Rather than easing into such a tough transition, I decided to wean my toddler AND get her setup in her own room without any type of long term transitioning. I have technically been "weaning" for over six months, and I now know that nothing is going to stop my child from nursing, other than taking it away completely. The same applies for co-sleeping. Ava will take naps in her toddler bed (if she's already asleep when she gets put in there), but she would never really lay in her own bed at night. Not even when she fell asleep prior to being put in. It wasn't until tonight that I felt 100% ready to take the leap that was desperately needed. Here is a list of the things Justin and I did to achieve our first successful night.

• Getting Bug ready for bed a little earlier in case we were in for a long night.
• No co-showering with mom, baths in her bathroom, solo.
• Getting ready for bed in her nice (big) toddler room.
• Giving her lots of love and letting her see we were right beside her (on the floor) with our own sleep stuff.
• Putting her favorite music on for added comfort. Super low and nothing with a fast beat.
• laying her down in her bed (several times) telling her she was going to sleep in the big girl bed. 
• Whenever she got up, we put her right back in her bed. 
• Rubbing her back (for all of five minutes)

After all of the above, Ava went down to sleep with zero issues. A couple days ago we tried purchasing pacifiers in an attempt to give her another form of comfort, but she only played around with them when she was awake. She didn't even use them the way they are intended, so I wasn't feeling very confident about them. Ava would put them to the side of her mouth and chew.. kind of like a teether. When we tried to give her one this evening during bedtime, she threw the pacifier off the side of her bed. On the upside to that, I'm excited that we won't have to wean her from something else later down the road! This is the routine that we are going to try each night until Ava no longer needs us in her room. I'm so very proud of Ava bug and definitely proud of my husband and I. Prolonging this change made it so much harder than it needed to be. Toddlers need good sleep and it was up to us to implement good sleep behavior. I still can't believe how easy it was to actually do this. Minimal drama, sleeping beauty baby, and mama is not feeling emotional about the change in the slightest! I'll keep you posted over the next week, but it looks like we've got more than enough room for another baby in the Howland house now! 

How many of my readers have weaned their toddlers from either co-sleeping or breastfeeding? What did you do to transition your kiddos? Any special techniques you found that worked? Leave me some feedback in the comments below or by email. 

Happy Saturday all! 

♥- Leilani

The Crib

I mentioned in Ava's thirteen month post that our co-sleeping days were coming to a close, and Ava's crib days would soon be among us. I am proud to say that Friday night was the first night she successfully slept in her crib. She woke up after four whole hours of crib sleeping. I nursed her in the rocker, and laid her back down to sleep. I didn't do anything special, nor did I try placing her in the crib during nap time on Friday afternoon. We got ready for "night night" the routine way we always do, but instead of laying her down on my bed, I carried her to the nursery. I really didn't expect Ava to sleep in her crib so soon. I told myself I would actively try, but if she wasn't comfortable, I'd take her out. Well, that didn't happen. I could hear her make a few little noises on the baby monitor, but that was it. I kept tiptoeing into he room to check on her pretty much every fifteen minutes. It didn't help that Cooper would tag along too. I thought for sure the sound of him galloping around would wake the baby... it didn't!

I had the drying running when I put her down, I figured a little noise in the background would be best. Normally we'd use her sound machine, but I didn't want to take it out of our room to put in her room, just to bring it back when she woke up. Well the sound machine is currently in her room. It took me a while to get the socket protector off, and I remember thinking that she would for sure wake up. She didn't. I really didn't expect for this transition to happen so smoothly. I plan on trying every night from here on out. Since Ava is clearly ready for the change, it looks like I have to jump on board too. Consistency is really going to be my best friend in this transition.

I know Justin is going to be thrilled about the progress that we've made. This is definitely a decision I've grown to become content with. After all, it only took us six months to really start this transition. The best part about this entire ordeal is that Ava bug seems to really enjoy the new independence. I didn't want to force her into making a change, and it looks like we won't have to. Have any of my readers successfully gone from co-sleeping to using the crib? If so, I'd love to hear about some of the methods you use. Feel free to leave comments below or email me.

Happy Monday all!

♥- Leilani