For those of you who did EBF to one year old ...

MrsMacUSMC

... please talk to me about weaning. My son is 8 1/2 months old (EBF) and I am sure that I want to wean him by the time he is one year old. I am concerned about how I will get him to sleep! I can actually put him in his crib when he is drowsy and he will finish falling asleep there, but he will not get to that drowsy state without nursing. I've tried rocking, walking, bouncing. I'm not sure what to do next. I do not want to let him cry it out, but I figure we have 3 1/2 more months to gradually get to where I want us to be. Does anyone have any advice for me? Have you been where I am now and still managed to wean at 1 year without sacrificing your baby's sleep entirely?

Liz342

MY DD was like that for a long time.  We gave her a bottle of BM before bed and whole milk when she was 10 months old before bed but I had to Bf her before naps and she was the same way.  What I did for naps after I weaned was to just rock her standing up for 1-2 mins then put her down.  At first she cried a little but she always went to sleep.  We did CIO when she was 8 months I think, as a last resort, and ever since then she has gone to sleep great for us.

blueLu25

Yes! I was worried about the same thing. Around 10 months we started getting a regular naptime routine which helped. We already had a bedtime routine.He started dropping feedings on his own, which really helped, but also when he was about 11 months- ish we started to replace the time he would eat with something else (book, bath, etc) at night, and that helped. By 12 months he will probably only be nursing once or twice a day, on his own, especially since he will be on more solid foods, so it might happen more naturally than you think! hth!

preg_amy

Honestly, at 8.5 months, things could change drastically by a year.  I wouldn't start worrying about it now.  Let him be a baby for a little while longer.

DS weaned right at a year because he was just ready.  I would have BFed longer, but he was done.

We started gradually letting him work down when he was just over 11 months because we knew he was ready.

MrsMacUSMC

Thank you all for sharing your experiences! It sounds like it won't be too bad and will probably happen gradually. Great!