cosleeping/EC/BFing - help!

[clickclackmoo]

So, DD is 18 mo, doing ok with EC in the day. Catching lots of pee, some of the poop.

Nights however. Hum. She wakes when she's wet or needs to pee, then needs to nurse back to sleep. The nursing fuels the next wet waking a couple of hours later. This has been going on since she was tiny - 4 or 5 months old. Someone suggest something, please! I am tired of being up every two hours to nurse and change a wet prefold or wrangle a gangly toddler onto a little potty. I've had her in 'sposies once in a while when really tired or in a strange bed, and it makes no difference to her waking but it does give her a rash. I just don't know where to begin to change this pattern, and I'm not so sleep deprived and desperate to try drastic things like cutting her off the mommy milk or moving her out of our room. We had five wet diapers last night. Oyoyoy.

Anyone BTDT? What worked for you???

[marija_jane]

Hmmm. I hear you're frustrated. My son is almost three, we also co-sleep, BF, etc. There have been very rare occasions that he has NOT waken up every two hours to nurse. But he has been able to go twelve hours at night without peeing since before he was your DD's age. It seems to me that is fairly typical.

While night nursing is normal at her age, I don't know but to me it seems unusual that after EC'ing for that long of time she'd still be peeing so frequently during the night. It makes me wonder if she has any food sensitivities? You could try eliminating (for her and you) some of the most common culprits (gluten, dairy, soy) for two weeks and see if it helps.

Other than that the only thing I can think of is to make sure to give her a potty op last thing before sleep, and see if you can do the Elizabeth Pantley thing to shorten nursing sessions during the night (although that didn't work for ME as DS would wake up more frequently since he was evidently actually hungry--but it seems to work for a lot of people.) If you aren't already, you could also try avoiding foods that make everyone pee more like watermelon, orange juice, etc. in the evening and instead give one of those high-fat, high protein meals that supposedly help kids stay asleep longer. Kamut with coconut milk?

[marija_jane]

I was reading another board elsewhere just now (unrelated to EC) and some discussion about frequent nighttime peeing. I was very interested that in addition to many posts chiming in about food sensitivities, a couple of people posted that this is sometimes also a symptom of type 1 diabetes. I thought it was worth posting for folks who are reading these boards, that you may want to talk about it with your doctor and apparently it is a quick simple test to check blood sugar levels. A woman said her four year old was diagnosed recently and this was what she learned.

[riboflavin]

I have BTDT! Not easy, so I sympathize. Some things did help us for certain periods of time.

For a while we let him sleep nekkid on a Nekkie Blankie or on another absorbent and bed protecting fabric combo like stay dry fleece over absorbent cotton over felted wool. This way, he peed in his sleep on the blanket, so did not wake up because of a wet feeling. No waking meant no nursing meant sleep!! We usually only had the one night pee that way.

Eventually winter came and the nekkid sleeping did not work. I got some stay dry inner cloth diapers and also made some stay dry inserts for my trainers. This did help somewhat. He would not wake as much.

For the most part though, we did not have zero wakings until he weaned himself at 3 years old.

I don't know if possibly feeding your DD solid heavy food before bed might keep her less likely to drink so much during the night?

As Marija said, many babies do seem to have very good reactions to elimination diets. Personally, we were already vegan so I did not try eliminating anything more very actively. We did limit soy and grains for a while, but it didn't help us. In our case I think my son simply has a smaller bladder which seems to run in the family. Here's the yahoo group many EC'ers use for food reaction discussions:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/foodlab/

We also tried the No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley but it didn't work for us either unfortunately.

Good luck, keep us updated!

[Shanny2032]

My DD is also 18 months and is completely potty trained during the day (not accident free mind you) and has gone up to 13 1/2 hours at night without peeing while nursing on and off all night. Generally speaking she usually pees once in a 10-12 hour night and then again upon waking. Does your LO go very much everytime she wakes and says she needs to go? Do you think it is as much habit as need at this point, kind of like the nursing back to sleep is? I know DD does not drink that much when she night nurses. there is probably less than 5 minutes of active sucking/swallowing before she is out again. And she appears to have a super human bladder that she did NOT get from me! We did go through a phase where she was waking to pee and after that was when she started having occassional dry night so maybe your dd is about to make a change for the better? Sorry i know I am not really helping that just seems like a lot of peeing in the night. I have a bladder disease so I know what it is like to be in the bathroom all night long!

[clickclackmoo]

There are a few things going on with our nights that seem to be contributing:

* she is definitely having more milk at night than in the day now. We're talking significant amounts both of milk and of pee. Full size feeds and pees.

* she cannot go to sleep without a nipple in her mouth. Unless she's in the car.

* she seems to be on a schedule. A strong habit, let's say. 11:00, 1:00, 3:00, 5:00, very regular.

My gut instinct is that we're not talking food sensitivities or diabetes, but I do intend to try eliminating foods once I've given Pantley's gentle pull-off and naked sleeping a good try. Last night we did naked sleeping and discovered that the Swaddlebees mat we have is really not up to that much soaking in one night. No surprises she was still waking up - she was getting very damp.

Thanks for the ideas, folks! Keep them coming, or just let me know I'm not the only one out there with a kid like this!

[anarchamom]

Since my baby was born I've had to wake up a few times night to breastfeed and/or change. Recently he started nursing for a while after I fell asleep so he was peeing more among other issues it caused. So, I started staying awake for a few minutes and popping him off once he seemed to be drifting off. sometimes he chases after the nipple and i give it back but pretty often he wiggles a little and goes to sleep. I think it has helped because he can still nurse to calm down, but isn't really eating too much.

[BirthKathy]

My son is 14 months, and we have been pottying him since 7 weeks. He wakes every 2-4 hours to nurse. If I nurse him back to sleep without pottying him, he wets his diaper. If he's awake enough to potty, I take him and then he can stay dry until the next time. But either way, he's nursing and peeing every 2-4 hours at night. I don't know about you, but if I wake up at night, I like to pee too. It might just be about how deep he is (not) sleeping.