Naked bathrobe boy and other recent tales

Here is Theo in the starring role of our new production of Naked Bathrobe Boy. Nightly showings here at our house at 9pm! (the picture is kindof fuzzy...he runs so fast!)

We are attempting to nightwean Theo and know that a good bedtime routine will be helpful. I give him a bath around 8:30 or 9:00, read him a story, and nurse him in his rocking chair in his room until he is almost asleep. Then I lay him in his crib and do the back pat/shush routine until he's out. We started doing this on Monday night, so I guess it's only been 3 days. It normally takes about 10-30 minutes for him to be completely asleep. That's just the bedtime part. The nightweaning is a whole different process.

Supposedly it will take about 10 days for Theo to confidently sleep without nursing for most of the night. To be completely honest, he's been doing this on his own for a few months, but I want to make sure that it isn't always my fallback option. Here's the plan:

Days 1, 2, 3 Do whatever we normally do as our bedtime routine

From 11pm-6am, nurse him only to drowsy (not to sleep), pat him, and shush

him to sleep. Only offer him mamamilk if he's gone to sleep and woken up again.

At 6:01 (and any time after that), do whatever we normally do during the day

(ex: nurse him to sleep, nap with him in our bed, whatever, etc.)

Days 4, 5, 6 Do the same as days 1, 2, 3 except don't nurse him this time........we're supposed to

start this part tomorrow. I'm not sure how it will work, but I'll give it a shot. I'm

perfectly fine if days 1,2, 3 last for a while. I don't mind nursing him at night, but I

am just struggling with nursing him in our bed at night now that I'm pregnant.

My arms fall asleep, I have to worry about him falling off the bed, and I'm tired!

Days 7, 8, 9, 10 Do the same as the other nights, but don't pick him up. We can pat his back,

shush him, sing to him, etc. but we are supposed to have him stay in his bed.

We'll keep you posted! Oh, for more info on this, go to Dr. Jay Gordon's website. He has some very interesting ideas and I think that his methods are very sensitive to the changing needs of little kids. I know that Theo is small for such a short time and I don't want my temporary discomfort to overshadow a real need on his part. I just want him to be developing good, long-term sleep habits that give him plenty of restful, restorative sleep.

That's enough of all that! It's 10:00 and I have to go get myself ready for bed.