Stopping bf a 10 month old to sleep... how?

[piesoclock]

I'm considering stopping bf my 10.5 month old to sleep. Mostly because It's taking me an hour to get him down each night and I'm getting fed up with it.

He has slept through the night since 7 months and when he wakes up at night can get himself back to sleep, so obviously self settles fine. Most nights he bf to sleep, but tonight for example he got drowsy and wasn't settling, so nipped me and as soon as I took him off he was wide awake.

I handed him to his Dad (as he was definitely finished feeding) who held him for 15 mins, again he wouldn't settle, so put in him in the cot and he proceeded to make tired noises and mumble for about 45 minutes and is now asleep. He was not crying - I won't do anything that involved him crying.

All the sleep training techniques talk about getting babies to learnt o self settle, well my boy can do that, but at bedtime needs to be fed or rocked to sleep (usually).

How would we move away from feeding to sleep and get him to go to sleep in his cot instead? Current bedtime routine starts at 6.30 is nappy change, clothes change, toothbrush, calpol if teething, into sleeping bag. Onto me for a bf while his Dad reads him a story or two. lights out, I feed to sleep. He is usually sleep by 7.10. I try to put him down at 7.20 and he wakes as I lower him down, so I feed again and eventually can put him down by 8.

I'm considering doing the feed, with lights on, then into the cot, story in the cot, then lights out, then hope he goes to sleep. Don't see how this will happen without crying though...

Any ideas?

We did the dad method here - I fed her but not to sleep and then DH put her down and stayed in the room until she was asleep. Often he was with her 30+ minutes to start (she was about 11/12 months when we started) and occasionally she'd cry a little (lightly) but I knew she was ok because he was there - and I spied on the video monitor! :-) Good luck, it's so reassuring once you know they will settle without you always having to be there to do bedtime.

At about that age we moved to bath then bf from me then stories with dad in his room before sleep.

OK. That sounds like it might work. We'll have to have a think about when to implement this. I guess if the boy starts crying we just revert back to comforting. Previously if we've put him down too early (or needed to go to the loo) he goes nuclear before we've even got our arms out of the cot. That's what I want to avoid.

We did a halfway house at 9 months where we tried to get her to fall asleep on the bed next to us. i feef her lying down. My dh lay on her other side to help her feel secure and to get her used to him doing the bedtime routine.It had reached the point where she was feeding and then would pull off full but not asleep and wanting to burble around for a bit. So we let her. It was very dark, low music and we pretended to be asleep. Eventually after 45 mins or so she went very quiet and dropped off. After a week or so if this we started putting her in the cot pushed next to the bed with the side down with me and dh lying in the bed. Music, pretending to sleep etc. She played a bit then dropped off. Some nights e.g. teething she won't though and I still feed to sleep. I have to say there was some crying but not distress just a shouty I'm not happy cry that you can distract her from. If she ever got distressed we took her out. Often I can comfort her in her cot with a hug or distract her by beating a heartbeat on the mattress. I think the music is also really important - the kind you get in a spa as she always drops off to the same song so it calms her and has set up some kind of cue for her. Good luck x