If you have a nightweaned toddler, and also quit nursing to sleep...

[LCBMAX]

What new bedtime routine did you create?

We are only on day 3 of limited bedtime nursing, and I don't expect it to be easy til we get established with a new routine, but I don't know what might work... My son is a very verbal 29 month old.

I'm ok with <20 minutes of peaceful nursing, but if it gets wild or goes on forever, I say "Milk is about to fall asleep, and then we'll have snuggles." He gave me the idea for this while I was suffering with crazy nursing, and he stopped and asked for snuggles, so I really think he's ready.

Old routine: read books for about 30 minutes and brush teeth with daddy, pee, come find mommy in the rocking chair and nurse to sleep in my lap, I transfer to bed, unlatch and escape.

New routine, so far: read books for about 5 minutes and brush teeth with daddy, pee, come find mommy in the rocking chair and nurse for one second on each side, ask for water, ask for trains, ask for the moon, mommy takes him to a different quiet room and reads more books, boringly, while he thrashes about, jabbers, plays, and finally he's ready to cuddle or nurse again, and he falls asleep with that.

I'm a big fan of discussions about nightweaning - can we start one about weaning bedtime nursing?

[friskykitty]

So this may be a stupid question, but why did you cut the reading back too? I have not nightweaned or stopped nursing to sleep yet, but I would think that maybe you keep everything the same except for the right before he sleeps part. Since he accepted the nurse then cuddle. I started a similar thread here. I will be watching yours as well.
http://www.mothering.com/discussions....php?t=1244358

[LCBMAX]

Actually, we never set the time limit on the book reading, hoping I guess that someday he would just fall asleep with daddy reading to him. No soap.

So the 5 minute thing is his own energy, just popping off the bed and shouting "Time to pee dadeee dadeepeedadadadpepepeeeeee!" My husband tried to get him back for more book reading, but again, no soap. And it wasn't that he really needed to pee either, it was just a few drops, or he'll even refuse to pee once he gets to the toilet. It's just the crazy energy of whatever.

[poppan]

It's a bit hard to remember now but I think I stopped nursing to sleep either right before nightweaning or shortly after, or maybe it was all in the same timeframe. My kids were 22-23 months when we nightweaned.

What I did was I moved the nursing to a different room (not the bedroom) and made it an earlier part of the routine. So nurse on the couch in the family room, then move to the bedroom to read stories and go to bed. I tried to completely disassociate nursing from the experience of falling asleep and basically I was trying to not nurse in bed at all.

[Momma Moo Martin]

I'm currently reading "Sleepless in America" by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka and she has this really cute idea about a simple massage you can do with kids at bedtime - it's called "Brownies." You have your little guy lay down on his belly in bed and you go through the steps of making brownies - cracking the egg and letting it slide down his back, adding the flour, mixing the ingredients, etc. I've been putting a bedtime routine together for my 19 month old DD using the idea of "Bees". I'm making a poster for her that has a bee theme and lists the order of bedtime events including "Bath, Booby, Brush (Teeth), Book, Brownies, Bed." This way she can have a picture of each item and know what's coming. I am desperately trying to figure out how to successfully nightwean! We had been trying with no success so I've taken some time to try to figure out some different methods. I hope this helps both of us!

[Katielady]

Originally Posted by Momma Moo Martin

I'm currently reading "Sleepless in America" by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka and she has this really cute idea about a simple massage you can do with kids at bedtime - it's called "Brownies." You have your little guy lay down on his belly in bed and you go through the steps of making brownies - cracking the egg and letting it slide down his back, adding the flour, mixing the ingredients, etc. I've been putting a bedtime routine together for my 19 month old DD using the idea of "Bees". I'm making a poster for her that has a bee theme and lists the order of bedtime events including "Bath, Booby, Brush (Teeth), Book, Brownies, Bed." This way she can have a picture of each item and know what's coming. I am desperately trying to figure out how to successfully nightwean! We had been trying with no success so I've taken some time to try to figure out some different methods. I hope this helps both of us!

That sounds great! I'm not ready to nightwean or bedtime wean yet...I mean, if I could snap my fingers and make it happen I would, but since I know it's likely to be a major project I need to wait til I have more time and energy. Anyway, I'll keep these ideas in mind for when my babe and I are ready.

[JorgieGirl]

I used the Jay Gordon method for nightweaning, however DD still has about 5 minutes of nursing each night before bed. She never nurses to sleep anymore though. Our routine is:

6:45
Brush teeth
climb in bed
read 2-3 books
lights out
nurse 5-10 minutes
cuddle with her lovey (blanket) to sleep.

I sit with her while she falls asleep. Usually takes 10 minutes or so. I'm very consistent with our routine though and am not easily convinced to sway from it for a bbq or party or whatnot. DD is also a very verbal 27mo.

We recently added a new addition to our routine (her 2mo sister) and she just tags along. I used to read while DD fell asleep, now I nurse newbie. The three of us bedshare and it works well. Much better than I thought it would.