Help getting nursing toddler to sleep without boob?

[rebelmama]

My son is 26 months old and still nurses to sleep. For at least 6 months we have been doing a combination of nursing, story-telling, gentle massage and just lying there to get him to settle down and fall asleep. Our routine usually starts with booby and then is mixed with all of the above with more booby in between until he finally falls asleep an hour or more later. It is exhausting to say the least. I am not trying to wean him but I would love to be able to lie him down, say goodnight and have him fall asleep on his own. No booby. No more me lying there with him being frustrated.

He is also still a frequent night nurser. I have never been able to break him of this. I am a single parent so I have no one to turn him over to in the middle of the night when he's freaking out over no booby.

Any suggestions on where to begin?

[Pogo0685]

Hugs for you Mama I don't have any advice for you, just know that I'm with you, I have a husband but he just had surgery so he can't lift our son so I do all the parenting. I just nightweaned and it was hard, he would cry for a couple hours so I would hold him and rock him and walk with him while patting his back eventually he goes back to sleep. I have been doing this for 5 weeks now and its a lot better than when I started but he still wakes up almost everynight. Sometimes he takes 5 min to go back to sleep, sometimes he takes hours.

[JoyFilled]

Have you read the No Cry Sleep Solution. She has several good ideas on how to gently break this habit. My DD is 17 months and I was about to try these methods last week but she got the flu and was nursing what felt like 24 hours a day.

[kriket]

Here is what we are working on, it hasn't worked 100% but it's getting better. I started nursing him to sleep in the rocker in the living room, then I started reading to him while he nursed in the rocker, then I started reading and not nursing. He falls asleep during stories/singing (I just hold the book and sing if I see him start to get sleepy) about 20% of the time and I can lay him down.
I would read in bed, but DH is in bed already and I don't want to disturb him.

[featherd]

I am in the same boat and totally confused. My son has been crying at bedtime almost every night after we read and cuddle as soon as he knows it's time to get to sleep and nursing is the only way to calm him and get him to sleep. I am the only one who can get him down and it is with my boob. I went back to school this semester and when I get back from class at 10 pm he is still awake with his daddy and they are both frustrated.Help! I don't want to wean him, I just want bedtime to not be so traumatic and difficult.