How do your one year olds go to sleep?

[inesperada]

My ds, 16 months old today, still nurses to sleep. We still nurse to sleep because it is easiest and fastest, but for no other reason. I'd like to start transitioning him into going to sleep without nursing (in hopes that maybe he'll learn how and do it in the middle of the night, too ;) ). Thoughts? Ideas? Advice? What do you do?

[Close2MyHeart]

Since my DD stopped bfing at 12 mos, we do a bedtime routime like we do w/ the boys. She gets in her jammies, then brushes her teeth. Then we read our Bible Story and pray together... then she lays down in bed w/ a sippy cup of water and her ducky (Fav. toy. :) ) It's worked well for her. She didn't cry or anything while we transitioned her to this routine. I think it helped that she was doing stuff like the boys tho...

[DogwoodMama]

Well, we still primarily nurse to sleep, but not always... if I nurse her and I can tell she's not going to zonk out, I will lay with her in the bed and tell her she can cuddle next to me, or play quietly in her crib, which her Fisher Price Aquarium. :) Usually, she will then come back for a nurse, or a cuddle... Either way, I will usually sing something quietly in a round, or I will talk about our day in a sort of sing-songy way... sometimes I pray outloud, but haven't gotten into a regular habit about it yet. Honestly, I don't have to do much beyond this... sometimes on her own she will just stop nursing and cuddle next to me or lay near me and just go to sleep. :)

A friend of mine does this with her ds... she will lay next to him, and describe how everyone else he knows is going to sleep... she goes through his daycare class usually... ;) "Anna is so sleepy right now, she is ready to go to sleep. She brushes her teeth and puts on jammies and gets into bed. Her mommy hugs her and she rubs her eyes and gets so sleepy and goes to sleep"... she says this in a soft, calming voice, veeerrrrryyyy slowwwwlllyy, with little variations for each kid. She said she usually gets through a few kids and he is OUT :mrgreen (thank goodness, it would get old to do that very much, right? ;)

[Irene]

I nurse ds then he bounces right up and carries on and wants to play and thrash around and I dont have the patience for it at all :/ :blush so Dh will wrap him up in a blanket and rock him to sleep. :tu he still cries every night, but I think he just doesnt like that we are "making" him go to sleep. hes obviously tired, but I guess I make kids that fight sleep for everything they have ;) he only cries for maybe a minute then passes right out. He is definitly sleeping better since doing that :tu

not to be contrary to Elizabeth ;) just giving something else because all kids are different, but with both of my kids we cant talk *at all*. just too stimulating for them. :)

[DogwoodMama]

Every kid is different... I think sometimes when it is *too quiet* that is distracting to my dd! Weird, huh? :)

[Irene]

that is weird ;) but also why I really like AP :tu not a one size fits all :mrgreen

[Close2MyHeart]

that is weird ;) but also why I really like AP :tu not a one size fits all :mrgreen


I love that about AP too!! :) It's nice not to have people saying "This is the way you have to do it" It's been a relief to me.

[Soliloquy]

My DD is almost 15 months old and still nurses to sleep. She will occasionally fall asleep in the car, but not often. There was one time in her life where she fell asleep in bed without nursing. We both had thrush and it hurt so much to nurse. There was one night where I couldn't take it anymore. She was really tired and I laid her on her tummy and rubbed her back in circles. She fell asleep!

I still nurse her to sleep because it is fast and reliable. I read NCSS and I implement a few of the techniques. I'm not gung-ho about night weaning as I don't think she's ready, but I do pull my nipple out of her mouth when I think she's almost asleep--and see if she'll accept that--sometimes yes, sometimes no. In the middle of the night when she stirs, I don't immediately offer my breast anymore. Sometimes I just hold her little arms down (she flails them) very gently and she drifts back to sleep.

I'm hoping to get PG again soon and still haven't seen AF yet, so I'm hoping she'll cut back on her night nursing. But, she's HN in regards to nursing, so I'm not going to push her.

If anyone has any success in gentle night weaning, please share! TIA!

[gracieannsmom]

My dd is 19 months old and still nurses to sleep at night and at naps. Recenltly, however she has had a few times where I would lay her down, tell her it's time for night night and she just lays there quietly and goes to sleep..the first time she did that my reaction was :shifty no way, will it ever happen again???!!! Our major problem is that dd stays asleep for one sleep cycle (roughly 2 - 2.5 hours) and then wakes up screaming. I pray and pray every night that she will sleep all night or at least more than two hours and it never happens. When she wakes up screaming then I just take her to my bed. This is our first step towards her sleeping on her own. She spends that first sleep cycle in her bed and then comes in with me. Dh wants her to be sleeping in her own room all night by the time he gets back from Iraq...I don't see it happening honestly. That gives us only 9 months to work on it and I don't feel right pushing dd into something she isn't ready for. On the other hand, I really NEED that time to myself at night from parenting alone all day and 2 - 2.5 hours isn't enough for me. Usually I'll be right in the middle of my bible study when she starts to wail! I guess it will just be one step at a time though.

[glassangel]

My DS is 13mos and we nurse to sleep at nap and night time. Although nursing hasn't worked for about three nights in the last seven so I have rocked him to sleep in the rocking chair - but invariably he'll then want to nurse within the next hour. HE still wakes up about twice a night to feed- going to bed late, 9-10pm...I really want him to be in bed at 7pm and I think he wants to be too but life is a bit chaotic at the moment...he had a couple of nights were he fell asleep then and I thought GREAT...
I have no idea how he is ever going to wean though!

[Jeanette]

Jonovan breastfed to sleep until he was 2.5 years old. The transition to not breastfeeding to sleep wasn't all that difficult, though it did involve some crying. At that point, I was pretty tired of doing it any longer. I offered him a sippy of milk instead, did breastfeeding until I counted to ten, let him hug my neck instead. Those were the main things that worked. He still has issues sometimes with getting to sleep, but sleeps totally through now. It's very nice after going years with waking every three hours or more often :lol

At one, and even six months ago, my DS was still very attached to breastfeeding to sleep. I had to wait until he was ready enough to be prodded along with weaning. When he wasn't willing to not breastfeed, I put a time limit (counting to ten or twenty) on it. That helped both of us to deal with it. That was done when the sippy offer was refused.

[gracieannsmom]

Jeanette, that was good advice. I am going to try setting some limits with my dd when she seems ready. I've already been bf'ing her to sleep for almost two years now so I think I can stick it out for another 6 months or so. I just hate that she ONLY sleeps for 2 - 2.5 hours at a time then wakes up. I wish she could just put herself back to sleep upon waking but I'm sure that will come in time. I am trying to be patient.

[chelsea]

I'm watching this thread closely because my 17-month-old nurses to sleep for nighttime and naps. Generally at nighttime the nursing-to-sleep process lasts at least an hour. I usually pray out loud while he nurses and then sing to him, etc. He also stays latched on a long time after falling asleep too and will wake up if I unlatch him too soon. I don't want to night-wean him or anything because when he has a cold and he is stuffed up and can barely nurse during the day, his sinuses seem to clear up at night and he doesn't have those problems and so he is still getting nutrition. If he ate more solids this may not be an issue but that's been a very gradual process for us. For now I think we still "need" our night nursing, but it would be nice for him to be able to sleep without nursing at naptimes. Some naptimes I don't get anything done because by the time I have nursed him to sleep and finally gotten "unlatched" :blush his naptime is almost done. The odd occasion he will fall asleep in the car or on a walk in the stroller, but I would also like him to be able to just lay down and fall asleep...nursing to sleep is very special but can be very time-consuming (which I don't mind at all but sometimes need time to get other stuff done and I would rather spend all my time with him when he is awake and do chores while he is sleeping.)

[Jeanette]

gracieannsmom-It will come in time, believe me. I thought I'd never get to sleep at night again :lol The recent changes in my DS have been dramatic. He's now 2 years and 9 months old and you'd never know he breastfed to sleep and back to sleep all night long for 2.5 years. The transition took about the past three months to accomplish.

[chelsea]

Jeanette, did you initiate the changes or did your son? Just wondering if this comes to our babes in time or if it is more by our prompting?

[Jeanette]

I began the changes. I started telling him that he couldn't have nuh nuh, but he could have a milk sippy instead. If he'd take the sippy without getting too upset, then that was that. I began with a milk sippy and then changed it to a water sippy so he stopped waking at night. Sometimes we still use a milk sippy and sometiemes he doesn't ask for one. Sometimes he would be too upset to have the sippy so I'd feed him for a specific time on each side. Usually that worked well, but sometimes he'd refuse that too so I'd feed him as long as I could then. I'd also offer my neck for him to hold instead sometimes. Eventually he stopped asking for nuh nuh to go to sleep, or when he did and I said no, he was OK with it. I think if I hadn't prodded him along that he'd still be sleeping like that today, which was just too much for me. I do think that he was much more ready for it then though, because I had tried since day 1 practically to get him to go to sleep without breastfeeding and he just wasn't willing to do it until he was 2.5. I'd say it was a combination of both. He was willing and I was prompting to see when he would be ready. It went from me being able to do nothing for him but feed him to sleep to feeding him mostly to sleep and he nodded off afterward, to being able to finally have him take other things than nuh nuh to get to sleep at night. It just took a while.