Our DS co-sleeps with me and nurses to sleep for naps, bedtime and middle of the night awakenings.
How do I go about weaning him, especially before sleep time? Do I give him a bottle and then take him to bed and just try to cuddle, pat him to sleep, knowing that he's likely to cry?
Am I better off keeping the nursing-to-sleep sessions as the last to go and starting weaning with other times? If so, which times are best?
He's still not graduated much beyond purees and isn't doing finger foods. Textures, for the most part, still make him gag. He eats maybe 2 oz of solids on average a day. The rest of his nutrition is BM, but I think he perhaps fills up on BM and isn't that interested in solids then.
His current Bfing schedule looks like this:
He currently nurses more frequently closer to morning wake up (e.g. 4:30am, 5:30am, etc), and I nurse him in the hopes that he'll sleep longer, so we can both sleep, not knowing when he'll finallly want to wake up for the day. So, sometimes, he's too full of BM and he typically refuses solids at breakfast time. I'll nurse him to sleep again for his morning nap about 2-3 hours after he wakes. I then try to give him solids after his morning nap and have some success, depending on how long the nap is and how long ago he nursed. If he refuses solids, I sometimes will nurse him just to make sure he gets some nutrition in him. I then nurse him to sleep for his afternoon nap, which occurs anywhere from 2-4:30pm. I feed him solids for dinner around 6pm and that is when he eats the most. I then nurse him down to sleep whenever he's ready for bed (usually around 8pm or later). Just a couple of weeks ago, he finally started sleeping 4-5 hour chunks of time at night (was waking every 2 hrs), then waking maybe every 2 hours after that. The past couple of nights, I actually got 7 hour spans (I think..Zzzzz).
Thanks for any advice you can provide on how best to wean.
How do I go about weaning him, especially before sleep time? Do I give him a bottle and then take him to bed and just try to cuddle, pat him to sleep, knowing that he's likely to cry?
Am I better off keeping the nursing-to-sleep sessions as the last to go and starting weaning with other times? If so, which times are best?
He's still not graduated much beyond purees and isn't doing finger foods. Textures, for the most part, still make him gag. He eats maybe 2 oz of solids on average a day. The rest of his nutrition is BM, but I think he perhaps fills up on BM and isn't that interested in solids then.
His current Bfing schedule looks like this:
He currently nurses more frequently closer to morning wake up (e.g. 4:30am, 5:30am, etc), and I nurse him in the hopes that he'll sleep longer, so we can both sleep, not knowing when he'll finallly want to wake up for the day. So, sometimes, he's too full of BM and he typically refuses solids at breakfast time. I'll nurse him to sleep again for his morning nap about 2-3 hours after he wakes. I then try to give him solids after his morning nap and have some success, depending on how long the nap is and how long ago he nursed. If he refuses solids, I sometimes will nurse him just to make sure he gets some nutrition in him. I then nurse him to sleep for his afternoon nap, which occurs anywhere from 2-4:30pm. I feed him solids for dinner around 6pm and that is when he eats the most. I then nurse him down to sleep whenever he's ready for bed (usually around 8pm or later). Just a couple of weeks ago, he finally started sleeping 4-5 hour chunks of time at night (was waking every 2 hrs), then waking maybe every 2 hours after that. The past couple of nights, I actually got 7 hour spans (I think..Zzzzz).
Thanks for any advice you can provide on how best to wean.
