Ditching the dummy.

Hi this is my first venture into the forum, and I have a few questions regarding the Dummy. I have a 3 1/2 year old daughter who had a dummy just for sleep times. I never really wanted her to have it, but struggled to settle her in any other way.
We eventually got rid of it when she was 3!.
My issue now is this. I have a 15 week old baby girl. She was born 5 weeks early, so really only 10 weeks old now weighing 10lb 7. She is now formula fed. Her first feed is at 7am and her last feed is at 10.30pm. She has 3 naps a day. 2 short naps one in the morning and the afternoon and a 2 hour lunchtime nap. When settling her to sleep I started of with very good intentions. I would put her in the moses basket sleepy but awake, but as she struggled to settle herself. I shush patted her to sleep for all her naps and at bedtime. I had to pat her for 30 minutes, untill she was drifting off. If I left her before this time, she would wake up and 'melt down' - so even harder to settle. I could cope with this during the day. But at bedtime, even if I stayed with her she would always become more fretfull after 20 mins and end up crying it out for the next 2 hours.
As I have a 3 1/2 year old that also needs my time I was unable to dedicate this amount of time to settle her. So the dummy was introduced and has been very helpful.
She is now dependentant on it.
I would like to try alternative methods to sooth/settle her to sleep. I understand there is no quick fix but have some questions before getting started.
If I stay with shush pat, will the time I have to do it become less, so that eventually I have to pat her a few times to settle?
If she wakes in the night will I have to shush pat her until she goes to sleep again. Will this always be the case?
I would love to be able to have a relaxed sleepy baby that is put in her bed and settles herself witha few girgles and does the same in the night if she wakes. Is this an unrealistic expectations of a baby so young?
So many questions!

written 15 weeks ago by Sleepy10025 - 5 replies - viewed 133 times

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Category: Ditching the Dummy

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