18 month old nightwaking

[palestrina]

My almost 18 month old co-sleeps and still wakes up to nurse 8-10 times a night. She generally falls right back asleep although sometimes it takes a bit of cuddling and shushing to get her back to sleep. I am wondering though, is waking up this much normal? DD1 started to STTN (not that I care about DD2 doing this b/c really I don't and definitely don't want to sleep train her) around 18 month and was waking up only a couple times a night before that.

I'm not really that exhausted but I am worried that maybe there is some underlying cause? Seems like 18 months is a bit old to be waking this much? She has been like this since she was born-although she is actually a bit worse now and wakes up more times.

[Louisep]

I'm kind of surprised no one's replied to you. My DS was a terrible sleeper (every 1-2 hours) until his last teeth broke through at 15 months. Mind you, he had already weaned by then. If it were ME (i.e. take this with a grain of salt because I'm not you), I would probably try night weaning - maybe starting off with partial? I must say, I don't think it's completely unusual for an nursing 18-month old to wake so much but if it's starting to become an issue for you, then maybe think about night weaning. I don't want to come across as a night weaning pusher though Just saying, it might be an option.

[LadyCatherine185]

My DS did the same thing his whole life, until we started nightweaning around 18/19 months. He actually did really well with the NW'ing, no tears and just a little fussing, and began sleeping 3-5 hour stretches. We then moved him to his own bed and he now sleeps 6-10 hour stretches every night. I think some kids just have a really hard time sleeping/settling and need more help than others. And for us, my DS got into a pattern of "needing" to nurse with each wake-up, and his body got used to the calories 24 hours a day. Now that his body is used to not getting those calories, he sleeps much better. He also eats a TON of solids during the day.