Breastfeeding transition

The day Sofia turned a year old I gave myself a pat on the back for having breastfed her for a whole year. It wasn't hard really, more like the lazy way out. I've enjoyed our time breastfeeding and will look back on it fondly. However, we are now running into the problem that at some point I will need to be away from her, possibly at bedtime or nap time (i.e. Daniele and I need to go on a date some day) and she will need to be able to sleep without nursing down. In the beginning this was a fantastic and very quick way to get her to go to sleep. But lately it has turned into the only way to have her go to sleep and when she would startle or turn over and not find the breast there, she would wake herself up completely looking for it. This caused her to have very short naps like 30 minutes long. During the night as well, she will wake up 6 or 7 times in a 6 hour period.

So as of last Thursday I am trying something new. I am teaching her to fall asleep without nursing down. The first time I did it was after a full morning of hiking, so she was really tired. She didn't have much problem going to sleep without the breast. However that evening was a 30 minute scream fest until finally in a hot sweat she passed out. Sounds horrible, and it really sounded like it. Let me explain how I'm going about this though. First I go through the nap/bed time routine, closing the blinds and putting on the white noise. Then we sit on the bed and I let her feed a little until she is full. Then I latch her off and we both lay down on the bed. I sing to her and rub her back. Which I normally would do while she was nursing down, only this time I have the breast put away and covered up. She of course starts protesting right away, crying and flipping and flopping and sitting up and then falling into me. After about 5 minutes she begins to calm down as she realizes it's not worth it. I continue to sing to her and comfort her until she settles into sleep.

Over the last few day I have been consistent with this process and it seems to really be working. It's getting easier and easier for her to settle into sleep. The best part is, well there are two parts. One she doesn't get startled when I leave the bed because she is already off the boob and moving into a deeper sleep. Secondly, she takes two hour naps. No longer does she get startled at the 30 minute mark. I hope she is beginning to realize she can sleep without the breast.

My immediate goal is for her to go easily to sleep after nursing without the breast and without crying. Then for Daniele to be able to put her to sleep without me around. Lastly, I hope in a month or so that she will have adjusted to this and that we will be able to night wean. As I had mentioned a while back I was trying to get her to nurse less at night by having Daniele sooth her before I let her latch on in the middle of the night. We had a few weeks of messed up routine and that set us off track for a while. She is back to nursing like 8 times a night. I'm a bit tired of it. It makes me aggravated at night because it's only comfort sucking, which ends up irritating my nipples. Though I don't necessarily want to take that comfort away, I want it to be manifested in other ways, like a back rub or humming or a simple touch on the head. I also want Daniele to be a source of night comfort as well as day time comfort.

As with all parenting advice, all we can do is listen to lots of people and then adjust it so that it works for our kids. I know several friends who have dealt with tough sleeping situations. Anyone else out there have problems with their baby's sleep habits?