can for him.

The 5s method is not a BW thing - it comes from a book called "The Happiest Baby on the Block." The 5s's are 1. Swaddle, 2. Side/Stomach, 3. Shhh, 4. Swing, 5. Suck. The first and third are self explanatory except that the "shhhh" sould be as constant as possible and as loud as it needs to be based on the crying. Next hold her on her side or stomach because babies are usually more comfortable that way - on their backs they often feel like they are falling. Including the "swing" is not a BW method, but it was really calming for my son, and like I said before, he outgrew it after he was around 2.5mo. I held him facing away from my body in a cradle hold, stomach on my arm and head in my hand. Then I would gently jiggle him up and down, making his head move slightly more than his body - because that is where the motion detectors are. My son usually wouldn't take a pacifier, so I didn't do the 5th "s". The key was to do as many as necessary all at the same time. 

What I've learned is that whatever works for my son today is not going to work in a few months  I have to pay attention to where he is developmentally and try new things to relax him. Pat/Shh started working well for him at about 2.5mo and allowed me to get him to fall asleep in his crib, but I couldn't have done it at 1mo - he cried for 4hrs (even with feedings in the middle) on the worst night before I started doing 5s!