Pantley detailed my son to a tee when she discusses a baby who requires the action of suckling to fall asleep. His dependence on the breast to fall asleep and stay asleep was going to have to change if we wanted him to go to sleep on his own. If I pulled away while Mister was still not fully asleep, he would just root around until he found the breast again...or wake up trying. The thing that struck me is Pantley's gentle and flexible approach. She advises that if you do a PPO and baby roots, go ahead and give him back the breast right away (don't let him wake fully in his hunt). Count to 10 or so and try another PPO. Repeat this process until baby is content when you pull away. I wondered if I'd get anywhere with this, but I needed to try so I began to implement Pantley's Gentle Removal Plan (a.k.a. Pantley Pull Off - PPO) that night.
It took five or six PPOs before Mister gave up the breast the first time I tried the technique. During the first night, this reduced to three or four PPOs each nursing. Within a matter of nights we were down to one or two PPOs and he would no longer root, just roll over and settle on his own. So, after months and months of dependency on suckling to fall asleep, he is learning to put himself to sleep without it! WOW! Awesome technique! This is going to help us out immensely when we start transitioning him to sleep on his own.
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