Cross-posting from breastfeeding forum, because I'm not sure if that board is primarily focused on infant breastfeeding and associated issues...
I have to travel for a week-long mandatory conference for
work in late June and cannot bring my husband and son with me. I had to
travel for 3 days last fall and it was a disaster. DS only fell asleep after
prolonged crying, and woke up within a few hours to full wakefulness and
sobbing till he exhausted himself enough to sleep again. I do not want to put
either of them through that again.
Because
of this, I've been slowly trying to edge towards weaning for awhile, but
we haven't really been making much progress. I've now learned that I also need
to travel for work for 3 days in late May, which makes weaning more urgent (and
anxiety-inducing). At present, DS nurses right before falling asleep, about
half the time when he wakes up during the night (every other day or so), and
before naps on weekends (he's in daycare during the week).
Key
Question:
Do you
have advice/experiences to share on weaning a toddler somewhat quickly?
Especially one who strongly associates nursing with sleep, despite months of
trying to gradually loosen the association?
A few
more details (for those who want them):
DS is
definitely on the clingy side, and has never been a good sleeper. He only
started to sleep through the night on a semi-regular basis over the last couple
months, and still wakes up most nights. Lately, I've been trying to put him
back to sleep with a backrub, which works about half the time. He only
goes to sleep at bedtime for me, and does not seem to go back to sleep for DH
during the night at all. DH was pretty traumatized by his experience last fall
and has been reluctant to try bedtime or even naptime on his own since then.
Until he
was about 28 months old, DS would only fall asleep at the breast. After the
fall trip, I stopped allowing him to do so at bedtime, which meant 2 months of
cuddling a crying toddler for 40-90 minutes. These days, he doesn't usually
fall completely asleep at the breast, but if he isn't close, then he tends to
wake himself up again once he's in the crib and either wants to nurse again or
gets totally hyper. I've been limiting him to 3 verses of "My favorite
things" on each side, but if he asks for more once he is in the crib, I
usually allow one encore.