Calling all Baby Whisperer experts...

[lovelymama]

DC2 is 3 months old and I've just borrowed a copy of the Baby Whisperer and I'm only a few chapters in but so far I'm loving the approach to parenting and wish I'd read it before I had the DCs as I think I could have been a calmer, more pro-active parent. But hey-ho I'm reading it now and it's already influencing how I'm dealing with sleep and my response to behaviour.

Anyway, my 3 month old DD is pretty good but I've used a dummy from birth, which I'm happy about as she likes it and works well to calm her and keep her going between feeds. But of course we also use it to get her to sleep and it works wonders - she's swaddled and has her dummy and mostly falls asleep quickly. HOWEVER! We sometimes have to replace the dummy a few times before she goes to sleep, and on an evening this can go on for a couple of hours with 5 min/10/ 20 min sleep bursts in between and recently in the night she's been waking every 2 hours (was sleeping 11-5pm without waking) for me to replace the dummy. So this is obviously a prop for her to get to sleep and I don't really want it to continue.

From looking at the dummy sections in the BW book, Ms Hogg seems to love the dummy but says most babies suck the dummy to get to sleep then spit it out and stay asleep. As this is not the case with DD, I'd like to get rid of it using Ssh/pat. Does this sound like the best option as I can't go cold turkey as she'll just scream and scream. Can I then still use the dummy between feeds but not to get her to sleep or will this be confusing for DD?

Thanks for staying awake during this long and fairly boring post

[stinkypants]

hello
glasd you've found the bw, i used it with my ds1 and loved her approach, although like you, didnt start straightaway so had to undo a few habits. we didnt use a dummy though so i am probably not the best person to ask, but we did with ds2 for a few weeks. at 6 weeks we felt the same oas you, that it was a pain becuase when it fell out he woke up, which was a real bind and had us back to square one straight away. so we just went cold turkey really!! it took about 2 days (as he was quite little) of him being a bit whingy during the day and crying more fiercly at night, but he did get the idea pretty quickly and found his thumb. i think you could probably do pat/shh although it may take a while so be prepared. dont jump in too quickly i would say; give baby a chance to try some self-soothing techniques and gradually build up to leaving hi a bit longer before you 'help'. from wat i remember, pat/ssh is for under 3 months though, depending on how you find he is getting on, i think you can use pick up/put down now. good luck.

[lovelymama]

Thanks stinky. I've been reading the book further and from what i understand we can only use ssh/pat until 4 months as she doesn't recommend put up/put down until 4 months. TBH I'd rather avoid pick up/put down anyway as DD is swaddled (don't want to stop doing that as she likes it) and when I pick her up it unravels a bit and we get in to arm-flailing which unsettles her even more.

I'm quite happy to do ssh/pat even tho i know it's going to be hard work and take a while (she's a bit of a screamer!) but it's frustrating as I can't do it yet as she has bad cold and cough so don't think it's fair to do anything til she's back to normal.

but i can't wait to get started as this dummy lark is getting ridiculous - up a million times in the night last night replacing it!