Jonathan is napping, and I didn't nurse him to sleep. Today is the first day of our attempt to wean him. It actually went surprisingly well. I waited until Jonathan completely fell apart and asked for "ni ni" (without me suggesting it to him) before trying to put him down. Then we got a cup of milk, his favorite teddy bear, put on his "night night music", and settled down in the rocking chair. He was sad, because this was definitely not what he'd been expecting, but I discovered pretty quickly that he preferred to cuddle on my chest facing me, and didn't want any milk, and then he calmed down pretty quickly. He went to sleep there about half-way through the cd. I thought he was asleep enough to transfer him, but, well, that may just not ever work anymore. He's been really hard to transfer for a few months now, and I guess I may just have to live with it. Anyway, he woke up when I put him in his crib, and cried. I stood there with my hand on his back, patting him, for awhile in the hopes that he'd go back to sleep, but no luck. And that position will make your back hurt after a very short while! So I gave him one last pat and left. He wailed and stood up, but that actually didn't last very long. I think because he really was so almost asleep, he lay back down in about five minutes, whimpered/cried off and on for another 15, and then was really asleep.
Considering that I had been braced for up to an hour of crying, this was pretty wonderful. :)
I'm thinking of taking him to a park today before his afternoon nap, in an attempt to thoroughly wear him out prior to attempting this again. My guess is the more tired he is, the easier this will be. Besides, he loves the park, and I want to make most of his life full of really happy things, since I'm taking away one of his comforts.
I am still planning to keep the bedtime nursing, at least for awhile. I don't want to wean cold turkey and I think having one "connection" nursing time will be good for us.
It is nice to have a plan, and I think we're making the right decision. Wish us luck!
2 comments:
I'm glad to hear it went better than you expected it would! It sounds like it wasn't too bad at all. Too bad he won't transfer when he's asleep... I wonder how many babies and toddlers can really do that though. I hope wearing him out before his afternoon nap worked well and that he went down without too much difficulty.
BTW, I still haven't sent that tea to you... Just haven't gotten my act together enough to get it packed up and such. My apologies!
Glad to hear it went well! He seems to be such a smart kid - he catches on to the change quickly.
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