Getting to sleep without nursing?

[inesperada]

How do you transition a babe to learn to go to sleep without nursing? Abbott will go to sleep nursing for bedtime and nap, but if he wakes up in the middle of the night, nursing won't put him back to sleep anymore. At least not quickly. It takes hours of nursing for him to go back to sleep. :shrug

[Singingmom]

I'd like to know the answer, too, so I'm giving you a bump :mrgreen

[LauraK]

ME too, my baby wouln't really nurse down anymore.

[Mama Calidad]

DS normally still nurses off to sleep, but on the odd occasion that does work, he normally goes right out if you sit with your legs crossed on the bed, hold him...in the cradle position but with face up instead of in, and bounce up and down. It helps if you sing, "a la roo-roo-roo, a la roo-roo-roo, roo-roo-roo, roo-roo-roo". I thought that DH made that one up, but when we were at the ILs last Christmas, GMIL sang it to DS when she was walking him.

If it doesn't work, I hand him over to DH. :giggle

[tiglet]

If B won't fall asleep nursing, dh can usually walk around the house, holding her, and she'll sleep that way. We did go through a period of about a month where she would only fall asleep in the moving car. :shrug

I'd like to begin to have more ways of getting her to sleep without nursing, but I'm unwilling to spend the time and increased energy to find them!

[Sara]

Hey, I just read that Elizabeth Pantley has a new(er) book out, "The No Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers."
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0071444912

I haven't read it, but am planning to order it. Maybe it would have some good suggestions for you?

[Lillyma]

I was just coming here to see if anyone had read that book. Hmmmm. I think I'll ask in the discipline forum. Maybe there'll be more responses there.

[2sunshines]

With my first, I just gave him a sippy cup of water to bring to bed with us. When he woke up thirsty, he took a sip of that and went back to sleep. He was/is an easy child though...

With my second, we did the water thing, but it involved a lot more cuddling, story reading, etc. before she gave into the idea of not nursing at night. But it did work...