Please explain PU/PD and pat and shush. Suit 4-5 month old?

[peaches27]

I am scanning these threads for advice on how to get our little one to sleep alone in her cot. (4+ months).

I have seen several references to pick up put down and pat and shush, but cant find a full explanation and really dont want to buy a book on the subject.

What we need is a technique to get her to sleep and stay asleep in her cot. She sleeps in bed with her mum at night and we need to get her into the cot for when I (grandma) am left with her. She has only a couple of short naps in the day, falls asleep feeding, if we put her in her cot she soon wakes up. She has difficulty getting to sleep at night and we are often walking the room at 11pm (like now!)

Will this pu/pd work for us? or pat shush? how do we do it.

check out the babywhisperer website if you need more info. \link{http://www.babywhisperer.com/smf/\Babywhisperer message boards}

Must confess Belgian, we dont let her cry cos we are softies, but we are starting to think we might have to have a regime soon as she is one spoilt baby! Trouble is when you have three pairs of hands she just gets passed from one to another. Also the sleep regime for her brother is a little difficult too so we dont want to wake him.

we tried swaddling for quite a long time fully swaddled for while and then under the arms, so my DD felt secure and cosy, with a dummy i might add , this did work really well and we could get her to sleep in a matter of mins 80% of the time and, went in after a few mins of crying if she did not go back to sleep quickly, unless she was really ill we rarely picked her up out of the cot so she did not expect it when we walked into the room,so far sleeping has not been a problem unless she is ill..HTH

I think you pick them up to calm hem then put them down as soon as they are calm. Pick them up again when they cry etc. I think you can do this loads of time - sometimes hundreds but eventually it is supposed to work. The idea is not to let them cry but to put them down immediately they calm down. That way they know you will come if they cry but it encourages them to get used to being in the cot and knowing you will come if they cry so they will then feel more secure.

Never did work for ds though as he never really stopped crying when you picked him up and breastfeeding didn't always work either so I just found it really confusing but maybe that is just me

Look at \link{http://www.babywhisperer.com/smf/index.php?board=31.0\this}, it's from the Baby Whisperer web site. I found PU/PD useless and spent most of the time crying. Hope it works for you!!!

Actually, look at \link{http://www.babywhisperer.com/smf/index.php?topic=9278.0\this} in particular

The baby whisperer site is full of people who know what the method is and doesnt give any specific basic instructions. If you dont understand the method you dont get it from the site, only an idea of people who have problems with it, and that seems to be most of them.

We might put something beside her to make her feel more secure, she sleeps a little longer if swaddled. I am always scared something like a teddy or a rolled blanket will smother her though.

Lazycow's (sorry that sounds so insulting LOL) description is very good, and the 2nd link girlchick posted is super too.

PU/PD worked brilliantly for us. Not sure what you would like added to Lazycow's really, but any specific q's please ask

Lazy cow, thats what I thought. She takes so long to calm down after she has been crying that there is no way she is going to sleep, and objects most violently to being put down.

We tried it last night, but after an hour and a half of crying (obviously we were going in to pick her up in between) we gave up. I just wonder if she is ready for this yet. But she is awake all evening and I think she should be in bed, not going when the adults go.

I think she is too young atm for any kind of sleep training.

I would take the path of least resistance to get her to sleep and deal with any ongoing issues if there are any after 6 months.

Well we have had a development. Daughter went away for two days and one night and I was left at the sharp end - transition to cot and bottle all at once. So I bit the bullet, decided what to do, and we are having some success.

I decided to put her down in cot, wait on landing for 5 mins, go in pick up, pat back shush until calm, back down, wait 5 mins etc. After about half an hour of this she was asleep. The second couple of times after night and early morn feed she went back after much shorter peiods. So now we put her down to sleep at bedtime and naptime. She still needs a couple of pick up put downs but its a small price to pay.

The current battle is to get her to go a little longer between feeds as she has just come off the breast in the daytime, but as she is used to demand feeding, she is still taking little and often. But as we all know, perserverence pays off! (fingers crossed!)

Its still working!