Nursing

*Warning: the following words are used in this post: sleep training and nurse, as in nursing, as in breastfeeding. If you are not comfortable or interested in aforementioned words, please skip this post.

Calder doesn't nurse anymore. Getting to this point has been harder than I would have liked. The kid liked to nurse. Since he wouldn't take a bottle, ever, I made peace with the fact that I would be nursing until he was 1. I wanted to anyway, so it wasn't a big deal.

Once he had that glorious first birthday I started offering him milk. He didn't like it at first. It took a few months until he started drinking it and even asking for it. I switched to 2% instead of whole and that seems to have done the trick. A few weeks after that I switched back to whole milk and he didn't notice. I think it also helped that he saw his friends drinking milk and would sometimes sneak sips from their sippy cups. Peer pressure starts so young.

I was still nursing him to sleep at this point. *Gasp* I think I've mentioned before that I started nursing to sleep when we moved to Columbus. He was too busy to be bothered to eat when he would rather be playing, so it was a thousand times easier when he was tired. It was also the fastest way to get him to sleep so I could pack. I figured I would do it until we moved and then just revert back to the old way. Of course, Calder really liked nursing to sleep. I tried so many different methods to stop, but he is a very determined little boy. I felt like such a failure for ending up in that position. I also felt like other mothers were judging me when it came up in conversation.

We decided in late November that we would have to try some sort of sleep training. *Gasp* I know. Soon after that we found out he had an ear infection. Poor kid. Then we had visitors, Christmas and a trip to Oregon. I kept nursing him to sleep.

As soon as we got back from Oregon we gave it another try. We used the book 5 Days to a Perfect Night's Sleep for Your Baby. It worked. We were shocked how well it worked. It wasn't just leaving Calder in his crib to cry until he fell asleep. The first night we went in after 3 minutes the first time and then every 5 minutes after that until he fell asleep. The book has you say the same thing each time you go in and you have to say it in a happy, confident way. Basically you say "Mommy & Daddy love you very much and that's why we're teaching you to go to sleep all by yourself with your teddy bear."

It took Calder 40 minutes the first night, 15 minutes the second night and it continued to improve from there. Now he usually goes to sleep happily. I love it. It is so nice to read him a few books, say his prayers and lay him down. Now Jason can put him to bed and Calder is sleeping much longer than he was before. He was in the habit of nursing at 4am and that stopped immediately.

I honestly think Calder thought he couldn't go to sleep without me. During the first week of sleep training he nursed for 5 minutes prior to story time. A few weeks later we switched to two minutes. One week after that Calder said he didn't want to nurse. I haven't offered since. He hasn't nursed for a week.

So, just like that I am done. Calder was one week short of being 16 months when he stopped nursing. At the end I was surprised how quickly he gave it up. I think once he realized he was capable of going to sleep without nursing that he just found it to be a hindrance.

I wish I wouldn't have stressed so much about him nursing so long. It all worked out in the end. and I don't think 16 months is that old. But I will say kid #2 (no, this is not an announcement) will not have the luxury of nursing to sleep. Sorry kid.