Weaning

The Prince is now 1 year old. And that means its time to wean. When Cadence was getting close to this age, we gradually started weaning her, and by her first birthday, no more bottles. Alot of this was just her personality also. She did not really rely on the bottle. Now comes Henry. Since Henry spent most of his first year going to work with me, he got hooked on bottles to go to sleep. Since I was in an office close to clients and could not let him "cry it out" as we had with Cadence at a much earlier age, Henry has never really had to do this. I have relied on the bottle to get him to sleep for naps and bedtime. (I know this is a huge no-no!) So here we are now, working from home, where he can cry it out, and while I have been home for close to two months, I have not even tried weaning him. Its just gotten so easy to put him to nap/bed with a bottle and that's it. Now its time to wean him. I am dreading this. See, when Henry was a young infant, it took quite a bit of training to get him to sleep. He did not know how to sleep well, and I literally had to train the kid to sleep. Well, I have him well trained now. Nap time starts to roll around and he is cranky. 6:30 at night and he is ready for bed. The problem is the bottle. And I know part of the reason I am hesitant to wean is because of all of the problems I had getting him to sleep in the begining.
Earlier this week, I was training volunteers one evening while Ben had the kids at home. When I got home, he told me he put Henry down for bed without a bottle and it took 1.5 hours for him to go to sleep. But he went to sleep eventually. So yesterday I decided that for afternoon nap, I would not give him the bottle. I knew that Ben could pick KK up from school so that if it took Henry a while to fall asleep, it would be okay. I put him down about 1:30. By the time Ben and KK got home, 3:15, he was still crying. So I left to go run errands, and when I got back at 5:15, HE HAD NEVER GONE TO SLEEP! I went and got him out of his bed, and I found this horribly tired baby.
Look how red and tired his eyes are. So, I gave up weaning for the day. I think tonight I may try to put him to bed without a bottle. I am thinking that starting at bedtime will be a smarter option. Wish me luck!