LO is 4.5 months old. Although I'm not sure we are officially "sleep training" because I still expect him to wake at night to eat, we are trying to get some sleep routines in place. My question relates to the beginning of the night...

We've been doing a sort of Ferber method. We do our routine, and I rock him with his pacifier. He goes in his bed barely awake and then we go in to check in 5ish min increments. He will cry/groan a bit but it rarely escalates between checks. When we go back in, I usually pat him and then put the pacifier back in. After a few of these checks, he will fall asleep.

Are we hindering the entire process by putting his pacifier back? Do I need to do the checks without giving him it back? I feel bad taking it away because it definitely helps him calm down, but I don't want to create a bad sleep crutch.