Nathan's New Bedtime Routine

For almost all of Nathan's life, I've nursed him to sleep at bedtime.  In recent months, Daddy would take care of bathtime, pjs and reading books, then he would hand Nathan over to me.  Nathan would give both Daddy and Mommy kisses and then I would rock and nurse him, then sing a few lullabies and put him to bed with the noise machine running.

A few weeks ago, Nathan started fussing and crying every night when I would lay him down in the crib.  He would be so tired, and most of the time would have already fallen asleep while the nursing or singing, but as soon as his head hit the mattress, he would wake up upset.  Many times Brian would have to go in and calm Nathan down to get him to sleep.  The whole thing was very unusual (he rarely fussed at naptimes) and Brian and I couldn't figure out why he was so upset every night.  I was beginning to dread bedtimes.

Then one night when Brian went in to Nathan's room, he gave Brian the "drink" sign.  So Brian took in a sippy cup of milk and Nathan GUZZLED it down.  Brian and I decided that my milk supply had dwindled leaving Nathan still thirsty after nursing (by this time we had eliminated all the daytime feedings), so maybe it was time to finish the weaning process.  So the next night I went in to nurse Nathan armed with a sippy cup as well.  He nursed, he drank from the sippy cup, he fell asleep on me, I put him in his crib, and... ANGER!  CRYING!  Again Brian had to come to the rescue.

After Nathan fell asleep that night, Brian wondered aloud, "Maybe he just wants to see me?"  Was that it?  Nathan was crying so that he would see and/or cuddle with Brian one last time before bed?  The following evening Brian took over the whole bedtime routine.  And as he stepped out of Nathan's room with empty sippy cup in hand... SILENCE!  Not a peep from Nathan!

Brian's success was such a relief that it wasn't until 2 nights later I realized that I had stopped nursing Nathan without being able to treasure our last nursing session.  It made me a little sad that this special time (paid for through lots of pain, anguish and tears during those early months) was over without some special acknowledgment, but I'll take comfort in the fact that I LOVE letting go of this one part of Nathan's care and know its now a special time for him and his Daddy.