Within the last 2 months I've been weaning my daughter of falling to sleep on the nipple. She still get's a little nursing before bed (no other time during the day) but she no longer falls asleep while nursing. I've noticed a new pattern developing that i'm not all that pleased about. First I would like to say that although she's annoyed with not being able to fall asleep on the nipple, she understands that her teeth and leaving marks on my nipples that hurts. We have tried for a long time to correct this issue, but she wants to pull her chin towards her chest while falling asleep and that just doens't work while nursing. Secondly she doesn't cry after I take the num num away she just say's "I'm all done with the num num's it's starting to hurt mommy". I generally reply "I know your not hurting them on purpose, it's just that your teeth are sharp, mommy can snuggle you to help you go to sleep". However, this seems to be creating some issues. She seems to think this is the time of the night where she gets to be super silly and wiggles like crazy. She'll lay there kicking her feet. Chattering away, poking me in the face, telling me how I need to lay. It's almost like she thinks it's a sleep over and this is the time to be very silly. It's sometimes taking me over an hour to get her to settle, and this is after a bath, massage, bedtime story, and a quick nurse. I also play calming relaxing music that I have played since she was 6 months old. Hopeing that this will trigger for her it's time to sleep. I don't expect her to just close her eyes and fall asleep with the snap of a finger. But she seems to have difficulty with calming herself down enough to even lay still. I seems to be a great distraction for her. If I pretend to fall asleep she keeps peeking at me to see if my eyes are still close and whispering to herself, or kicking the bed to wake me up. I ask if she's ready to go to sleep by herself and she yells no and proceeds to push my head down to the pillow.
I would also like to add that she is not allowed to have a lot of sugar as it makes this type of behaviour much worse. I have tried to take her nap away and this doesn't make the settling even easier. I know that she is tired at the time as she will yawn and rub her eyes through the entire process (she even has to tell me that she's yawning becasue she is tired).
Does anyone else have a toddler who's done or is doing this sort of thing? How have you helped them to settle down more smoothly at bedtime? Would you take this as the sign that it's time to start letting her try to go to sleep by herself, and what would be the most compassionate way to start this sort of transition?