Questions about pick up / put down

[Lilyofthevalley]

Last nite was first nite doing pick up / put down.
We had a very good night acctually and dd did not wake until 6am.
Trouble was she was only awake because she thought it was morning and the pick up / put down confused her, I cuddled her in the spare bed eventually to finish the night but if this happens again should I persivere or just start the day an hour early?

My other question is how long should I be a) holding her for b4 putting her back down and b) leaving her down b4 picking her up again?

Thanks in advance. I will crack this!!!

Bump

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Is anyone out there?

I'll give it a go, but afraid have only skim read the book and haven't followed it to the letter. The way I understand it is that you hold until LO is calm and the crying has stopped - maybe seconds or much longer, and pick up again if she starts crying and doesn't calm herself quickly. Must admit I'm not clear about this, I verge on the side of caution and give my DD a minute or two at the most to get her thumb in and calm herself, (she is still only a little wee thing.) What i do tend to do though is try and 'sush' her with some gentle patting before I resort to picking her up - this tends to work quite well for DD. I also try to listen to her cry and work out if it is a 'tired moan' or 'really upset. I don't leave her at all if i think the later.

Mmm, this is definitly my version!!! Its worked for us for naptime and going to bed, but haven't had the energy to put into practice for night time wakeing (and there are many!) Hope someone who has done the real McCoy comes along soon.

Apparently you should only hold them until they have stopped crying/settled and then put them back so the they know that you are there to comfort but that ultimately their job is to go back to sleep on their own in the cot.

I would persevere with PU/PD until you are ready to get up, (like 7) and then make it really obvious that it is time to get up, ie light on "Morning!" milk etc. She'll then learn that until you do that it's still sleep time.

Good luck! It is hard but very worthwhile and persevere - they do cry but it is our job to teach them what they are supposed to do otherwise how do they learn? They are not born pre-programmed (or mine wasn't)

xx

There is a sleep interview on the Baby Whisperer site that you might find useful as it goes into more detail on how long to hold them and when to pick them back up again.
sleep interview

Thanks muddlingthru, I printed this off yesterday which prompted me to start the pu/pd last night.

I'll see how we go tonight. Wish I could get a full night sleep before starting this, I'm so wrecked it's hard to imagine keeping it up all night every night for a few weeks, know what I mean?