9 Month Old Still Nursing Self to Sleep

I wasn't in any hurry to end the nursing to sleep routine, because it really didn't seem to affect the sleeping or falling asleep of my children. However, if you want to transition her, here's what worked for me once my kids turned 1 yr. I would allow them to nurse until very drowsy (they start to get that limp, rag doll look), then gently detach them from your nipple by inserting your index finger next to your nipple to break suction. Then, immediately, but very gently use your hand under their chin to close their mouth. Hold it there a few seconds until you are sure she is going to continue falling asleep. The pressure under her chin helps her not to miss the pressure on her gums from your breast. If she gets super upset, reattach and let her nurse a minute or 2 and then repeat once she's falling asleep again. Once you have her falling asleep easily in your arms, you can work on her falling asleep in the crib. No need to rush progress. Kids generally do best when change occurs slowly. She will someday be crawling into her own bed and putting herself to sleep and you may even miss this cuddling time before bed. Nurse Midwife Mom of 3

I'm going through this process right now with my almost 9 month old. I found the sleep lady book to be very helpful. Putting the baby in her crib when she is drowsy but awake is key. There is a window of opportunity, too early and the baby is not ready for bed, too late and baby will have a difficult time falling asleep. Watch signs for tiredness - yawning, rubbing eyes, fussyness - you know your baby's signs (we moved her bedtime up because we realized we were keeping her up past her tired stage). Also, a consistant bedtime routine helps a lot. We put pajama's on, nurse, read a story, then out goes the light and I sing a lulaby. If it's a bath night, bath comes before all that. My goal is to get her drowsy, but not so drowsy that she is already half asleep.
There are many ways to sleep train, we are using the sleep lady shuffle. The first three nights sit in a chair beside the crib, rub her back and talk to her occasionally. There will be crying, but your job is to comfort your little one. Next three nights the chair is moved halfway to door (or to the door if the room is small) and again talk to her to comfort her as she learns how to fall asleep. Finally, the chair is moved outside the door. You do the same thing if the baby wakes up during the night. We are at the door now and she seems to be doing very well. We started sleep training because our daughter was waking twice a night and I would nurse her back to sleep. She started sleeping through the night after the 2nd day of sleep training.
You can use any method of sleep training you feel comfortable with, just be consistant - the shuffle worked well for us and I thought it was more gentle. Good Luck.

One thing you can try is nursing her until she's -almost- but not 100% asleep. See if you can transfer her to her crib, and then continue to rub her back until she falls completely asleep. Do this for a week or so. Then start transferring her to her bed when she is starting to look sleepy (but a little more awake than before). Keep gradually moving this direction until you are putting her in her bed awake, then rubbing her back to go to sleep.

Then you can do the same thing with rubbing her back - gradually shorten the amount of time that you do it until eventually you are nursing her, then putting her in her bed awake, giving her a quick rub on the back as she lays down, then leaving the room while she puts herself to sleep.

The entire process can take a while, but you can get there!

what I did was move the nursing up by half an hour, then to go to sleep I cuddled her and counted down from 10 to 0 while rubbing her back as I cuddled.