Could BF 26 month old be stalling her sleeping through the night?

[LROM]

As I just described in another thread, last year when I was pregnant and still co-sleeping and nursing dd on demand, we nightweaned her and moved her into her crib because I was becoming a zombie with the total lack of sleep.  It's been about 4/12 months and maybe every 4 nights dd sleeps all the way through the night.  But the other 3 outta 4 nights she'll wake up at least once, maybe 2 or 3 times, and just have a FIT because I won't bring her in bed with us and nurse.  Actually, I don't know which is more her reason for being upset (BF or missing cosleeping) but I do know she wants to be with us.

Lately she doesn't ask to come to bed with us in the middle of the night because she knows it's not gonna happen.  But she'll wake and just toss and turn and cry on and off, sometimes going back to sleep on her own, but usually needing me to come in and sit near her or rub her back back to sleep.

DH thinks that if I just weaned completely, she'd start sleeping through the night.  I'm not ready to totally wean anyway but I am wondering if anyone here knows if extended BF can sometimes lead to interrupted sleep patterns?  Any advice?

[LROM]

No one "been there, done that"? 

[hrsmom]

My dd Sttn starting around 23 months and continued to bf during the day. She's always slept with me but no nursing at night. She might occ be restless but she does sleep. I don't think day nursing makes a difference.

[TiredX2]

I would say that if this has been going on for 4.5 months what your DD is asking for is a need for her.  It doesn't sound like it's getting you any more sleep either!  What did you try with her still in the bed for you to get more sleep?

[LROM]

When she was still in bed with us I didn't find anything to successfully get more sleep.  She had started switching boobs every 30 seconds which meant every time she woke up (about every 2 hrs) she'd switch back and forth for about 20 minutes and then it would take me at least another 30 to wake up.  It left me so incredibly drained and since I was pregnant at the time, it was that much worse and I was worried for my health for the baby's sake as well as for my sanity.

But to answer your question I guess we couldn't think of anything more than trying to feed her right before bed... feeding her an hour before bed instead... giving her a bath to relax her... regular bedtimes... and various things around trying to explain that "babu" (her word for nursing) was asleep at night and would wake up in the mornings, but that didn't work either.  If babu was within a mile away... she was waking to get it whether she was in bed with us or in her crib.

[D_McG]

Have you tried having your husband respond instead? I nightweaned and totally weaned at the same time and mine did start STTN. But when I moved DS out of our bed (fully weaned) he would still wake and come into our bed. He didn't stop that until we got him a bigger bed and ultimately stopped him from coming in when I was weaning my DD.

[DomerJen]

I've found that DS's waking patterns have more to do with development (physical, social, or emotional) than nursing or hunger.  He does wake up at night and get a drink of water - I put a sippy cup in with him at night (of water) so if he's thirsty he can get a drink.  I just show him where it is before bed so he remembers.  Maybe that could help?  Also, does she have a sleep aid or lovey?  We got DS this seahorse thing that you push the belly and it turns on and plays classical music for 5min.  He likes that and i hear it come on during the night sometimes when he goes through a sleep cycle.

Anyway, DS started STTN more or less regularly around 18mo, but he's still nursing during the day, so I really doubt it's that.