Shh pat - help!! Does it really work?

[ahsat84]

My LO is 12 weeks old and at nap time will hardly ever go down in his cot, always wants to be held. At night time he seems fine so far. I have been working on putting him in Moses basket in dark room and swadddled and shh patting him to sleep and it works but only for 35-40 minutes

At 35/40 mins his eyes open and he start moaning and crying and I try to shh pat him back to sleep but he becomes hysterical

Am i meant to pick him up when he wakes and resettle him and put him back in cot or do I continue to shh pat for longer - if so how long?

Does shh pat really work?? If so how long for before you notice change ?

Thank you!!

Please don’t shush pat a 12 week old.
Your baby is completely normal - babies this age have very short naps quite often and love to be held! There is nothing wrong with it, just go with it.
All
Sorts of things wake them up at this age - short sleep cycles, trapped wind and discomfort etc.
I am now on baby three and just enjoying the fact they nap on me/in the pushchair. Neither of my other two took long naps in the cot til they were 12 months.
I did shush pat my eldest once he reached 14 months.
But really, 12 weeks is far too young. You’re going to spend more time shush patting then they will sleeping!

My son is 5.5 months and still only naps 30-45 mins. Usually it's on me as well. Weve had maybe four 1.5hour naps in his life and they've been whilst asleep on me.
I put him back down after being awake 1.5 hours (sometimes 1 hour and sometime 2 depending on what we're doing). It took me such a long time to accept this but the best thing I did was just come to terms with it. I know a few folk who say their babies started to nap longer as they got older.

Ps I attempted shush pat a few times and it just pissed him off. Recently though I've been able to settle him in his cot in the middle of the night and I've just patted his bum and shushed him.

Babies do bap much longer as they get older.. and they are far happier to do so in a cot.
If your baby is good at night, that’s the main thing.
Just enjoy the daytime cuddles, it all goes so fast, believe me

Ooh if you need help with getting little one off to sleep try this book which I used and was AMAZING. Our daughter is a brilliant sleeper and always has been. The sensational baby sleep plan by Alison Scott-Wright. Best of luck.

4 x 40 minute naps a day are completely normal at 12 weeks old.

I did EASY and shh pat from 10 weeks and a typical day was

Wake up & milk at 7
8.30 settle for nap
Sleep for 40 minutes & repeat!

I found it was worth it to get my hands free from cuddles to do stuff

This website was really helpful for me

www.mybabysleepguide.com/2013/02/average-sleep-charts-by-age.html?m=1

I was going to say yes it worked on DD, but she was about 8 months old at the time. At 12 weeks she was by my side all night and bf on demand, sorry.

I nearly lost my sanity with this with DC1! Don’t recommend it. Fed DC2 to sleep and both got much more rest.

I have personally found that shush/pat works best with newborns. At 10-12 weeks DD started cat napping so I used a combination of "wake to sleep" and shush/pat to extend naps.

The trick for me was to start shushing/patting before DD was fully awake. I used to go to DD's room when she was approaching the end of her sleep cycle and firmly pat her back. It didn't always work but it got better as I persisted. If DD woke up and I knew she was not going back to sleep, I used to take her for a walk in the pram to extend her nap. If I remember correctly, it took about 1-2 weeks to get DD to nap for longer (but I was really, really consistent).

I found it useful to be able to get a few hours a day as "me time".

I'm a shush patter! I couldn't have had the baby sleeping on me all the time and put all 3 of mine down for naps from a few weeks old. I'm really glad I persisted. Dc 3 is now nearly 7 months and used to do 30 minute naps. As the poster above said, I also managed to extend naps at about 5 months by patting before he woke up. Before that worked i did sometimes manage to feed him back for one of his naps so he had a longer sleep.

And today was the first time I heard him cry out at 30 minutes and put himself back to sleep. He also has started eating a bigger lunch now on week 4 of weaning and that's probably made a huge difference.

The other real advantage is I now have a very efficient way of settling him in the night if I don't want to feed him. If he doesn't respond to patting then I know he is hungry.