Double bedtime and weaning 🤦

[Andrina85]

Hello!

Before I trawl the Internet and make myself miserable I wondered if anyone has any ideas.

My eldest is a great sleeper but hasn't always been. He's coming up to 5 and has a fairly solid routine of bath, bedroom play, teeth, stories, lights out. He listens to audio books and I tend to sit with him for 5 minutes until he falls asleep.

My youngest (coming up to 2) has slotted into the above pretty well but I finally want to wean him off the night boob and I'm scared it's going to throw a spanner in everything. At the moment I feed him while I'm reading with the older one and 9/10 he falls asleep on my lap. I then carry him into his bedroom when the big ones asleep.

My husband works long hours so isn't reliable to take something on permanently but I might be able to get him upstairs early for a week while I set up a new routine... I just don't know what the new routine looks like 😂🤦. Long term I need to be able to do it it all solo.

If anyone has any ideas I'd be so grateful. Thanks xxx

Will he (quietly) take a bottle/cup of milk so you keep the routine the same and just swap that part for now or will he join in the routine up to the sleep part without boob? If not, could you leave the older listening to audio books or bedroom play whilst you put the younger one to bed with a new non-boob routine? I have 3dc and do their bedtimes solo. I usually decide who is most tired/needs the routine and prioritise them and fit the other two around that, but we don't have an established routine beyond teeth, story and bed. The youngest might come and have stories with the oldest or the oldest might have to read/draw/listen to audio books while I put the youngest to bed if I think he might scream through story time!

When I night weaned my youngest (at 8 months so younger), I tended to put the other two to bed first and then tackle him, as he was not too impressed and took a while to settle! Once I had him taking a bottle before bed I would put him down first and then sort the older two as he would fall asleep pretty quickly.