Stuart and I made the decision to wait until after the trip to wean Connor, and the time finally came.  Connor is old enough now that he will actually ask to be nursed (via gestures), thus I totally feel that it is time to wean.  But I have to say that when he asks, it is very adorable as he will rub his chest to make the sign for “please”.  Sometimes he will rub hard and vigorously, and when I agree, he gives the biggest smile and sometimes will even giggle.

     Basically I had been nursing him the past few months only at bedtime and overnight.  Unfortunately since the molar teething which occurred 3 months ago, Connor had started waking up overnight.  Now he just seems to be in a habit of waking up twice a night lately.  After dinner, we now have been giving Connor a cup of milk while Logan drinks his, and Connor has been drinking around 2-4oz.  Three nights ago, I decided to stop nursing him at bedtime.  I offered him another cup of milk after bath, but he only had a sip, and started rubbing his chest for “please”.  I denied him and he started crying, but he stopped after just a couple of minutes when I distracted him with brushing teeth.  And he was content as I told him that we were going “night night”.  I sang him his lullaby and put him down.  To my surprise, he just slowly fell asleep without any complaint.  Then the following 3 bedtimes, he only asked for nursing briefly one night, and he cried one night that Stuart had to go check on him quickly.  Otherwise, the bedtime weaning went much better than I anticipated.

    Overnight was as difficult as I expected.  Last night was the first that I quit nursing completely.  I went in initially when Connor first woke up at 2:50.  I ended up changing him since his diaper was super wet.  Connor kept rubbing his chest and was very sad that I denied him.  Stuart came in to take my place.  Connor did not want the cup of milk initially and did not want to go back to sleep in the crib when Stuart put him down.  We just decided to treat it like sleep training again, letting him cry with Stuart checking in on him every 5-10 minutes or so.  Connor did end up drinking 5-6oz of milk.  During all this commotion, Logan needed daddy attention too, so Stuart was busy going between the two kids.  Finally, Connor, after being up for 1 hour and 15mins total, laid back down and returned to sleep until this morning.  We will see how he will do tonight.