Tactics

My new weaning tactic is this: Don't put myself in a position where he's going to demand it. It's so much harder to wean him at this age than it would have been a few months ago because he knows he deserves it and he knows when it's coming to him -- early in the morning and at naptime. So now I have DH go pick him up when he wakes up at 5:30, or if I go take him out of the crib for the day, I don't take him back to my bed and try to get more sleep. I take him to the living room, pour him a bowl of dry cheerios and try to snooze on the couch. As for putting him to bed in the afternoons after school-- a very necessary procedure, it's much harder without nursing. He might take a bottle but he won't fall asleep with it like he does at night (I know, I know, it's a no-no to give a kid a bottle to sleep with but it works and we're sticking with it for now at least). On Friday when DH tried to put him to sleep, he didn't nap at all-- he rested and drank his bottle but was then as active as ever, but cranky as hell towards bedtime. In fact, he kept falling asleep as I was feeding him dinner. It was heartbreaking and hillarious at the same time to see him chewing with his eyes closed and then watch his head drop to his shoulder. I'd give him some water to make sure there was no food left in his mouth and then I was going to take him to bed but the water would wake him up enough to demand the next bite... and that's how it went.
Yesterday he just fell asleep as we came home at around eleven and he had a two hour nap on the couch. That was good, and now I haven't nursed him in at least two days. We'll see if we can keep this up, though I still have no solution to the afternoon nap.
I was good and ready to wean him, but now that it's actually happening (slowly and surely), I know I'm going to kind of miss this special bond.