How did you transition from nursing/bottling to sleep, partiuclarly for naps?

[newmamalizzy]

Apart from the problem of DD almost always pooping when I'm trying to put her down for a nap (argh!!!!), she's also been doing this thing where she falls asleep (or close to) drinking her bottle, then has a tantrum when the bottle is gone.  Tantrum = no nap.  Has the dreaded time come when I have to stop bottling her to sleep?  It's been soooooo easy.  I have no idea how I would go about getting her to nap otherwise.  She actually doesn't fall right asleep after her nighttime bottle, but nighttime has always been different for her.  Nighttime sleep is an eventuality.  Naptime is a whole other matter.... So, anyone have experience transitioning from nursing/bottling a toddler to sleep for naptime? 

[breastmama]

I went through that stage with our middle guy for a while. Once I stopped nursing we transitioned to cup (vs bottle) and he would lay down and start to fall asleep with the cup, but as soon as it was done, he was throwing a fit/fighting sleep. Sometimes I'd lay down with him to help coax along the sleep (which ended up putting me to sleep with him more times than I care to admit), or I tried music in the background. After a while he ended up just finishing the bottle and then rolling over and I would rub his back or similar to help him fall asleep.

Wish I had more to share but I do remember that stage was not easy...

[Onkiekat]

I would really like to hear more about this! I still nurse my 16 mo DD to sleep, both at night and nap. And I am 11 weeks preg....I don't know how long my milk will last, and I don't have any idea how I will put her down if she weans!

[newmamalizzy]

Well, we just did it!  It felt like it took forever, but it was actually only 40 minutes or so, and the tears were minimal.  We really just did exactly what we would do at bedtime, minus the bottle.  (For us that means having her lie down, gently encouraging her to continue lying down, having her glowworm thingy playing the whole time, with me talking quietly to her and intermittently patting her back.)  So, Onkiekat, maybe it's just a matter of doing it?  We'll see how tomorrow goes...

[fullofhope08]

I can't talk from experience here as I'm still nursing my 16 MO to sleep at night. He goes doen without milk for his nap. I plan to wean him from his connection between milk and sleep in the next few months and so have been giving it some thought. Iknow it will be rough when it happens, but my plan was to begin to establish a clear bedtime (or naptime for that matter) routine that still involves the milk - snuggles, music, reading a book or two. then the milk. My hope is that he's good and sleepy before the milk starts to flow. Once he's comfortable with this routine, eliminate the milk from the flow of the routine and hope he's sleepy enough from the rest of the routine that he'll accept it.

I can totally see that this would be harder with naps as I know my LO goes down way easier at night when he's ready for his night's sleep. good luck!

[northerngirl]

When dd 19 months started daycare over a month ago I knew that I needed to change her nurse/bottle/rock to bed/nap ritual. 

I started with nap and I decided I would nurse her in the rocking chair downstairs and then bring her up stairs and lay her in her bed (P&P). 

I would tell her it's time to take a nap/go to bed and I would lay her down and cover her up with a blanket. Then I stroked her hair while she laid there and just for a couple minutes. Then I would walk out. She would immediately call out for me and stand up. I would go back in and repeat "it's time for nap" and then say lay down (and lay her down), and then cover her up again. This would go on about 4-5x. Then I would just shut the door and stand in the hallway and listen for what would happen. At times there would be a little fussing, but no crying. Eventually now I just cover her up and say goodnight, shut the door and leave. Then she babbles and throws her paci out and takes off her socks, crawls around, but eventually just falls asleep. When I hear it's been quiet for a while I go in and cover her back up.

It is so easy now I almost don't want to share bc I don't want to jinx it. On the other hand my older dd 5.5, has had the worst bedtimes/naps up until this year. It was a nightmare and I was really hoping dd2 was going to be different.