Bedtime Changes
Tonight I feel like Bud and I made a significant change to his bedtime routine. I didn't feed him to sleep. This has happened before but I've never actually been there on those occasions. Tonight I fed him then took him upstairs and put him into his cot, sleepy but very definitely awake. For the first time in 18 months my little boy has gone to sleep in my presence without falling asleep on the breast.
I'm not quite sure why tonight was the night to make this change. I've been thinking about it for a while and, as we went out last night so his Grandparents put him to bed (after he fell asleep on Grandad's lap) I thought we could use that as a line drawn in the sand. Bud loves feeding, I hear the stories of self-weaning and I am amazed as the prospect of my boy ever willfully giving up on his 'bop' (his word for my milk) seems unlikely at best. At bedtime he will, if allowed, feed for up to an hour and, as he falls asleep, will wake up if I try to move him. He is getting heavier and more awkward to carry around now so I need a way of putting him into bed and not having to move him when he is sleeping. Stopping feeding to sleep is clearly the solution.
Tonight I placed him in his cot and, at first, he was completely indignant and stood holding on to the side of the cot bar, shouting and crying (mainly for his Daddy as usual). He has a Globug but he can't press it's tummy hard enough to turn it on himself so I did it for him, a few times, and he sat down quietly in his cot. Eventually he lay down and nodded off. I had been sitting on the floor of his room, not making eye contact, during this whole time and thinking he had gone to sleep I attempted to leave the room, whereupon he woke up, stood up and started shouting at me again. I repeated the whole process and left him, sleeping peacefully, after 40 minutes.
It wasn't the fastest process but I came downstairs feeling like I had done the right thing and that we may have turned a corner. Bud will still be having his evening 'bop' but that won't be what he falls asleep doing. All I need now is some tips for how to get out of the room before he goes to sleep, or to speed up the process if I do have to stay with him. Do any of you have any suggestions?
